Sridhara Temple (1250 A.D), Javagallu, Arasikere Taluk Hassan District.

While traversing the Belur-Halebedu-Banavara stretch, a tiny village called Javagallu catches one’s attention. This small, obscure village was once the flourishing town of the Hoysalas.

Lakshmi Narasimha temple at Javagallu, constructed in 13th century A D. Although the prototype of this style was available as early as A D 1121, in the Hoysaleswara temple in Halebedu, it took a century to catch the imagination of the architects. However the 13th century saw a spurt of temples constructed in keeping with this architectural style in Aralaguppe, Hosaholalu, Javagallu, and Somanathapura.

The Lakshmi Narasimha temple has three sanctums. The deity adorning the central sanctum is Vishnu in the form of Sridhara, a rare feature in itself as no other Hoysala temple has Sridhara as a central deity, followed by Venugopala in the southern sanctum and Lakshmi Narasimha in the northern sanctum. Only the central sanctum has the antarala (vestibule) connecting the navaranga and the sanctum. The basement of the temple has six carved friezes of elephants, horses, scroll, mythological scenes, makaras, and hamsas. Look carefully and one can identify scenes from Ramayana, Mahabharata and Puranas. However, no inscription has been found regarding the consecration of the temple. The inimitable sculptor Mallitamma, who had worked on half-a-dozen temples built over a period of seven decades starting from Amritapura to Somanathapura, had a major role to play in the construction of this temple. Chika Mallitamma and Pamayana assisted him.

The outer walls exhibit the Chaturvimsati Murthy the 24 forms of Vishnu, leaving little place for the other gods and goddesses such as Brahma, Harihara, Parvati, and Mahisamardini.

The central vimana has staggering walls projecting forward to indicate the composition of pancharatha formation, with a three-tala tower vaulting high crowned by a modern kalasa. The other two vimanas are identical to the central vimana except for the latter's tower and sukanasi.

The navaranga consists of nine ankanas, divided by round pillars and the nine ceilings of concentric circles. Two niches in the navaranga contain Ganesa and Chamundi. A high compound wall surrounds the temple and a mahadwara built during the Vijayanagar period is the only entrance to the temple.