Hoysaleswara temple in Halebidu, Karnataka, is a 12th-century Hindu temple dedicated to Shiva, built by King Vishnuvardhana of the Hoysala Empire. Its construction started around 1121 CE and was complete in 1160 CE.
The temple's outer wall is a pictorial narration of Hindu epics, and its middle portion has large panels where "the entire pantheon of Hindu divinities are presented, it is a manual of Hindu iconography".
Art critic James Fergusson called it a "marvellous exhibition of human labor to be found even in the patient east and surpasses anything in Gothic art". The sophistication and artwork at the Hoysaleswara temple made it one of the earliest temples to gain attention of British archaeologists and the earliest photographers in British India.
The temple was built with chloritic schist, more commonly known as greenschist or soapstone. The soapstone is soft when quarried and easier to carve into intricate shapes, but hardens over time when exposed to air.
The friezes and wall images on the outer wall predominantly narrate the Ramayana, the Mahabharata, the Bhagavata Purana, the other major Shaiva and Vaishnava Puranas.
Numerous temple artwork panels contain signatures or statements by the artists or the guild they belonged to, and these are usually at the artwork's pedestal or underneath.
The Sacred Ensembles of the Hoysalas are the 42nd World Heritage Site in India.
The Sacred Ensembles of the Hoysalas is a serial nomination of the three most representative examples of Hoysala-style temple complexes dating from the 12th to 13th centuries - the Channakeshava temple in Belur, the Hoysalevara temple in Halebidu, and the Keshava temple in Somanathapura.