Journey To The Past - A Treasure of Karnataka

Journey to the past

-from the diary of the taleteller

December, dreams and destinations

I was an hour away from setting course towards the history that called out to me in my magnificent dream.

A lost chapter in the pages of history, the Hoysala Empire was an independent kingdom that was full of culture, splendour, valour and the most important, riches.

As I thought of all this sitting by the window, I saw Khonshu breath its last and Ra conquering the darkness, as if it were a war between Light and Dark. I pushed back my chair, gulped down my coffee and moved towards my closet, all while fiddling with a picture of the Hoysala Emblem.

The Hoysala emblem in the Belur temple

As the clock struck 6, we were ready to start the engine towards Hoysala.

A long but an interesting one,

our journey took us through the dense forests of Tumkur, the rocks and the tar of NH75 and smooth roads with farms and plantations on either side. We stopped our car engine every 2 hours to get our body's motor to work (food, you see) and then drove on.

Pic creds :- Vihaan

Pic creds :- Vihaan

After a lot of hustling and capering, we finally reached Halebidu.

Info Peek :- Halebidu is (or maybe was) the new capital of the Hoysala Empire. The people here believed Ganesh to be their guardian. Previously called Dwarasamudra, it was later called Halebidu (which literally means ruined city), after it was ransacked by various kings, especially the members of the Delhi Sultanate, for its wealth, riches and treasures.

Iltutmish, one of the most influential
leaders of the Delhi Sultanate

coins minted during the Delhi Sultanate period

A signboard in the front spelled out Hoysaleshwara Temple in letters that were shining in the sun, as if they were made of gold.

On one side of the info was inscribed, the Hoysala Emblem.

Info Peek :- Sala was a disciple and was in an ashram with his guru when a man eater (tiger, in some tales -> a lion) approached them menacingly. The guru gave Sala an iron weapon and said 

"POY SALA!!!" which means 'strike Sala'.Later, he established his kingdom by the name of Hoysala, his guru's war cry. Thus came forward, the Hoysala Emblem. 

Sala piercing the beast's head with the iron weapon.
His hair depicts that he was of the jain community
as even the story says. 
pic creds :- Vihaan

Hoysala coins. The left one inscribed with an
elephant, which is a symbol of power, loyalty
and alsotheir deity, Ganesh.

The guardian of Halebidu stood watching over all the visitors in the form of a huge stone sculpture. 

Ganesh, the remover of obstacles
Pic Creds - Vihaan

As we entered the main shrine, the scorching heat died out while a cool breeze ran down my spine (a call from the gods? the spirits? the afterlife?). 

Stone always keeps itself cool and so every temple, altar, sculptures or monuments in the historical times were made with

this formation of mineral matter. And so, when you enter one such monument, you will feel a cool atmosphere around you.

There were 2 huge shivalingas who were adorned with gold and silver all around. Garlands wrapped themselves around the huge stone lingams. A huge snake for each lingam beautifully rested on their necks. Many deepas were lit in front of the deity and everyone seeked his blessings through offerings of flowers and fruits. 

The Nandi Sculpture in front of
the Shiva Shrine
Pic Creds - Vihaan

Facing these lingams were bulls who were none other than Nandi. This bull always faces its master, Shiva, to protect him from anything that obstructs his path. But that was not all. One look to the sculptures in the ceiling and you would be mesmerized by the intricate carvings. There were many sections of these ceiling carvings above 4 pillars holding it up. One of these sections also featured the zodiac signs by depicting gods on these animals (wonder how they knew back then!). 

Ceiling sculptures.
Pic Creds - Vihaan

After offering prayers and seeking blessings, it was time to decipher the stories hidden among the sculptures.

Sculptures and Science,

Monuments and Mythology

We walked around the area scanning the carvings and their pasts. As mentioned before, the ceiling carvings were held by 4 pillars. These finely brushed pillars would look like a normal 'khamba' at first sight. But if closely looked at, you would notice that any light source falling on it would be reflected to the adjacent pillar and so on. Now, the questions to ponder upon, are --

-> how did the sculptors and architects have such good knowledge of physics, back when we didn't have Newton's laws, angular reflection, etc. in India?

