Temples of Karnataka
12 temples, grouped by district.
Dakshina Kannada district
About eight hundred years ago, at a place then called Kuduma, the Jain chieftain Birmanna Pergade and his wife Ammu Ballalthi hosted guardian angels of Dharma who came to their house, Nelyadi Beedu, in human form. In…
Subrahmanya was born to destroy the demons. After the war he came to Kumara Parvata with his brother Ganapati, and at Kumaradhara Teertha, on Margashira Shuddha Shashthi, Indra gave him his daughter Devasena in…
Hassan district
A man fighting a tiger recurs in the sculpture of the Hoysala temples. The man is Sala, who in the legend kills the tiger, and UNESCO's description of the Sacred Ensembles of the Hoysalas treats this episode as…
A man fighting a tiger recurs in the sculpture of the Hoysala temples. The man is Sala, who in the legend kills the tiger, and UNESCO's description of the Sacred Ensembles of the Hoysalas treats this episode as…
Udupi district
The temple's account begins with the demon Kaumhaasura, called Mooka, who was killed at Kollur. The object of worship is a Jyotirlinga divided by a golden line — Shakti on the left with Mahakali, Mahalakshmi and…
Kanakadasa, a saint, was barred from entering the Krishna temple at Udupi because of his caste. He prayed instead at a small crack in the wall behind the temple, and in this tradition the image of Krishna turned…
Uttara Kannada district
Ravana won the Atmalinga from Shiva through penance, on condition that he not set it on the ground before reaching Lanka. Near Gokarna Vishnu caused an artificial dusk, and Ganesha, disguised as a young Brahmin boy,…
Ravana won the Atmalinga from Shiva on condition that it never touch the ground before Lanka. The gods feared him with it, and Ganesha, in disguise, tricked him into setting it down at Gokarna, where it fixed itself…
Bagalkot district
Around 740, Queen Lokamahadevi of the Chalukyas built the temple now called Virupaksha at Pattadakal to commemorate her husband's victory over the southern kings. The MAP Academy calls it by an older name,…
Chikkamagaluru district
Looking for a place to spread Advaita Vedanta, Adi Shankara came to the banks of the Tunga. There he saw a cobra spread its hood to shade a frog in labour from the midday sun, and took it as a sign of the place's…
Mysuru district
At Daksha's sacrifice Sati gives up her body in a yogic fire. Shiva carries the body in grief until Vishnu cuts it apart, and each place where a part falls becomes a seat of the Goddess. Mysuru does not appear in the…
- 4 · Ashtadasa Shakti Peetha
Vijayanagara district
In the account the Ministry of Tourism publishes, Parvati is born at Pampa, the old name of Hampi, and spends years in penance on the Hemakuta hills to win Shiva as her husband. Shiva accepts and marries her, and the…