Halebidu Hoysaleswara Temple

The Hoysaleswara Temple at Halebidu (the old Hoysala capital, then called Dwarasamudra) is a twin-vimana Shiva temple commissioned in 1121 CE by Ketamala, a minister under King Vishnuvardhana. Two interconnected sanctums house Hoysaleswara (named for the king) and Shantaleswara (named for his queen Shantala Devi). The exterior is decorated with the longest continuous narrative frieze on any Indian temple — over 240 metres of carved bands depicting scenes from the Mahabharata, the Ramayana, the Bhagavata Purana, and contemporary Hoysala court life. The temple was sacked twice by the Delhi Sultanate (1311 and 1326) — many of the broken sculptures still lie unrestored across the lawn, eloquent of what was lost. Halebidu was inscribed as part of the 'Sacred Ensembles of the Hoysalas' UNESCO listing in 2023. Pair with Belur (16 km west) for a complete Hoysala day; the small Halebidu museum on site holds the best of the recovered fragments.