English: *Halebid – also referred to as Halebidu, Dwarasamudra, Dorasamudra – was a major city prior to the 14th-century in Hoysala kingdom. It is now a small town in south Karnataka.

• The temple belongs to the Shaivism tradition of Hinduism. Like major historic Hindu temple complexes on the Indian subcontinent, this temple reverentially includes legends and ideas of Vaishnavism and Shaktism traditions of Hinduism.

• It was built in the first half of 12th century.

• During the early 14th century, Halebidu temple site along with others were sacked, looted and much artwork was damaged (particularly nose/face, limbs, sexual organs) by Muslim invaders from northern India (Khilji dynasty and Tughlaq dynasty of Delhi Sultanate).

• The relief panels present legends from the Ramayana, the Mahabharata, the Bhagavata Purana and secular fables found in Sanskrit texts of Hinduism. Vedic deities such as Agni, Indra and Surya, various avatars of Vishnu, the Hindu goddesses such as Saraswati, Lakshmi avatars, Durga, Kali among others are presented. The carving is three dimensional where the deep reliefs often emerge as statues with depth. Panels are continuous, with one perspective showing one part of the legend, a perpendicular perspective of the same column or wall or corner showing another part of the same legend.

• The carving material was soapstone.

• Above: Sarasvati is the goddess of knowledge and all arts in Hinduism. The reliefs at Hoysalesvara temple show her in many panels, some where she holds a musical instrument (possibly an Alapini veena or eka-tantri vina) and a few she does not. Three panels show her dancing, in a classical Indian dance posture (all are damaged panels, two of these panels is better preserved, the third is badly damaged). In this better preserved panel, she has eight hands and she holds a musical instrument, a pen, a palm leaf manuscript, tools of other arts as she dances.

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  1150 CE Hoysaleswara temple Halebidu Karnataka, Inscription, Dancing Saraswati 2.jpg