Arsikere 7th Jan 2013

 Arisikere

I got ready to visit the Arisikere Temple but could not wear shoes. The heel had cracked and found it difficult to walk with the shoes on.  Wore my sandal and walked to the temple that lay about a Kilometer in the north of the town.

It was obvious that the old town has spilled on to the main town and not the other way around. There were numerous temples , both Hindu and Jain.  I reached the temple minutes before the sunrise.  The temple is a visual treat with a blue mount as a backdrop. It has a circular ‘Mantap’ in the front with its unmistakable pillars visible from far and the stumps of symmetrically sculptured pillars rising up to the pointed Kalash.

There is a rectangular shaped temple to the left of the main temple, built along the Hampi architecture, possibly a later day addition. The Hoysala portion of the temple trumps as the main attraction with its grandiose ceiling replete with intricately carved stone arrangements. Unlike the Moghul ceiling that used a ‘lock stones’ these were stones piled on top of each other, nicely dovetailed and carved to give a dome like appearance.

Arisikere-Shivalaya Temple

The platform that is made of multiple layers of stones, found in other Hoysala is not found in Arisikere. No layers of carved stones. But as in other temples, the sharp features of the faces in the carvings are all chopped off and blunted.

Again, when I go back to the memories of the temple and the photographs, there is a desire to go back.

I realized that walking any more will aggravate the foot condition and I would be soon be on a bus back to home. I took a bus to Tiptur which was about 26 Kilometers from Arisikere. I was in Tiptur by noon, booked myself into a small room. Tiptur is a new town, comparatively, which is famous for Coconut crop. The next stop was Alaraguppe, which was 16 Kilometers. I arranged an auto and reached Alaraguppe by about 4 PM.