The temple is built in whitish soapstone, which is very soft when quarried but within a decade it becomes very hard on exposure to wind and rain. This peculiar quality makes it perfect for exquisite sculpting. The central shrine is an older construction, with its inner walls being plain, but its ceiling is decorated with various motifs, the most common of them being an upside lotus hanging from the ceiling. In the closed hall the ten incarnations of Vishnu or the Dashavatar are depicted, along with the Ashtadikapalas or the guardian deities of the eight directions. The main sculptures inside the smaller open hall are the Ashtadikpalas, the motif of the Hoysala dynasty, which shows a Hoysala king killing a lion, and the Samudra Manthan or the churning of the ocean. The rest of the temple too depicts many beautiful sculptures such as Kodanda, Kaliya Mardana or Krishna dancing on the Kaliya snake, the smiling Garuda, Anjaneya, and animal and bird motifs. A circumambulation of the temple reveals various images ... More

The temple is built in whitish soapstone, which is very soft when quarried but within a decade it becomes very hard on exposure to wind and rain. This peculiar quality makes it perfect for exquisite sculpting. The central shrine is an older construction, with its inner walls being plain, but its ceiling is decorated with various motifs, the most common of them being an upside lotus hanging from the ceiling. In the closed hall the ten incarnations of Vishnu or the Dashavatar are depicted, along with the Ashtadikapalas or the guardian deities of the eight directions. The main sculptures inside the smaller open hall are the Ashtadikpalas, the motif of the Hoysala dynasty, which shows a Hoysala king killing a lion, and the Samudra Manthan or the churning of the ocean. The rest of the temple too depicts many beautiful sculptures such as Kodanda, Kaliya Mardana or Krishna dancing on the Kaliya snake, the smiling Garuda, Anjaneya, and animal and bird motifs. A circumambulation of the temple reveals various images of Vishnu Avatara, Ganesha, Shiva, Parvati, on the walls. Great care has been taken of small details such as the carving of ornaments of the elephants that flank the gates.

The sculptures on the outer walls are bold and are visible from a distance. However, they are not sharp and impressive from close quarters and seem to have deteriorated with time. This is unlike the sculptures in other Hoysala temples. The reason is that the whitish soapstone which is used for the construction here, though amenable to sculpting, is inferior to the black or the greenish soapstone used at other Hoysala temples in Belur and Halebidu.