Shri Channakeshava Devastana, Arakere

Sept 17, 2024. Sridhar and I were on a day tour of Hoysala temples of the northern part of Hassan district. Before the first temple of the day, we stopped at the historic stepped well called Aiyyana Baavi situated 6 km from Tiptur. The well probably was constructed in the XVI Century CE at the behest of a wandering Veerashaiva monk to overcome water scarcity problems of the village nearby. Next was Chandramouleshwara Devastana at Arasikere followed by Sri Lakshmi Venkateshwara Devastana which is a couple of kilometers from Chandramouleshwara. Then drove to Lakshmi Narasimha Devastana at Javagal followed by Viranarayana Devastana at Belavadi which happens to be part of Chikmagalur district. We had lunch at Belavadi and then started our return journey. 21 km away was Arakere the last place of the day.

Arakere is a peaceful little village with two historic temples- Channakeshava Devastana and Rameshwara Devastana. While the former is at the village center, the latter is situated on the village's pond shore. The locality in front of Channakeshava Devastana is an Agrahara, community of priestly Brahmins. The temple caretaker was present with the temple gates open.

One of the sources says this east-facing Trikutachala dates back to XIII Century CE. It was built by a wealthy merchant named Damodara Setty from Kerala who had settled in this region during the reign of Hoysala king Narasimha II. This is supposed to be mentioned in an inscription present inside the temple.

An inscription slab stands at the temple entrance. The temple's Mukhamantapa is missing but the platform and a couple of columns have survived.

On the left hand side of the temple entrance are interesting sculptures- a young woman, a sitting Ganapati, a woman warrior holding sword & shield. Take a closer look at the young woman's attire- there's a checkered pattern. Folds of flesh have also been depicted beautifully. Sadly layers of the stone has eroded.

A closer look at the woman warrior. Her lower garment too has a checkered pattern. The shield somehow reminds me of Roman army shields. Turning attention to the other sculpture.. whether it's a man or woman, I can't say. On the right leg is a garment which seems like short pants but the other leg doesn't have anything like that. Wondering if this sculpture is incomplete.

Going round the temple in Pradakshina way. This temple's decor is less intense compared to other Hoysala temples in this region. The sculptures are less detailed but effective.

Going left to right: Narayana seated on Adishesha. Next is a man armed with sword and wearing pant like garment. Next is Vishnu's Varaha Avatara.

The man with raised sword and curly hair, holding a bundle in right hand... who could this be? The dancing woman with let out hair seems like a powerful character. I found this sculpture to be the most interesting here.

Here's that dancing woman. Holding a staff in right hand and an unrecognizable object in left hand. Her straight long hair spread out like a fan. Also there's a rope like garment hanging from her shoulder.

Moving on, we have Lakshmi Narayana attended by two ladies with chamar. The standing figure seems like Narayana, features are unclear. Also the faces have been vandalized. The caretaker was with us all the time, he mentioned that people of khommunity come here with ill intentions. They deface sculptures or take demeaning pictures with sculptures. I wonder why those people have such deceptive & destructive mindsets. 

Moving on to the next corner. Here are well built men, probably warriors. The sculptures are damaged.. hands and weapons are missing. Two of them are sporting long hair tied like a ponytail.

Here's a man astride an animal seemingly like a bison. This could be Yamaraj. In the middle, a woman in dancing posture. Despite the damages, finer details are still visible, like the design on the fabric. On the right is a young man.. his posture I don't know what it is. His left hand is upright, like a Abhaya Hasta.

The next corner. The man on the left seems to be drummer.  The middle and left men seem to be a team, their attires are similar, even their hairstyles are same. The other two sculptures depicting a man and woman seem incomplete besides the damages. The woman is holding an object which seems like a corn cob which can be seen at other Hoysala temples too.

At the middle of the next wall is Ugranarasimha. On the right are Garuda and Narayana sculptures, I think. On the left is a gigantic man on whose shoulders are a man and woman. This sculpture seems to be depicting a story from Mahabharata.

The next wall is totally occupied by images of Narayana,

As you see, even the Shikhara is quite simple compared to other Hoysala temples. Strange thing is that not one sculpture of Hoysala is present in this teemple.

The next set of sculptures is to Vishnu's three avatars. Matsya, Kurma and Varaha.

The next corner seems to be continuation of the avatars- Narasimha and Vaman. Next to Vamana doesn't seem to be Parusharama. So who is that? On the other wall is a couple, that could be Rama & Sita. The lone standing figure is Krishna? Not sure. Lastly, the headless sitting figure should be Buddha.

On the foremost northern wall is Krishna dancing on serpent Kalia's head, flanking him are two woman bearing Chamara (fan). On the right edge is a warrior armed with sword & shield. And close to the left edge is a woman with long straight hair.

Side view of the full temple. 

Coming to the last corner. Here we have a woman squatting in birth-giving position. In the corner are two warriors, one of them is holding a severed head and the other one is holding some unrecognizable object.

Two more warriors, while one is armed with spear & shield the other is armed with sword & shield. All warriors seen so far seem to be of royal blood. Assuming that based on the attire featured on them.

Back at the temple entrance. On the facade is Govardhana Giridhari, the act of Krishna lifting a mountain with cattle with his little finger.

The more I look at this temple, the more I feel this may not be Hoysala creation. It could've been built before the Hoysalas, and later the sculptures were added during Vijayanagara rule. Well, that's my thought. If an inscription has mentioned this temple was built during Hoysala reign, that can't be false.

Lastly, before we exit the temple, I noticed the etchings on the well worn soapstone steps. All English letters. One of them is H.G.S 1.10.60. I'm assuming this was engraved in 1960, that's 64 years ago. Someone wanted to make a long lasting impression, and succeeded.

With this we called it a tour and prepared to head back home, to our rural home at Bhogasandra. We reached home just before sunset, that was our plan. No traveling after sunset is our motto and we intend to stick to it as much as possible.

Back home I realized that we missed the second temple at Arakere which happens to be Sri Rameshwara Devastana. Also, we missed out another village completely which happened to be Haranahalli. It was just 9 km south of Arasikere. Anyway, there are a few more ancient sites I unearthed recently. The missed out temples will be covered during a future tour.

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