Musafir

It was almost 5 in the evening by the time i completed touring the Halebidu Temple complex and i still had a couple of things in my itinerary for the day. I could make up those things on the same day as they are quite near to the Hoysaleswara Temple. We will first talk about the three Jain bastis (Temples) in a small village aptly called “Basadihalli”.

As we go to the village, we first come across the nice and beautiful Kedareshwara Temple. We will see more of this in the next post. About 200 metres from the Kedareswara Temple are three Jain Temples with a small garden developed all around them. I asked my driver to park the car near the Kedareswara Temple and walk to the Bastis. I had very little time to cover all the three monuments, so i rushed to the Parsvanatha Temple.

This temple was built by Boppadeva, son of Gangaraja a minister under Vishnuvardhana in the year 1133 A.D. The construction of the temple coincided with the victory of the ruler, hence the name “Vijaya Parsvanatha”. The Parsvanatha Basadi is very simple when seen from the outside. It has a simple entrance. Once you cross it, you will find a pillared Maha-Mantapa with elephants on either side of the entrance. This mantapa has highly polished lathe turned pillars and sculptures of Yakshas against the Western wall.

The pillars of the Maha-Mantapa are carved with nice designs which is still intact even today. As in most of the Jain temples, there is an antarala which is dark followed by the sanctum. There are round pillars made of black stone in the antarala and the walls are carved with turrets and pillars. The ceiling is extraordinarily carved with mythological figures and nice intricate carvings. In the sanctum is the 18 feet tall Parsvanatha Tirthankara. In Jain Iconography, each Tirthankara is associated with an animal and Parsvanatha idol is always covered with a hooded snake above his head. Small sculptures of a Yaksha and Yakshini are on either side of Parsvanatha. These two bastis are comparatively smaller and simpler and not much to see. I was here for about 10 minutes and moved on to the Shanthinatha Basti.

The Shanthinatha Basadi, built in 1196 A.D is similar to the Parsvanatha basadi and has an 18 foot statue of the Tirthankara in the sanctum. On the exterior, the walls have elongated plasters. The Adinatha basadi assignable to the 12th century A.D has a 20 foot long statue of Adinatha in the sanctum. Also there are images of Saraswati in the vestibule (Antarala). A 20 feet tall Mahasthambha stands in front of the basadi.