Large and small temples built during this era remain as examples of the Hoysala architectural style, including the Chennakesava Temple at Belur, the Hoysaleswara Temple at Halebidu, and the Kesava Temple at Somanathapura.

Other examples of fine Hoysala craftsmanship are the temples at Belavadi, Amruthapura, Hosaholalu, Mosale, Arasikere, Basaralu, Kikkeri and Nuggehalli.

Temples built prior to Hoysala independence in the mid-12th century reflect significant Western Chalukya influences, while later temples retain some features salient to Chalukyan art but have additional inventive decoration and ornamentation, features unique to Hoysala artisans.

About one hundred temples have survived in present-day Karnataka state, mostly in the Malnad ( hill ) districts, the native home of the Hoysala kings.

As popular tourist destinations in Karnataka, Hoysala temples offer an opportunity for pilgrims and students of architecture to examine medieval Hindu architecture in the Karnata Dravida tradition.

Medieval Kannada language inscriptions displayed prominently at temple locations give details of the temples and offer information about the history of the Hoysala dynasty.

Hoysala temples have distinct parts that are merged to form a unified organic whole, in contrast to the temples of Tamil country where different parts of a temple stand independently.

Although superficially unique, Hoysala temples resemble each other structurally.

Most Hoysala temples have a plain covered entrance porch supported by lathe turned ( circular or bell-shaped ) pillars which were sometimes further carved with deep fluting and moulded with decorative motifs.

These features were the use of chloritic schist or soapstone as a basic building material, pierced stone window screens which were very popular in Hoysala temples, and the vimana which follows a stellate pattern.

It is home to one of the best examples of Hoysala architecture in the ornate Hoysaleswara and Kedareswara temples.

The Hoysala Empire temples were made from soapstone.

Large and small temples built during this era remain as examples of the Hoysala architectural style, including the Chennakesava Temple at Belur, the Hoysaleswara Temple at Halebidu, and the Kesava Temple at Somanathapura.

Other examples of fine Hoysala craftmanship are the temples at Belavadi, Amrithapura, and Nuggehalli.

About a 100 Hoysala temples survive today.

The Place has a historic value, with temples of near Hoysala time.

Turuvekere boasts of many fine Hoysala temples.

Among several styles of Sikharas that obtain in Hindu temple architecture, the three most common ones are the " Dravidian " style prevalent in southern India and the " Nagar " style prevalent almost everywhere else and the third style born from the synthesis of the other two called the Vesara style, seen mostly in Karnataka and most commonly in Hoysala and later Chalukya temples.

The Hoysala temples at Belur, Halebidu and Somnathpura are supreme examples of this style.

However, two notable locations of Jain worship in the Hoysala territory were Shravanabelagola and Kambadahalli.

Other dynasties of Satavahana, Chalukya, Pallava, Rashtrakuta, Kakatiya and Hoysala were at their peak during various periods of history.

This was because other feudatories of the Hoysalas were also growing in power and threatening the Hoysala kingdom itself.

Ultimately, the Kadava Pallavas, Hoysalas and also the Telugu Choda Timma who invaded Kanchi were all one by one vanquished by Jatavarman Sundara Pandiyan with the Cholas finally becoming extinct after defeat of Hoysala Ramanatha as well as his ally Rajendra iii around 1279 by Maravarman Kulasekhara Pandiyan.

While doing so the Pandya had to be wary of the newly risen dynasty of Hoysala in South Karnataka, which were pro Chola in at first and became pro Pandya only later on.

During the Hoysala supremacy also different tracts of this district were being administered by different local chiefs.

Several Hoysala generals including Singana were killed and great amount of loot was captured along with many horses, elephants and women.

There were many powerful dynasties in India such as the Maha Janapadas, Shishunaga Empire, Gangaridai Empire, Nanda Empire, Maurya Empire, Sunga Empire, Kharavela Empire, Kuninda Kingdom, Chola Empire, Chera Empire, Pandyan Empire, Satavahana Empire, Western Satrap Empire, Kushan Empire, Vakataka Empire, Kalabhras Kingdom, Gupta Empire, Pallava Empire, Kadamba Empire, Western Ganga Kingdom, Vishnukundina Empire, Chalukya Empire, Harsha Empire, Shahi Kingdom, Eastern Chalukya Kingdom, Pratihara Empire, Pala Empire, Rashtrakuta Empire, Paramara Kingdom, Yadava Empire, Solanki Kingdom, Western Chalukya Empire, Hoysala Empire, Sena Empire, Eastern Ganga Empire, Kakatiya Kingdom, Kalachuri Empire, Delhi Sultanate, Deccan Sultanates, Ahom Kingdom, Vijayanagar Empire, Mysore Kingdom, Mughal Empire, Maratha Empire, Sikh Empire etc.

But by 14th century, the Kolathiris were vassals of Hoysala Empire.

The stylistic transformation of the Karnata temple building tradition reflected religious trends popularized by the Vaishnava and Virashaiva philosophers as well as the growing military prowess of the Hoysala kings who desired to surpass their Western Chalukya overlords in artistic achievement.

Although the most glorious art of these Indian empires was mostly Buddhist in nature, subsequently Hindu Empires like the Pallava, Chola, Hoysala and Vijayanagara Empires developed their own styles of Hindu art as well.

