Hoysala Temples Tour - Day 2

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Have you read the temples covered on the 1^st day of the tour? There was time for just 3 of the Hoysala temples. Read the post Hoysala Temples Tour – Day 1.

Day-2 Begins at Halebeedu

The morning begins with the darshana of Lord Eeshwara at Halebeedu Temple.

The town packed with school excursion buses. And the temple premises packed with school children. Wow it was hard to get a peaceful glimpse. It was even more difficult to do some photography.

School trip to Halebeedu Temple

But worth the visit and all the chaos.

And then there are couple of more temples and Basadis pertaining to the era of Hoysalas. The ones we witnessed next are Kedareshwara Temple, Parshwanatha & Shanthinatha Basadi and the famous ornate pond Kalyani at Hulikere.

Cieling of Parshwanatha Basadi, Parshwanatha Basadi,

inside-out view & shiny pillar of Parshwanatha Basadi

Hulikere is just about 3 km from Halebeedu. Any local will inform the route direction about these places.

Pushkarani, Hulikere

Read more about Hoysaleshware Temple, Halebeedu and HulikereKalyani.

Visit to Lakshmi Narasimha Temple, Javagal

Halebeedu to Javagal, the distance is roughly about 20 km. The route has endless stretches of banyan trees. So, a little shady, a little sunny stretch is what you can expect throughout.

Banyan tree stretch enroute Javagal

There are huge sign boards that indicates about the heritage temple of Lakshmi Narasimha Temple in Javagal.

Lakshmi Narasimha Temple, Javagal

See more images of Lakshmi Narasimha Temple, Javagal.

Drive to Arasikere. (from Javagal)

The drive of about 30 km from javagal to Arasikere is super exciting with a variety of village life and farmer life glimpses.

The life of people living around the regions where Hoysala temples are located captured in pics.

The bullock carts, hay stack load, sheep herd, donkeys transporting heavy weight goods, all these are a rare sight to be treasured.

The typical village life

The crop of corn is a staple in these regions here. You get sights of processing the corn or drying them under direct sunlight.

Visit to Ishwara Temple, Arasikere

This is one of the beautiful temples I have seen till date. The temple is not crowded unlike the other famous ones (Belur and Halebidu). There are hardly any devotees who visit this temple, which makes the photography a real enjoyment.

Ishwara Temple, Arasikere

There was a little girl’s photo shoot session going on. The attires kept changing every 10 minutes and it was worth watching every bit of the photo shoot.

One of her outfits, the traditional kids wear.

Photo session of a girl @ temple premises of Arasikere

The details of the carvings are extremely beautiful. These extra details can be enjoyed since there is no much hustle-bustle in the temple premises.

The locals we meet here give details and information of possible nearest routes to cover other hoysala temples. With updated route information, we move towards our lunch session.

Route map of Hoysala Temples

See more images of Arasikere Hoysala Temple.

Route Map – First Half of the Day-2 of Hoysala Temples Tour

Prior to lunch, the below temples & basadis could be covered.

Hoysaleswara Temple, Halebeedu

Kedareshwara Temple, Halebeedu

Parshwanatha & Santhanatha Basadi

Kalyani, Hulikere

Lakshmi Narasimha Temple, Javagal

Ishwara Temple, Arasikere.

Lunch at Arasikere:

Arasikere, a town and taluk, serves good options for local tastes. The place is famous for spicy and tasty cuisines, especially menasina bajji. Mensina Bajji is basically Chilly Pakoda.

Visit to Someshwara Devalaya Harnahalli

Post lunch, drive begins to Harnahalli. Harnahalli is about 10 km from Arasikere and is a place where there are two of Hoysala temples.

This is one among the temples which is not well maintained., tiny plants and unwanted shrubs all over the place, and even on the temple gopura.

Someshwara Hoysala Temple, Harnahalli

A disheartening sight is of the sacred bull on top of the entrance of the temple. The orginal left out few pieces of the bull were attached to idol made of cement. It seems like some recent maintenance work idea which is being depicted very badly.

bull idol at someshwara temple harnahalli

This temple was locked, and the concern appointed caretaker/priest of the temple was nowhere to be found in the nearby area.

Chennakeshava Devalaya, Harnahalli

The temple premises is huge, but usually locked after after the early morning prayers. The caretakers or the priests get back to their other business after the morning worships and temple routine. This was getting common.

Locals who get to know there are visitors at the temple, would inform the caretaker (who lives nearby the temple). And he appears with a big key to unlock for us.

The caretaker unlocking the doors of Chennakeshava Temple @ Harnahalli

See more images of inside and outer carving of this temple here.

Chennakeshava Temple, Aralaguppe.

After Harnahalli, our next stop was Aralaguppe. To reach Aralaguppe from Harnahalli, the drive was back to Arasikere and then towards Aralaguppe (via Tiptur).

The route from Arasikere to Aralaguppe is worth enjoying. Everything is a special sight. The main sight one gets to see is the activities of the farmers.

Farmers are usually busy in their fields or processing their crops.

Here you get to see a family working with their farm grown ragi crop.

The temple is dedicated to Hindu God Vishnu. The temple stands on a 16 star pointed platform with a beautifully designed tower over the shrine.

See more photos of the temple, distance, and other information here.

Gangadeshvara Temple, Turuvekere

Gangadeshvara Temple at Turuvekere is a 18 km drive from Aralaguppe. A drive mostly on the mud road.

It is a common thing to see the farmers and other workers with their crops on the road on road side. They have their own traditional way of processing their crops.

The temple at Turuvekere was a miss for us. The locals started misguiding the route and the locations. So, the temple was just dropped off our list and continued to Nagamangala which was a distance of 37 km from Turuvekere.

Yoga Narasimha Temple, Melukote, Mandya

On reaching Nagamangala we induced another temple in to our list of Hoysala Temple. We decided to drive another 32 km until Melukote to visit the famous Yoga Narasimha Temple. It was dark, so not many captures of the place.