The pillar of reflection
Pic Creds - Vihaan

->Secondly, why did certain places have four pillars placed in
the shape of a rectangle (these pillars reflected light) while the pillars guarding these were just stone sculptures and not polished?

If you look back to the past, kings held sacrifices, yagnas and holy rituals in these temples. Now imagine you're in one such yagna and need light. The pillars were thus made to reflect even the slightest speck of light off its surface towards the other pillars and so fill the area in between with light. 

This helped those kings to perform what was good for them, their subjects and their kingdom.

(These questions which I have answered are purely my deductions and may not have been the root reason. But there's no harm in deducing history and unearthing a could-be reason from the past.)

Outside the shrine, we started exploring the perimeter. In every corner we turned, we found some story of the Hoysala Empire, te Purans (Shiv Puran & Vishnu Puran) and mythology.

Vishnu with his better half, Lakshmi,
the goddess of wealth.
Pic Creds - Vihaan

Garuda with Vishnu on his back.
Pic Creds - Vihaan

We always place god on the top, people in the middle and demons (beasts) in the bottom. 

It is the basic placement of the realms. Likewise, one of the corners had a huge sculpture of a man with 10 heads who held a mountain...but not over his head. Instead his fingers stayed crushed under the mountain while Chandrachur(Shiva) was forcing his toe on the mountain.

Ravan, holding Mount Kailash
over his head with Shiva sitting on top,
ready to press his toe.
Pic Creds - Vihaan

Then, as written about the placements before, there was the middle row with carvings of the Hoysala life. Musicians, queens, children and bards moving around the streets of Halebidu. There were also depictions of the wars that the kings and their armies fought, the horses they rode and also memories* of families. 

*(Memories is a collective noun for a group of elephants. 

It is also, as most commonly used, pictures of the past.)

The last row was sculpted with beasts. As you might have read the title of this chapter, it talks of science. We'll get back to that.
Now return to the beasts. They were a mix of many jungle beasts. It was like many episodes of nat-geo wild merged together.
One of the many beasts was wearing the head of an elephant, body of a lion and tail of a snake. It had the talons and wings of an eagle too.
And as we know, we sculpt what we see (just like the stonemen did). So the artists must have seen such animals back then. Or maybe even created them. This...this is the point where science could barge in. Maybe they had perfect cross breeding back in those days? Maybe their science was actually so developed that it had to be hidden from human eye? One shall never know until they dig into the past.

The cross breed beasts
Pic Creds - Vihaan

And just like that we discovered more stories from Krishna to Ram to Shiva, Ganesh and even Brahma.

All these were sculpted with the same order as previously seen:-

Stories of gods on the top,

then Brahma's four legged crop*.

Then fills the wall so intricate,

Stories from the Purans
Pic Creds - Vihaan

the beasts of the past and their etiquette.

(Brahma is regarded the creator. We are all creations of the one. And, we have 4 legs i.e 2 hands and 2 legs. Crops are also the greatest creation. That is how it has been related here.)

We had discovered a lot of tales that were told through the intricate carvings on the walls of stone, which were so beautifully and so perfectly done that it was unbelievable to be a human's work. They say walls have ears too. It was as if by magic that the walls heard the tales and stories around and had depicted these tales as a memory of their splendor-filled history. It was as if Lord Vishwakarma himself had built it marking the victories of the Hoysala Empire. It is truly a lost and underrated historical masterpiece. 

I would have loved to stay longer and know more. But, time does fly and this we had to leave behind what we had discovered for generations to come forth.

As we left the place to set course back home, I sat in the car penning down what I deduced from this whole history-hopping for anyone who reads this. History is a gift. It is a curse. But most importantly, it is our deeds, the splendor of our life and our future in one frame.

Yes that's me.

"JOURNEY TO THE PAST"

Signed,

Vihaan

A.K.A  - The Taleteller...