Hoysala Temples of Nuggehalli

29th April 2012



Nuggehalli is a small village near Hassan about 20 km from National Highway 48. In the village are two beautiful Hoysala Temples, Sadashiva and Lakshmi Narashima Temple. Built during 13th century, these Temples are still in good shape and are well maintained.


Since the Temples were well known I expected to find them easily. But labyrinth and narrow roads of Nuggehalli confused me a lot. People were giving contradicting directions. I lost my patience when one person directed me to a normal small Temple. He seemed to be oblivious of existence of the Temple in his own village. He was extremely embarrassed when I blasted him for the same. And then he gives proper directions!!


The first Temple we saw was Sadashiva Temple. Unlike other Temples of Hoysala regime, Sadashiva Temple stands immediately next to the road with a huge door. The walls and roof at the front portion of the Temple do not have any sculptural decoration. It is not clear whether they were destroyed or original design.


Some walls have windows carved out of stone. The garbagruha houses a huge Shiva linga. Since it was looked we could not get a chance to look into that.


To get a complete view of the Temple, one needs to go to the back.


Lakshmi Narashima Temple is just 5 minutes walk from Sadashiva Temple. This Temple is visited by lot of people (Especially Vaishnavas) as the deity is worshipped.


The entrance of the Temple is not impressive.


Like the other Temple, a large mantapa is present at the entrance of the Temple. This trikuta Temple has three forms of Vishnu Venugopala, Keshava and Lakshmi Narasimha.


The real beauty of the Temple is in the sculptures outside. The Temple lies on a raised platform of about 4 ft high followed by six horizontal sections consisting of Elephants, horses, creepers, mythological, imaginary beasts and swans.


The walls of the Temple consist of various images of Gods.


A beautiful Temple in general.



How to reach Nuggehalli:
If you are coming from Bengaluru, take right turn after Hirisave. The Village is about 20km from deviation. From Hassan, one needs to take left turn after Channaraya Patna and continue for 20km to reach the village.