How the famed Hoysala temples became UNESCO World Heritage sites Premium

There is a popular myth about the Hoysala dynasty, a story so deeply entrenched in folklore that it inspired the emblem of this medieval South Indian empire.

There is a popular myth about the Hoysala dynasty, a story so deeply entrenched in folklore that it inspired the emblem of this medieval South Indian empire.

This is how the story goes: the person believed to have founded the Hoysala dynasty, Sala, was travelling with his guru, Sudatta, through a forest when they encountered a tiger. Sudatta is believed to have shouted, “Hoy (which means strike in Halegannada), Sala,” which Sala promptly did, killing the tiger. Later, when he founded his kingdom, he remembered the cry of his teacher and named this kingdom after it.

 “You would have seen this story portrayed in many temples,” says Meera Iyer, the convener of the Bengaluru chapter of the Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH), at a recent event at The Bangalore Room, Indiranagar. Since the Chola Dynasty’s flag bore the image of a leaping tiger, the story could also be a metaphor for the Hoysala victory over them in 1116 CE at Talakadu.

As Iyer also points out in the talk titled How Belur and Halebid Won the World HeritageTag, this story gained popularity only around the time of the Hoysala king, Vishnuvardhana, who ruled the region between 1108 and 1152 CE. 

Over an hour-long lecture, peppered with delightful little nuggets of information such as this one,  she offered many insights into the legacy of this ancient kingdom. She also spoke about how the Hoysala temples at Belur, Halebid, and Somanathapur became UNESCO World Heritage Sites in September last year. “This was a really exciting moment for all of us,” admits Iyer, who was part of the team that worked on the nomination dossier for submission to UNESCO

The Hoysala Kingdom was a Kannada-speaking empire that mushroomed across  Karnataka between the 11th and the 14th century.  While the early history of the Hoysalas is not well-documented, they are believed to have come from the Malnad region of the Western Ghats. 

The Hoysalas were initially the vassals of the Kalyani Chalukyas, eventually breaking away from them and emerging as an independent state by the 12th century. Iyer lists the names of some of its best-known rulers, Nripa Kama II, Vishnuvardhana, Veera Ballala II, and Veera Ballala III, and mentions a significant event that took place in the time of Vishnuvardhana: the coming of the philosopher-saint Ramanuja to Hoysala territory. “He was known for propagating Sri Vaishnavism, a form of Vaishnavism,” says Iyer of Ramanuja, who is believed to have fled from the Chola society that he was born in to escape the wrath of a king who was a staunch Shaivite.