Lakshmi Narasimha Temple, Nuggehalli

Wikipedia states that the temple was built in 1246 CE by Bommanna Dandanayaka, a commander under the Hoysala king Vira Someshwara, and Collyer confirms that the dedicatory inscription at Nuggehalli records the temple's completion in 1246. Nuggehalli was then called Vijaya Somanathapura and became an agrahara, a settlement of learning, under Bommanna. The Karnataka Itihasa Academy notes that inscriptions at Nuggehalli name Bommanna Dandanayaka as the builder of the village's Prasanna Keshava and Sadashiva temples and as the founder of the Vijaya Somanathapura agrahara.

The Sadashiva Temple, a Shiva temple built at about the same time, stands a short distance away and is also an ASI-protected monument. The Academy has published a study of a previously unread inscription at the Sadashiva temple, dated 1257 CE in the reign of Someshwara, which records a tax waiver and grants to that temple.

The seva samithi's website says that the village was already a flourishing town before this, and that an inscription records grants made in 1121 CE by the Hoysala king Vishnuvardhana to a nearby Jayagondeshwara temple. The samithi was formed more than 40 years ago by people with family roots in Nuggehalli to maintain the temples, which the ASI treats as living monuments.

Architecture and sacred features

According to Wikipedia, the temple is built of soapstone (chloritic schist) on a raised platform (jagati) that follows its plan. The three shrines open off a closed hall (ranga-mantapa) of nine bays, whose four lathe-turned pillars support a deeply domed central ceiling. The central shrine is the most prominent, with a large tower and a projecting vestibule roof (sukanasi); its crowning finial (kalasha) has been lost. The two side shrines have smaller towers and no sukanasi, so from outside the temple looks like a single-tower building. A large open hall with tall pillars was added later in front of the original porch.

The outer walls have two eaves, a band of about 120 sculpted panels and six base mouldings: processions of elephants, horsemen and foliage at the bottom, scenes from the epics and the Bhagavata Purana above them, and friezes of mythical beasts and swans at the top. Foekema classes the temple in the 'newer' Hoysala style. The seva samithi adds that the original main entrance (mahadvara) was of soapstone on plain round pillars, and that two stone elephants which stood in front of it now stand before the inner courtyard.