Yelandur Bale Mantapa - Interlocked stone ring temple Chamarajanagar tourism Karnataka tourism

Bale Mantapa - Interlocked stone ring temple Yelandur, Chamarajanagar tourism Karnataka tourism temples of Karnataka. The Gaurishvara Temple (also spelled Gaurishwara or Gaurisvara) is located in the town of Yelandur, Chamarajanagar district of Karnataka state, India. The temple was constructed by a local chief Singedepa Devabhupala of the Hadinadu chiefdom, a feudatory of the 16th century Vijayanagara Empire. The temple is locally known as Bale temple due to its unusual decoration of chains of stone rings (bale) at the entrance . Bale means bangle in Kannada language, the rings resemble interlinked bangles. The Bale temple is an ancient stone carved temple.
Chamarajanagar was earlier known as Sri Arikottara. Chamaraja Wodeyar, the Wodeyar king of Mysuru was born here and hence this place was renamed after him. Chamarajanagar district borders the state of Tamil Nadu and Kerala.
Yelandur is located 60 Kilometers from Mysore and 160 Kilometers from Bangalore and 15 Kilometers from Kollegal. The Bale Mantapa is located very close to the Yelandur bus stand.
The temple has a sanctum (garbhagriha), a closed hall (mantapa), an open hall supported by granite pillars, and an unusual mahadwara (grand entrance) which lacks the usual tower (gopuram) over it. This type of an entrance is called bale mantapa (bangled hall) in a contemporary style. The sanctum contains the linga, the universal symbol of the Hindu god Shiva. The closed hall has images of various Hindu deities; Vishnu, Shanmukha, Parvati, Mahishasuramardini (a form of the goddess Durga), Bhairava (a form of the god Shiva), Durga, Virabhadra (another form of Shiva) and Ganapati. The walls of the entrance are heavily decorated with reliefs depicting scenes from the puranic stories and the epics. Chamarajanagara tourism offers other places of interest nearby are Shree Chakrapanishwara Temple at Maddur, Ugra Narasimha swamy temple at Agaram, the B R Hills or Biligiriranga Hills , K Gudi wilderness camp or Elephant camp and MM Hills.or Male Mahadeshwara Hills and Shivasamudram falls. Bandipur national park also attracts many visitors. Gopalaswamy Hills or Himavad gopalaswamy betta in Gundlupet also attracts many visitors.