HOISALA BELLALA, a dynasty who had supreme sway in Mysore from A.D. 1000 to 1300. They built three groups of temples, one at Somnathpur, S. of Mysore, by Vinaditya Bellala (1043), another at Baillur by Vishnu Verddhana (1114), and the greatest at Dwara Samudra or Hullabid (1145) by Vijaya Narsinha, the building of which was stopped by the Mahomedan invasion ill A.D. 1810-1311.
Some of the Hoisala Bellala kings were Jains ; but their buildings at Somnathpur, Balm., or Hullabid belong to the Vaishuava or Saiva faiths. The Basti temples of the southern Jains, like the Jaina temples of Northern India, always have a tirthaukara as the object of worship. The Bettu temples of Southern India are open courtyards, containing images of Gomati, who possibly may be Gautama Buddha. There are two hills at the village of Sravana Belgola, 33 miles N. by W. from Seringapatam. On one of these, a mass of syenite 500 feet high, a Jaina image, 70 feet 3 inches high, has been carved out of the solid rock. The expression of its features is pleasing, with curly hair ; and at Karkala, the image, 41 feet 5 inches, and weight 80 tons,'has been moved to its present site, and was erected A.D. 1432. The
third, and supposed oldest, at Yannur, is 35 feet high. They belong to the Digambara sect of the JaMs, being entirely naked, but with twigs of the Bo Tree twisted round their legs and arms, with serpents at their feet. In the Jaina cave at Badatni, the figure has two snakes twisted around its legs and arms, and the Bo Tree is placed behind. On a shoulder of the other bill at Sravana Belgola, called Chandragiri, are the Basti temples, fifteen in number, all of the Dravidian style, raised into storeys. Tho Jaffna temple at Moodbidri, and all others in Canara, resemble the temples of Nepal, and many of them are built of wood. The interiors are richly and variedly carved, with massive pillars. A large number of the tombs of the priests, some of them five to seven storeys in height, each with a sloping roof, like the temples of Kluttmandu, Tibet, and China. The stamblias or free-stand ing pillars of the Jainas in Canara, are very graceful.-Fergusson, p. 393. See Architecture.