Amrithapura

Amritapura - The Historical village is located in Tarikere taluk of Chickmagalur district and is famous for The Amriteshwara temple.10 Kms from Tarikere town is the 900 year old Amriteshwara temple built by hoysalas in 1196.

Hoysalas built many ornate temples like the one's you find at Belavadi,Bhadravathi and this is also one of those fine example of architectural wonders. Like the other Hoysala temple, this is also a star shaped temple built using Soft Clay stone ( Balapada Kallu ).The base of the wall has 5 moldings which is an older Hoysala style and the entrance has a open Mandapa with many rows of shining lathe turned pillars that support the ceiling of the mantapa. The shrine is connected to the Open Mandapa by a Closed Mandapa. The Shrine is Square shaped with Carvings of Asthadikpalakas, The carving referring Brahma, Vishnu and Maheswara is really Good. The lotus here represents Lord Brahma, the Chakra represents Lord Vishnu and the Nataraja in Tandava represents Lord Shiva.

At the entrance of the Sanctum Santorum is the carving of shradula.Shradula is a Mythological Animal Shardula.This animal has the body of an elephant , head of a crocodile and tail of a peacock.

At the Sanctum Santorum is the Shiva linga which is a saligrama from Nepal and not a carved Shiva linga like we find in other temples.

The outer wall of the temple has sculptures depicting the tales of Ramayana,Mahabaratha and Krishna leela.The Ramayana is Sculpted on the South side of the wall.The whole epic of Ramayana , is sculpted in an Anti-Clockwise direction which is very unusual. On the rear side of the temple are the Sculptures of the ShilaBalike which is usually found in all Hoysala Temples. The North side of the wall has sculptures describing Krishna Leela and the remaining carvings depict Mahaabaratha.On one of the panel, the Chief architect of the temple , Ruvari Mallitamma has also shown the way they built temples. it starts with a plain stone, next they make a rough sketch of the design and at last is the fine, detail sculpture. Also very prominent is the Original Hoysala emblem of Sala Fighting the tiger.

To reach Amrithapura, one needs to take a left turn just before Tarikere on NH206.A Kaccha road of 8 Kms leads to Amrithapura Village.
Nearest Railway station is Tarikere.

There are no hotels at Amrithapura and one can stay over at Tarikere.
Nearby Interesting places are Kemmanagundi,Kalhatti fallls,Hebbe Falls,Bhadravathi,Lakkavalli.