Nuggehalli Sadasiva Swamy Temple, Karnataka

Address

Nuggehalli Sadasiva Swamy Temple, Nuggehalli, Karnataka 573131

Diety

Sadasiva Swamy

Introduction

The Sadashiva Temple at Nuggehalli, a town on the Channarayapatna-Tiptur state highway, is a rare architecture built with a Bhumija style shrine that is more popular in Western India. Also known as the Hoysala Nagara style, there is an inevitable ultra modern look to the main ekakuta shrine that almost reminds you of some spaceship that has just landed. The remarkable nature of the shrine is in its symmetry, which is the hallmark of Hoysala architecture, irrespective of the style they have followed. The temple is partially dilapidated condition. The temple sculptures are in bad shape. Sri Sadashivaswamy Temple, an unique hybridization of the evolved Hoysala style and the diffused Yadava type of the Bhumija style was erected in 1249 AD. This unusual Hoysala temple combines ekakuta architecture with a nagara (north Indian) styled tower. The shrine’s walls and the mantapa have austere appearance, with no sculptural decoration. The temple is built on a jagati (platform) and the building material used is Soapstone (green–chloritic schist). It has a large “linga” (the universal symbol of the god Shiva) in its sanctum and an equally large and extremely well carved Nandi in a closed hall with walls that have perforated stone windows. The temple also has a unique life-size standing image of the goddess Parvati (consort of Shiva). The images of the navagraha (lit, “nine planets”) facing each other is another unique feature. There are two images of the god Ganesha (son of Shiva), one outside the sanctum and the other at the entrance to the sanctum housing the goddess Parvati.