File:12th century Brahmesvara temple, Kikkeri Karnataka.svg

English: This is an SVG format plan and architectural drawing of a historic Indian temple or monument. An alternate high resolution JPEG version of this file has also been uploaded to the wikimedia commons.

The drawing:

• Kikkeri is a large village in the Mandya district of Karnataka, about 15 kilometers southwest of Shravanabelagola, and about 70 kilometers north of Mysuru. It was a much larger town in its history in a region that hosted several Hindu and Jain temples. Some such as the Malleshwara temple is now mostly in ruins, others missing but mentioned in inscriptions found in the village.

• The Brahmesvara temple is located on northeast edge of the village and is the better preserved. Several inscriptions are found in the temple, which establish that this temple was in existence by the 12th-century. For example, a 1171 CE inscription near the temple mentions the Hoysala king, Narasimhadeva, as the crest jewel of Yadavas kula and his contributions to this temple (Epigraphia Carnatica, Vol 6).

• This temple is intricately carved and decorated with Hindu religious arts. It has lost some of its major statues, some take away during the colonial era and sold to major museums of the world, often labelled as 'Hoyasala art, near Belur'. One notable Kesava statue from this temple is now a feature article in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City.

• The temple's architectural plan follows the square and circle principle found in historic Sanskrit texts.

• The relative scale and relative dimensions in this architectural drawing are close to the actual but neither exact nor complete. The plan illustrates the design and layout, but some intricate details or parts of the temple may not be shown. In cases where exact measurements were not feasible, the drawing uses best approximations and rounds the best measurements feasible.

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