India is well known for its cultural heritage. This heritage is very well manifested in the India's ancient temples. Especially temples from South India have contributed a lot in this field. Among the princely States of South, HOYSALA Kingdom played a key role. In this period social and cultural activities were remarkable. Their memorable gift to the nation in the field of architecture have been so many temples rich with sculptural splendor, for ex. temple of Belur & Halebid, which attract people from far & wide. The exquisite carvings of Hoysala temples are something of wonder. One of such temples belonging to their era, is Sri Channakeshava Swamy Temple, situated at Yellambalase village at, Kadur taluk of Chickmagalur dist., Karnataka State. This is said to be one thousand year old temple. The Karnataka Gazetteer has recorded valuable information about this Yellambalase temple, its workmanship being of Hoysala era etc., its structure and other things. The temple is mentioned in this gazetteer as Srichannakeshava Swamy Trikutachala Devalaya.

Trikutachala meaning the Congregation of three (a) Lord Venugopala Swamy in the south cell, (b) Lord Channakeshava in the centre and (c) Lord Lakshminarasimha Swamy in the north cell. The images in all the three cells are of Hoysala workman ship, the image of Lakshminarasimha the best of them. The image of Sri Channakeshava is the replica of the Channakeshava idol at the world famous Belur temple. There is an elegant image of Dakshinamurthy of the Hoysala temples, in the navaranga.

Once upon a time this temple must have been a place of regular worship and festivals. Regular carfestivals or Rathyatras and other festivities might have been a routine affair. Today due to so many political upheavals and passage of time, the temple is in a bad state. The utsavamurthy of this temple worth lakhs of rupees have been kept under lock and key in Govt. office because the temple does not have a door & lock!! Severe damage has occurred in flooring & ceiling of the temple. In this context a trust has been set up to take up the necessary steps. With the help of an institution like Dharmasthala Dharmothana Committee, the trust has decided to take up the renovation work of this temple. The estimated cost of this work is about Rs. 12-13 lakhs. Which though is not a huge amount, needs every one to put his mite into the account.

Condition of the Temple

This is Hoysala Temple consisting of Garbha Griha Antarala followed by considerably big Sabhamantapa. There are small two shrines (cells) on either side of the Hall. There are two deities of Sri Lakshminarayana and on Sri Venugopalaswamy in north and south direction respectively. After the Sabhamantapa there are two Jagathi (High Platform) on either side of passage of the entrance. After Jagathi there is open mantapa. This might to subbasement addition. After open mantapa there is open space and then comes Mahadwara followed by flight of steps and Dwaja Sthamba. This temple has no Shikara. The main image of Sri. Channakeshava is of soap stone. The pillars of Sabha mantapa are of granite and of square base and capital are of Octagonal shape and are of simple design. The outer wall are completely bulged at some places, and roof is leaking heavily. There is no proper flooring on the Hall and stones slabs are missing, some lintel are cracked. The adistana mouldings of entire mantapa is completely buried with earth. The super structure of temple is note worthy. Usually veneer slabs are laid horizontally. Here slabs are fixed vertically up to beam portion. Most of the veneer slabs are out of plum. In portion of temple it has bulged out, to the extent of collapsing position. The structure on the Northern sides of temple have collapsed and few are standing over Adistana courses. Even the Adistana courses are 4 to 5 places sunk to a depth 3" to 4"from its temple level. The S.E. Parts of temple has fallen.

Missing members are available inside the debris. Few beams inside the debris, Few beams inside the hall have cracked and few beams inside the hall have cracked and few are out plumb. Cracked beams are provided with props to keep them in position. The flooring inside the temple appears to be in mud only or it is also possible over original flooring mud might have been put to raise the floor level which has to be gone through while preparing estimate. The temple might have suffered some severe damages few decades ago. To keep the temple in safe condition the outer space of temple might have been filled with earth up to basement level. AS usual the temple may not be having foundation. The condition of front entrance mantapa cannot be explained. It has almost collapsed only few skeet frame is standing. The entrance has very high and ornate gate with frame. Unfortunately nothing has happened. The entire roof is to be water tightened with new w. P. Materials. Door shatters are to be neatly provided as the present one is very old and not sound. There is very big ditch on the southern side of temple cause an ugly look in the surroundings.