Hoysaleswara Temple in the context of Vishnuvardhana

The scroll in art is an element of ornament and graphic design featuring spirals and rolling incomplete circle motifs, some of which resemble the edge-on view of a book or document in scroll form, though many types are plant-scrolls, which loosely represent plant forms such as vines, with leaves or flowers attached. Scrollwork is a term for some forms of decoration dominated by spiralling scrolls, today used in popular language for two-dimensional decorative flourishes and arabesques of all kinds, especially those with circular or spiralling shapes.

Scroll decoration has been used for the decoration of a vast range of objects, in all Eurasian cultures, and most beyond. A lengthy evolution over the last two millennia has taken forms of plant-based scroll decoration from Greco-Roman architecture to Chinese pottery, and then back across Eurasia to Europe. They are very widespread in architectural decoration, woodcarving, painted ceramics, mosaic, and illuminated manuscripts (mostly for borders).

Halebidu (IAST: Haḷēbīḍu, literally "old capital, city, encampment" or "ruined city") is a town located in Hassan District, Karnataka, India. Historically known as Dwārasamudra (also Dorasamudra), Halebidu became the regal capital of the Hoysala Empire in the 11th century CE. In the modern era literature it is sometimes referred to as Halebeedu or Halebid as the phonetic equivalent, a local name after it was damaged and deserted after being ransacked and looted twice by the forces of the Turko-Persian Delhi Sultanate in the 14th century.

Halebidu is home to some of the best examples of Hindu and Jain temples with Hoysala architecture. These show the breadth of Hindu artwork traditions - Shiva, Vishnu, Devi and Vedic deities - fused into the same temple complex, depicted with a diversity of regional heritages, along with inscriptions in scripts from across India. The Hindu temples include Jaina reliefs in its panel. Similarly, the Jaina artwork includes the different Tirthankara as well as a Saraswati within its mantapa. Most notable among the Halebidu monuments are the ornate Hoysalesvara temple, Kedareshwara temple, Jaina Basadi temples, as well as the Hulikere step well (kalyani). These sites are within a kilometer of each other. The Hoysaleshwara Temple remains the only surviving monument in Halebidu.