In which present-day state of India was the Hoysala dynasty (1000 AD - 1346…

CONCEPT: A medieval Indian dynasty's present-day state is fixed by locating its capital city, inscriptions, and surviving monuments — historians identify a dynasty's core territory from where its administrative seat and principal temple constructions physically stand today.

APPLICATION: The Hoysala dynasty (c. 1000-1346 AD) began as hill chieftains in the Malnad tract of the Deccan under the Western Chalukyas and became independent under Vishnuvardhana. Their long-serving capital, Dorasamudra, is present-day Halebeedu, and their signature star-shaped temples — the Chennakeshava Temple at Belur, the Hoysaleswara Temple at Halebeedu, and the Keshava Temple at Somnathpur — all stand within the same state, fixing the dynasty's core territory there.

• West Bengal was ruled by the Pala dynasty and then the Sena dynasty through the eleventh to early thirteenth centuries, not by the Hoysalas.

• Odisha was ruled by the Eastern Ganga dynasty in this period, remembered for building the Sun Temple at Konark.

• Kerala was ruled by the Later Chera (Kulasekhara) dynasty in this period, a different southern power contemporaneous with the Hoysalas.

CROSS-CHECK: The Hoysala royal emblem — a warrior spearing a tiger — is carved on pillars at both Belur and Halebeedu, two UNESCO World Heritage-listed sites that independently corroborate the same location for the dynasty's core territory.

Hence, the Hoysala dynasty (1000-1346 AD) is correctly placed in Karnataka.