Nageshvara-Chennakeshava Temples, Mosale

The Nageshvara and Chennakeshava temples stand side by side in Mosale village, about 10 km south of Hassan. They form a near-identical pair in Hoysala style, one dedicated to Shiva and the other to Vishnu. With no foundation stone or dating inscription, their age is uncertain; the style points to completion before 1250 CE, and the scholar Foekema puts them at around 1200 CE, in the reign of Veera Ballala II.

Each is a single-shrined temple with a porch, a closed square hall and a vestibule leading to the sanctum under a tower. The walls carry panels from the goddess tradition and of Vedic deities, with north Indian Bhumija and south Indian Vesara miniature towers above them, and the ceilings show older Chalukya ideas. M. A. Dhaky called the interiors gorgeously embellished. The pair is a Monument of National Importance.