There are many ancient temples in South India which now stand testimony to the sculptural and architectural greatness of the Pallavas, the Cholas, the Chalukyas but the Keshava Temple at Somnathpur in Karnataka speaks the sculptural art of the Hoysalas. The temple is a trikutachala temple with 3 shrines dedicated to Lord Krishna and his 3 incarnations- Janardhana, Keshava and Venugopala.

Every inch of the temple is adorned with various sculptures and the entire shrine is raised on a star shaped moulded platform. The Hoysalan art is known for using ornamental elaboration and a profusion of iconography with figure sculptures, the shrine of Keshava is no different with its abundance of figure sculptures on the superstructure over the shrine. The base for their carving was on soft chlorite schist, also known as soapstone, which enabled a virtuoso carving style. The walls of the temple are covered in beautiful friezes of scenes from great epics, figures of elephants and battle scenes depicting cavalry. The outer face of the main building has 3 different divisions, out of which the lowest part of the basement has a frieze of caparisoned war elephants with one or two riders. The elephants are not an exact copy of each other, rather show different natural expressions and playfulness of elephants.

The immediate next frieze shows a long line of horsemen charging forward on their steed. In some spots, camels substitute for horses suggesting that the Hoysala had adopted camels into their army. In various places, the artists added humour by placing dwarfs and monkeys supporting the front raised leg of the horses. The sculpted animals are shown to have well proportioned snouts and their various animal movements like jumping, trotting, prancing are well depicted. The band above the horsemen friezes is a scroll of nature. It shows flowers, fruits, occasionally some peacocks and wildlife like lion faces in the outer corners. The band above it is the mythology frieze and it depicts the legends and spiritual stories found in the Ramayana, starting from King Dasharatha"s ritual offerings and prayers for children to the birth of Lord Rama and his brothers. The Ramayana frieze ends with the meeting of Hanuman and Sugriva, who later end up joining Lord Rama on his quest to rescue Sita. The next frieze is the Puranas especially the Bhagavata Purana, it starts with Vishnu reclining in the cosmic ocean and Vasudeva"s marriage and ends with Lord Krishna slaying various demons and ultimately slays Kamsa. Some scenes of the Bhagavata are repeated. And lastly in the outer wall, the final frieze is of the Mahabharata, starting with Dhritarashtra`s court and the rivalry between Pandavas and Kauravas as they were growing up. The Mahabharata frieze ends with the victory of the Pandavas and their return to their kingdom in Hastinapur.

Immediately above the basement level are a series of small pilasters. The panels between these pilasters shows Lord Vishnu in various aspects and avatars in the Vaishnavism tradition, they also include Lord Shiva of the Shaivism tradition. There are deity-related reliefs of Devis depicting the Shaktism tradition and Lord Surya of the Saura tradition of Hinduism. The reliefs also show the daily lives of the people including festive scenes, dancers in various mudras, and musicians with 13th century musical instruments, couples in courtship and sexual scenes. Erotica was a subject the Hoysala artist handled with discretion. There is no exhibitionism in this, and erotic themes were carved into recesses and niches, generally miniature in form, making them inconspicuous. These erotic representations are associated with the Shakta practice. Sculptures also included mothers nurturing babies, hunters and other professionals with pets such as dogs along-with soldiers, yogis, saints, and individuals doing namaste along-with couples praying. These reliefs also include numerous friezes showing the story of Prahlada , Hiranyakshipu and the Vishnu avatar- Narsimha.

In the case of the three towers, above the peacock band of carvings is a row of larger size deity reliefs that wraps around the temple. There are about 90 reliefs showing mostly Lord Vishnu with Goddess Lakshmi, as well as Shakti, Shiva, Brahma, Saraswati, Indra, Indrani, Kama, Rati, and others. Most of these are partially defaced and deformed. The larger images show illustrative carvings of the Dancing Saraswati, the Tandava Ganesha, and Devi Durga as Mahishasuramardini among others. The first 60 and the last 60 reliefs have a superior finish and details, while the middle 65 panels are less detailed. In some of the panels, the artist has signed below. It was the first known instance of signed artwork in India.

The most characteristic feature of this temple is its 16 different ceilings, each depicting a different stage of a blooming plantain mainly banana flower. There are complicated patters of small and large pieces of finely carved stone chips. One of the main highlights of this temple is the central wall space. There are images of deities decorated with heavy jewellery, bangles on every arm, towering crowns and chunky anklets. The vimana over the sanctums have greatly carved images of Gods.

The Keshava temple is a fantastic piece of art, now protected under the Archaeological Survey of India. It is regarded as perfect in symmetry with exquisite stone carvings.