I'm a little uncertain of your formatting, I'll check back to see if I've misunderstood the question. Assuming $hash_name is a hashref, $hash_name->{'element1'}{'element2'} is a hashref to the data you want. To assign to a hash, dereference:

my %tmp = %{$hash_name->{'element1'}{'element2'}};
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You may not need the %tmp hash, that is a matter of convenience and depends on how much you need to manipulate the data.

Update: Okay, I checked back. It's still unclear whether you have hash %hash_name or a hashref $hash_name. davorg's reply assumes the hash, supported by your usage of the arrow op. I assume a hashref because because of the form of its initial assignment. Checking, that's what XML::Simple's XMLin() returns. Are you using that module?

After Compline,
Zaxo