Someshvara Temple, Haranhalli

The Someshvara temple stands at the eastern edge of Haranhalli, about 35 km north-east of Hassan and 35 km east of Halebidu in Karnataka, some 300 metres east of the more ornate Lakshminarasimha temple. Both are in the Vesara style of Hoysala architecture and were built in the 1230s by the brothers Peddanna Heggade, Sovanna and Kesanna. The temple is protected by the ASI.

More damaged than its neighbour, it still has notable art and panels drawn from Shaiva, Vaishnava and Shakta traditions. It has a single star-shaped shrine made to look like a three-shrine temple by two simple side structures, and it stands on a moulded platform that forms a path for circumambulation, reached by three flights of steps. The tower and its projecting sukhanasi survive, though the kalasa is gone. Between two eaves runs a band of miniature towers above panels of deities, and the base friezes show birds, makaras, scrollwork and finely carved horses and elephants.