These three places combined form a key triangle of tourist importance in the Karnataka state all of them near the metropolis of Hassan some 150km from the city of Bangalore.
SHRAVANABELAGOLA is a township which basically has two mountain structures and a man made pond in between , a KSRTC bus stand and a railway line near-by. One of the hill structures is a mammoth one and is a mountain by itself which hosts the Gomateshwara statue on the top and the smaller hill called the CHANDRAGIRI hill which is a smaller and miniscule version of the big mountain. Both these hills house temple structures.
The key activity endured here is the climb up the bigger mountain to the statue of BAHUBALI also called GOMATESHWARA. It is a climb up the steep mountain for nearly a kilometer and the climb can be described as a arduous one and another flight of stairs takes one to the GOMATESHWARA statue. Generally carrying a bottle of water would be an advised thing to do and keep yourself hydrated when you climb the mountain..
To my mind all these three towns of Belur, Halebid and Shravanabelagola are some one thousand years of vintage and were sacred townships of ruling dynasties.
Belur has a VISHNU temple which has many temple complexes within it and the entire temple complex is housed in a two acre land space and the temple built on a pedestal some four feet high and the entire structure and its carvings made out odf stone.There is a majestic diety of VISHNU also called CHENNAKESHAVA which is the heart of the temple.. The Belur temple exists on some kind of a mountain-top and the road descends downward..
Inside view of the CHENNNAKESHAVA temple.
The temple at HALEBID is a SHIVA temple well designed and planned adjacent to a man made lake and excellent gardens. The symmetry seen here is appealing and so are the carvings and again this temple exists on a pedestal.Basically there are two temples within the single structure and both have SHIVA LINGAS and both these lingas face a NANDI bull carved out of stone exactly in shape and size of the NANDI BULL seen on BULL TEMPLE road in Bangalore in the Jayanagar area. The BULL TEMPLE of Bangalore must have been inspired by the NANDI seen in Halebid. The city of Halebid was a Capital city of ancient times.
The township of SHRAVANABELAGOLA is some fifty kilometers from the city of HASSAN and BELUR and HALEBID some twenty odd kilometres from HASSAN diametrically opposite to SHRAVANABELAGOLA.
Map shows Shravanabelagola in relation to Hassan, Belur and Halebidu.B is Shravanabelagola, D is Belur and C is Halebid.
