Somnāthpur

is Karnataka in India from South to 12 km north west of Mysore at the edge of the river Kaveri. The Keshava Temple of hoysala style, built in the 12th and 13th centuries, is undoubtedly one of the jewels of architecture and Indian sculpture. The beauty and profusion of the carvings prevail over architecture. Superimposed friezes are supported at the base by a long procession of elephants, then comes a succession of terrestrial symbols, guardians of the cardinal points, then again, in alternate styles, a succession of shrubs, plants, creepers, horned lions, sea monsters, scenes from the great myths of the Rāmāyana and the Mahābharata. The whole forms a cosmology portraying the creation of the world.