Temple Tour

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On Sunday, Vikash and I took a full day Karnataka State Tourism tour to three temples: Shravanabelagola, Belur and Halebid. We headed to the tourism office at 6:30 for a 7:15 bus.

The first stop was Shravanabelagola, one of the most important Jain pilgrim centers. It was literally, a temple on a rock. Hundreds of stairs were carved into this huge rock, leading up to a temple and the world’s tallest monolithic statue, measuring 17 meters. The temple also has the highest number of inscriptions in India. I’m not sure why that’s super special but the tour guide was really proud. We walked through the complex, looking at all the statues of ten important gods in Jainism and then arrived in the center, where the statue is. The statue was really impressive, especially because it was built on top of this massive rock. There was a Puja (a priest) at the sight we blessed people and put a bindi on their foreheads.

The next stop was Belur and the 12th-century Chennakeshava temple, commerorating Vishnu. It was built in the shape of a star for two reasons. First, “the moon and sun have eclipses,” but a star never does, according to our tour guide. Second, artists could maximize the number of statues and inscription on a building shaped like a star, as opposed to a square. Our tour guide really was over the top. For example, he would show us little statues of gods with ponytails or shorts and say how all these fashions were started in India and foreigners copied India. He was trained for six months in archeology and tour guiding. One of the cooler things he told us about was how all around the bottom of the temple, there four rows of statues. The first is of elephants for strength and stability, the second of tigers for courage, the third of horses for speed and the fourth of a design for beauty. This temple had about 640 elephant statues and each of them was unique. The tour guide from the third temple thought Halebid was a lot cooler and told us about how Halebid had over 1000 unique temples. I guess there is competition about whose temple is cooler.

The final temple was in Halebid and had two Hindu temples, one for the king and one for the queen at the time. The temples are still incomplete because they have been destroyed on several occasions. When the Muslims came, they curtailed the construction and destroyed some of the parts. The British, obviously, took their fair share of souvenirs for the British Museum in London. And random locals occasionally raided the temple to sell things on the black market. Halebid means “ruined city.” The temple is famous for having one of the biggest Nandis, the bull Lord Shiva rides.

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Photos

Famous Footsteps
These are believed to be the footsteps of the guy who built the temple (i think)... but our guide told us that it's just a myth.

Working Hours
The workers who built the temple would etch a line in stone for each day they worked to keep track.

Holy Ingredients
Pugas prepare coconut, rice and other good things to bless pilgrams with.

Puja Blessings
He sprinkled holy water on me and put a powder based bindi on my forehead.

Statue
At 51 ft, this is the tallest monolithic statue in the world (not that I really know what that means)

Taking a Break
These men carry tourists who don't want to or cant walk up the stairs in these bamboo chairs.

Hard Work
They run up and down the rock twice as fast as I can... while carrying some one on their shoulders.

Temple at Belur

Statue at Belur Temple
This god is destroying an evil man and taking his intestines out.

Statue at Belur Temple
An elephant tried to eat and kill a god, but the god got in to the elephant's stomach and was killing it from inside. The elephant feet are at the corners, the skin is surrounded the image and the head is at the bottom.

Elephant, Tiger, Horse
Sculptures of all three animals surround the bottom of the entire temple. Elephant: strength and stability, Tiger: courage, Horse: speed.

Offerings Temple Entrance
Visitors place coins and coconut carvings on a rock outside the entrance.

Landscapers
Holy grass cannot be cut by the mechanical lawn mower but has to be cut by hand.