English: This is a JPEG format plan and architectural drawing of a historic Indian temple or monument. An alternate SVG format (scalable vector graphics) version of this file – for web graphics, design studies, print, dynamic and interactive applications – has also been uploaded to wikimedia commons.

The drawing:

• Vignasante, also referred to as Vighnasante or Vignasanthe, is now a village about 65 kilometers northeast of Hassan city, in Karnataka. It was a major town prior to the 14th-century, called Iganasante in some texts, and had four major Hindu temples. Of these, the largest survives in the least damaged and ruined form and is called the Lakshminarasimha temple of Vignasante (not to be confused with many other Lakshminarasimha temples nearby and other parts of Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana).

• The above drawing shows the floor plan of this Lakshminarasimha temple (Lakshmi Narasimhaswamy temple), named after the man-lion avatar of Vishnu.

• The temple has three Vaishnava sanctums, one each dedicated to Lakshminarasimha, Kesava and Venogopala. However, like major historic Hindu temples all over India, the temple reverentially includes and shows major Shaiva reliefs and legends of Nataraja, dancing Parvati, dancing Ganesha, Bhairava and others, as well as Mahisasuramardini and other Shaktism-related reliefs on the walls as well as the tower above the central sanctum. These are interspersed with Vaishnava iconographies such as dancing Lakshmi, Govardhanadhari, Yoga Narasimha, Kalingamardana, Vamana and others.

• An inscription to the northeast of the temple states that this temple was completed in the 13th-century by three brothers, who were senior military officers in the Hoyasala kingdom during the rule of Narasimha III. The temple illustrates the trikuta-style of Hindu architecture with Hoyasala iconography.

• Parts of the temple such as the Navaranga pillars are damaged or missing. Similarly the reliefs in this, like other temples in Vignasante village, show signs of deliberate damage (defacement, chopping of limbs, etc). The outer walls show signs of some natural erosion as well. The floral carvings above the sanctums and near the vimana have mostly survived, they are exquisite and notable in this temple.

• The temple's architectural plan follows the square and circle principle found in historic Sanskrit texts.

• GPS location of the monument:

  13° 08′ 48.7″ N, 76° 32′ 23.3″ E

  View this and other nearby images on: OpenStreetMap

  13.146861; 76.539806

• The relative scale and relative dimensions in this architectural drawing are close to the actual but neither exact nor complete. The plan illustrates the design and layout, but some intricate details or parts of the temple may not be shown. In cases where exact measurements were not feasible, the drawing uses best approximations and rounds the best measurements feasible.

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