Lakshminarasimha Temple, Vignasante

The Lakshminarasimha temple at Vignasante in Tumkur district, Karnataka, about 65 km east-north-east of Hassan, was built in 1286 by three brothers, Appayya, Gopala and Madhava, under the Hoysala king Narasimha III. One of the last temples raised before the Delhi Sultanate's attacks on the Hoysala kingdom, it shows the mature Hoysala style and is protected by the ASI.

The soapstone temple has three sanctums, for Venugopala, Narasimha in the centre and a seated Lakshmi Narayana, though only the central one carries a tower. Visitors enter from the north through an open porch into a closed hall on four lathe-turned pillars. The pillars are decorated so finely that the scholar M. A. Dhaky likened them to silver jewellery. Each vimana is star-shaped in plan, and its many projections and recesses carry relief carving up the three-storey tower, which ends in a large dome and kalasha. The projecting sukhanasi over the vestibule bears a Garuda, and the doorframes and pilasters are richly carved.