Kesava Temple At Somanathapur- A Cultural Study (An Old And Rare Book)

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Kesava Temple, Somanathapura is considered as one of the three most precious gems of Hoysala art. Though its history and architecture have been studied fairly well by eminent scholars, its exquisite sculptures, decorative motifs and designs have not received due attention. Dr. T. Dayananda Patel's work fulfils this requirement and presents the social and cultural aspects in great detail and with ample illustrations.

His synthesis of the material with literary and epigraphical evidence carries conviction.

No aspect of the social and cultural life has escaped the attention of Dr. Patel. Dress, Ornaments, Hair styles, Furniture, Chariots, Buildings, Flora, Fauna and a hoast of other details have been studied in minute details in an admirable way. Thus it lays before the reader a whole array of social and cultural life during the Hoysala period.

The Kesava temple at Somanathapura is one of the most popular temples in Kamajaka. Every tourist to Mysore makes it a point to visit this excellent specimen of Hoysala art. Its nearness to Mysore has made it very popular. This gave me an opportunity to visit the temple in the company of friends, visitors and tourists innumerable times. Each visit made me more inquisitive to know more about the temple, particularly its minute carvings. Thus attracted by this rich variety of carvings covering all aspects of life, I was wondering if I could take up this temple for my doctoral dissertation. The idea materialized into a project which my guide appreciated and drew up the details of a scheme. The result is the present study of the Sömanathapura temple in great detail which I humbly state has not been attempted for any monument in Karnataka.

The thesis contains twelve chapters. Each chapter is devoted to a study of a particular aspect of social life. The first chapter is in the form of an introduction wherein sources, methodology and the plan of the work are discussed. The second chapter is devoted to a study of the history of the temple mostly based on the available epigraphs. The next chapter is devoted to a detailed study of the costumes of male and female persons. Jewellery and ornaments which add to the colour of human life have been studied in the fourth chapter. Coiffure and head-dress has been another social practice to which ancient Indians gave much importance. One will be bewildered by the variety and intricacy of the coiffures presented in the Kesava temple. This has been studied in the fifth chapter. The sixth chapter makes a detailed study of domestic utensils and other household objects. Furniture has been studied followed by musical instruments in chapters seven and eight respectively. Chapter nine is devoted to a study of weapons of war. Conveyances such as carts and other modes of transportation has been studied in chapter ten. The next chapter is devoted to the study of flora and fauna. Some rare objects which do not fall under the above categories such as amusements, books, carefree movements, etc. have been studied in the last chapter.

Study and research in the history of Karnataka, though more than half a century old, scholars have been concentrating on political and chronological history. This is amply demonstrated by the scholarly works of A.S. Altekar, William Coelho,2 J.D.M Derrett, J.F. Fleet, Lewis Rice, M.H. Krishna, N. Lakshminarayana Rao and R.S. Panchamukhi,7. R. Narasimhachar and others. Most of these scholars took epigraphy as the important source and consequently their works became good political histories. However, they commented upon the culture of the times such as social, economic, religious, etc. Even these aspects were based upon epigraphy,

In the second stage of study scholars like A. Appadorai,9 T.V. Mahalingam,10 and others studied social and other cultural conditions and produced competent monographs. Unfortunately this was not continued by others. Again even these scholars leaned heavily on either epigraphical or literary sources. These two sources though highly useful have their own limitations and hence their works also are limited in nature and scope.

Though all art historians agree that art reflects the contemporary society unfortunately it has not been made use of in writing the cultural history of Karnataka. For example, no inscription describes the dress or the coiffure or jewellery of women in the Hoysala period. There are no foreign travellers for the Hoysala period. Thus if a researcher wants to know, the dress or the ornaments that were in vogue during the Hoysala period he will be disappointed by the study of contemporary epigraphs. At such a stage one can very profitably use the material available in plastic art. This remark can be applied to any school of art for that matter. But a student of Hoysala sculpture is fortunately placed because of the exhuberance of the wealth of detail furnished by the Hoysala sculpture. Perhaps no sculptural school in India projects such a rich variety of the contemporary life as the Hoysala sculptures do. Every inch of the wall on a temple was utilized, sculpting either independent images or continuous long friezes narrating mythological stories or scenes depicting war fare, toilet, domestic life and in short all facets of life. Thus what is not available in epigraphs or literature or foreign visitor's record is brought before our eyes by the great sculptors of the Hoysala period.