Other dynasties that are considered imperial by historians are the Kushanas, Guptas, Vijayanagara, Hoysala and the Cholas.

* In India, Hoysala architecture reaches a peak.

* Battle of Kennagal: The Hoysala Empire defeats the Chalukya.

* 1279 – The Chola Dynasty of South India falls under attacks by the Hoysala Empire and Pandyan kingdom.

Hoysala architecture () is the building style developed under the rule of the Hoysala Empire between the 11th and 14th centuries, in the region known today as Karnataka, a state of India.

Hoysala influence was at its peak in the 13th century, when it dominated the Southern Deccan Plateau region.

Study of the Hoysala architectural style has revealed a negligible Indo-Aryan influence while the impact of Southern Indian style is more distinct.

The vigorous temple building activity of the Hoysala Empire was due to the social, cultural and political events of the period.

The jagati which is in unity with the rest of the temple follows a star-shaped design and the walls of the temple follow a zig-zag pattern, a Hoysala innovation.

It is distinctively Dravidian, and owing to its unique features, Hoysala architecture qualifies as an independent style.

This theme was greater strengthened by Christie ’ s time spent in the Middle East where she was consistently surrounded by the religious temples and spiritual history of the towns and cities they were excavating in Mallowan ’ s archaeological work.

Their raids throughout the three parts of Gaul were traumatic: Gregory of Tours ( died ca 594 ) mentions their destructive force at the time of Valerian and Gallienus ( 253 – 260 ), when the Alemanni assembled under their " king ", whom he calls Chrocus, who " by the advice, it is said, of his wicked mother, and overran the whole of the Gauls, and destroyed from their foundations all the temples which had been built in ancient times.

Taxes were paid in produce and labour on public walls, including city walls, temples, irrigation canals and waterways, producing huge agricultural surpluses.

A third work, the Temple Hymns, a collection of specific hymns, addresses the sacred temples and their occupants, the deity to whom they were consecrated.

Most of the major temples, including the Parthenon, were rebuilt under the leadership of Pericles during the Golden Age of Athens ( 460 – 430 BC ).

By 150 BC, Assyria was under the control of the Parthian Empire as Athura ( the Parthian word for Assyria ) where the Assyrian city of Ashur seems to have gained a degree of autonomy, and temples to the native gods of Assyria were resurrected.

An early terrace wall supports a precinct in which are a stoa and some remains of temples ; these were excavated by the British School at Athens in 1894, but little was found.

Other aediculae were small shrines within larger temples, usually set on a base, surmounted by a pediment and surrounded by columns.

* Structures ; Ruins of palaces, palatial villas, houses, built dome-or cist-graves and fortifications ( Aegean islands, Greek mainland and northwestern Anatolia ), but not distinct temples ; small shrines, however, and temene ( religious enclosures, remains of one of which were probably found at Petsofa near Palaikastro by J. L. Myres in 1904 ) are represented on intaglios and frescoes.

Burning lenses were used to cauterise wounds and to light sacred fires in temples.

During the period of Angkor, only temples and other religious buildings were constructed of stone.

The earliest Angkorian temples were made mainly of brick.

Khmer temples were typically enclosed by a concentric series of walls, with the central sanctuary in the middle ; this arrangement represented the mountain ranges surrounding Mount Meru, the mythical home of the gods.

The five peaks of Mount Meru were taken to exhibit this arrangement, and Khmer temples was arranged accordingly in order to convey a symbolic identification with the sacred mountain.

The new programme of building was carried out in great haste: Columns, marbles, doors, and tiles were taken wholesale from the temples of the Empire and moved to the new city.

They had to see that the temples and all other public buildings were in a good state of repair, that no public places were encroached upon by the occupation of private persons, and that the aqueduct, roads, drains, etc.

Besides keeping existing public buildings and facilities in a proper state of repair, the censors were also in charge of constructing new ones, either for ornament or utility, both in Rome and in other parts of Italy, such as temples, basilicae, theatres, porticoes, fora, walls of towns, aqueducts, harbours, bridges, cloacae, roads, etc.

A sacred precinct was set apart for his worship at Miletus in the province of Asia and two temples were erected for worship of him in Rome.

Commentary on the appropriateness of the orders for temples devoted to particular deities ( Vitruvius I. 2. 5 ) were elaborated by Renaissance theorists, with Doric characterized as bold and manly, Ionic as matronly, and Corinthian as maidenly.

In the early times only the art of pottery and terracotta developed, but from the seventh century onwards, a large number of temples and images were also built on account of the intensified religious passions and the accumulation of wealth in cities.

Although the worship of images would eventually fall out of favour ( and be replaced by the iconoclastic fire temples ), the lasting legacy of the Achaemenids was a vast, complex hierarchy of Yazatas ( modern Zoroastrianism's Angels ) that were now not just evident in the religion, but firmly established, not least because the divinities received dedications in the Zoroastrian calendar, thus ensuring that they were frequently invoked.

Omri, King of Israel, continued policies dating from the reign of Jeroboam, contrary to the laws of Moses, that were intended to reorient religious focus away from Jerusalem: encouraging the building of local temple altars for sacrifices, appointing priests from outside the family of the Levites, and allowing or encouraging temples dedicated to the Canaanite god, Baal.

Therefore, the state dedicated enormous resources to the performance of these rituals and to the construction of the temples where they were carried out.