Halebidu Archaeological Museum

The Halebidu Archaeological Museum is an Archaeological Survey of India museum located in Halebidu, Hassan district, Karnataka, adjacent to the 12th-century Hoysaleswara Temple. It houses an extensive collection of sculptures, inscriptions, and architectural fragments excavated from Halebidu and nearby Hoysala sites. Notable for its display of Hoysala art, including stone idols of Hindu deities, friezes, and temple remains, the museum provides context to the former Hoysala capital of Dwarasamudra.

Visitors can expect a compact, well-maintained museum complex with an open-air sculpture garden and indoor galleries. The galleries display stone sculptures of Hindu and Jain deities, Nandi images, lintels, ceiling panels, hero stones, inscriptions and architectural members from Hoysala temples. The museum is set in a landscaped garden near the Hoysaleswara Temple, with shaded pathways, labelled exhibits and informative panels explaining Hoysala art and iconography.

Halebidu was the capital of the Hoysala Empire in the 12th century, then known as Dwarasamudra. The museum, maintained by the Archaeological Survey of India, preserves sculptures and architectural members from the Hoysaleswara and Kedareshwara temples and other Hoysala sites dating from the 11th to 14th centuries. It was established to house antiquities excavated at Halebidu and to illustrate the evolution of Hoysala art and temple architecture.

The museum showcases the artistic and cultural achievements of the Hoysala period, renowned for intricate soapstone carvings, temple architecture and iconography of Hindu and Jain traditions. Its collection helps visitors understand the religious, artistic and sculptural heritage of Karnataka and the cultural importance of Halebidu as a major centre of Hoysala art.