From the Publisher In southern Karnataka, 4 small villages are world-famous for tourism: Belur, Halebid, Somanathapur and Shravan Belgola. The first three of them show Hoysala temples, richly carved Hindu temples dating from the 12th and 13th centuries. Shravan Belgola shows a Jaina colossus on top of a hill, the largest monolithic statue found in India, dating from the end of the 10th century. This tourist book is the first that aims to present the complete group of Hoysala temples to a large audience. Not only the tree famous temples are discussed and illustrated, but also more than 10 others that are extremely worth visiting for tourists and that were, until now, only known to archaeologists. Gerard Foekema was born in 1943 and today lives in Amsterdam, the old and historic capital of Holland. He studied physics, philosophy and art-history and graduated in 1969. he visited India for the first time in 1976, purely as a tourist, and fell in love with old Indian architecture, both Hindu and Muslim. His first trip for study purposes was made in 1979, and since then he has returned to India every two or three years. After a number of smaller articles written for journals in Holland, a two-volume monograph on Hoysala temples of his hand was published in Delhi in 1994. Another large monographs, this time on Later Calukya temples, is in preparation. Contents Preface 7 General 1 Who Were the Hoysala? 11 2 A Short History of the Hoysala Kingdom 13 3 The Dedications and Names of the Temples 19 4 The Plan of the Temples 21 5 Sculpture 27 6 Recognizing the Most Important Deities 31 The Temples 1 Amritapura 37 2 Aralaguppe 39 3 Arsikere 41 4 Basaralu 43 5 Belur 47 6 Belvadi 53 7 Dodda Gadduvalli 57 8 Halebid 59 9 Haranhalli 67 10 Hosaholalu 71 11 Javagallu 73 12 Koravangala 77 13 Mosale 81 14 Nuggihalli 83 15 Somanathapur 87 Literature 91 Glossary 93 Maps 95 Index 97

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