D.V. Gundappa, a prominent poet of Karnataka, had penned 60 Kannada poems in his book ‘Antahpura Geetegalu’ in 1950 after being mesmerised by the dexterous chisel of the stone sculptures at Belur.

After that poetic attempt, a book, ‘Belu-Halebeedu Shilpakala Saamrajya’, brought out by Kikkeri Publications, Bengaluru, tells tales through the photography of illustrator and photographer Pundalika Kalliganuru.

The pictures in the book are also enhanced with commentaries, verses, and hymns penned by Pramod Nallur and Kalliganuru.

The 400-page book, with around 2,000 pictures, is a compilation of Mr. Kalliganuru’s four years of painstaking effort.

Assisted by other photographers, such as Mahalingu, Deepu, M. Viswanath and Vipin Baliga, the work of the 10th century Hoysala sculptors of the Jakkanachari style comes through splendidly in the book.

“If you see the grandeur of Hoysala architecture you will know that sculptors created more than 1,500 Hoysala temples. Belur and Halebeedu were their signature works. I wanted to showcase them pictorially giving them a huge spread,” says Kalliganuru.

“Amongst the 5,000 pictures clicked in four years, I felt bad that 3,000 could not be accommodated. This speaks of the specifics of detailing in each stone sculpture of Belur and Halebdu,” he adds.

The assortment in the stone art made Kalliganuru present his pictures in 39 chapters with nearly 10 categorisations of the sculptures.

“The carvings are intensely soaked in their explicit details. The only way that I could mirror them was shoot them in both natural sun and in rain where they reflected their true poetry in stone,” says Kalliganuru.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Bengaluru / by Ranjani Govind / Bengaluru – September 26th, 2016