Editing Halebidu (section)

==History==
Halebidu is in the midst of a valley east of the Western Ghats (Sahyadri Mountains un Karnataka). It is surrounded by low-lying mountains, boulders and seasonal rivers. This valley is well connected to northern Karnataka, western Andhra Pradesh and northern Tamil Nadu.<ref name=Kasdorf/> Around this region, between the 10th and 14th-century, the Hoysaḷa dynasty came to power, whose history is unclear. By their own 11th and 12th-century inscriptions, they were descendants of the Krishna-Baladeva-roots and the Yadavas of Devagiri. They married into the Kalyana Chalukya Hindu dynasty, known for its temple and art tradition. The reliability of these inscriptions have been questioned as potential mythistory by some historians, who propose that the Hoysalas were a local Hindu family – a hill chief from the Sahyadri hill range of Karnataka remembered for having killed a tiger or a lion, and they seized and over time expanded their power starting in the 10th century.<ref name="Fischel">{{cite book | last=Fischel | first=F.R.S. | title=Local States in an Imperial World: Identity, Society and Politics in the Early Modern Deccan | publisher=Edinburgh University Press | year=2020 | isbn=978-1-4744-3609-0 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UHoxEAAAQBAJ | pages=34–39}}</ref><ref>Katherine E. Kasdorf (2013), ''Forming Dōrasamudra: Temples of the Hoysaḷa Capital in Context'', Columbia University Press, pp. 46–49</ref><ref>{{cite book| author1=Madhusudan A. Dhaky|author2=Michael Meister|title=Encyclopaedia of Indian Temple Architecture, Volume 1 Part 3 South India Text & Plates|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=a1VJAQAAIAAJ | year=1996|publisher= American Institute of Indian Studies|isbn= 978-81-86526-00-2|pages = 295–302 }}</ref>

Halebidu was built anew near a large reservoir by the early Hoysala kings, with support from their governors, merchants, and artisans.{{refn|group=note|The Hoysalas built many water reservoirs throughout their realm, a source of their political stability, public support and economic prosperity. Such public infrastructure projects began at least in the 11th-century and continued through the early 13th-century. This is evidenced by the texts of their era and inscriptions found near these reservoirs, water tanks and temples.<ref>Katherine E. Kasdorf (2013), ''Forming Dōrasamudra: Temples of the Hoysaḷa Capital in Context'', Columbia University Press, pp. 62–67 with footnotes</ref> They also built canals and completed irrigation projects.<ref>C. P. Rajendran and P. Aravazhi (2011), ''Ancient canal and stone quarries near Halebidu, Hassan District, Karnataka'', Current Science, Vol. 101, No. 8, pp. 987-989, {{JSTOR|24079259}}</ref>}} They greatly excavated and expanded the Dorasamudra reservoir. Major and spectacularly carved Hindu and Jain temples were already complete by the 12th century. Around the city were fort walls, generally tracing a rounded square-like area with an average span of 2.25 kilometers. Inside were four major water reservoirs and many smaller public water tanks. The city life, it major temples and the roads were centered near the Dorasamudra water reservoir. The city several dozen temples, of which only a small set has survived. Three set of temples – Hoysaleswara (twin temple), Jain Basadi (three temples) and Kedareshvara (one temple) – were the largest, more sophisticated in their architecture and artwork, while the rest were simpler.<ref name=Kasdorf/>

To the immediate west of the major Hindu and Jain temples was the Hoysala Palace. This palace stretched south up to the ''Benne Gudda'' (''lit.'', butter hill). The palace is completely ruined and gone, with section lost in mounds and fragments found near the Benne Gudda. To the west of the palace was another group of Hindu and Jain temples – the Nagaresvara site, also destroyed whose ruins have been found in mounds. To the north of the original Hoysala city was a Saraswati temple and a Krishna temple, both also ruined and mostly lost. Towards the center and south of the old city were Hucesvara temple and a Rudresvara temple, evidenced by inscriptions and ruins that have been discovered. Four temples in northeastern section have survived – Gudlesvara, Virabhadra, Kumbalesvara and Ranganatha. The western part of the fortified section and beyond the fort were the historic farms that fed the population of the Dorasamudra capital. Roads connected the Hoysala capital to other major towns and pilgrimage sites such as Belur and Pushpagiri.<ref name=Kasdorf>Katherine E. Kasdorf (2013), ''Forming Dōrasamudra: Temples of the Hoysaḷa Capital in Context'', Columbia University Press</ref> Numerous inscriptions dating between mid 10th-century to early 13th-century attest to the importance of Dorasamudra to various Hoysala kings.<ref>Katherine E. Kasdorf (2013), ''Forming Dōrasamudra: Temples of the Hoysaḷa Capital in Context'', Columbia University Press, pp. 49–61 with footnotes</ref>

After the [[Siege of Dwarasamudra|first invasion]] and destruction of Dorasamudra in the 14th century, inscriptions suggest that there were attempts to repair the temples, palace and infrastructure in Dorasamudra. As a condition to an end to the invasion, [[Malik Kafur]] of [[Turko-Persian]] Delhi Sultanate demanded the monarch [[Veera Ballala III]] to accept suzerainty of Khalji, pay tribute and provide logistical support to the Sultanate forces seeking to raid and loot the fabled wealth in the Pandya capital of Madurai in Tamil Nadu. Additional waves of wars of destruction and loot from the [[Turko-Persian]] Sultanates ended the Hoysala kingdom and Dorasamudra's prosperity as a capital city.<ref name="Bradnock2000p959"/><ref name="Asher1995p29"/><ref>{{cite book|author=Joan-Pau Rubiés|title=Travel and Ethnology in the Renaissance: South India Through European Eyes, 1250-1625|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=adpkHQ9SCq0C |year=2002|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-52613-5|pages=13–15}}</ref> For nearly 300 years, Dorasamudra saw no new inscriptions or evidence of political or economic prosperity. A mid 17th-century Nayaka era inscription in Belur thereafter becomes the first to mention "Halebidu". Meanwhile the surviving Hindu and Jain communities continued to support and repair the temples, with evidence of living temples in what is now the northern part of Halibidu.<ref>Katherine E. Kasdorf (2013), ''Forming Dōrasamudra: Temples of the Hoysaḷa Capital in Context'', Columbia University Press, pp. 57–62 with footnotes</ref>