File:Chennakesava Temple, Somanathapura.jpg
The drawing:
- This is the floor plan of the often visited Hoysala-era, Keshava temple (Kesava, Chennakesava temple) in Somanathapura. It is about 38 kilometers from Mysuru city, Karnataka.
- The mid-13th-century ornate temple illustrates the Hoysala architecture. The temple is in a courtyard with a pillared corridor of small shrines (damaged, defaced to differing degrees). The main temple in the center is on a high star-shaped platform with three symmetrical sanctums (trikuta garbhagriha), set in a square matrix (89' x 89') oriented along the east–west and north–south axes. The sanctums share a common community hall (sabha-mandapa) with many pillars. The outer walls, the inner walls, the pillars and the ceiling of the temple are intricately carved with Hindu legends such as those from the Ramayana (southern section), the Mahabharata (northern section) and the Bhagavata Purana (western section of the main temple).
- The temple's architectural plan follows the square and circle principle found in historic Sanskrit texts.
- GPS location of the monument:
View this and other nearby images on: OpenStreetMap
- This temple should not be confused with numerous other historic, intricately carved Chennakesava temples found in Karnataka, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh.
- The relative scale and relative dimensions in this architectural drawing are close to the actual but neither exact nor complete. The plan illustrates the design and layout, but some intricate details or parts of the temple may not be shown. In cases where exact measurements were not feasible, the drawing uses best approximations and rounds the best measurements feasible. This drawing uses, in part, measurements made and published by the Mysore Archaeological department between 1906 and 1911.