Kanakadasa at the back wall
The temple at Udupi was founded in the 13th century by Madhvacharya. Its image of Krishna is a young boy, Balakrishna, and pilgrims do not see it face to face. They look at it through the Navagraha Kitiki, a silver window with nine openings, which Karnataka Tourism describes as a symbol of humility and divine grace.
Kanakadasa came to this temple as a devotee and was not allowed in. The reason the published tradition gives is his low caste.
He prayed instead at the back of the shrine, at a small crack in the wall behind the temple.
In this tradition the image of Krishna turned inside the sanctum to give him darshan through the crack. The opening in the rear wall became a place of pilgrimage in its own right, the Kanakana Kindi, Kanaka's window.
The story is fixed in the building. Next to the window stands the Kanakadasa Mantapa, which houses a statue of the saint.
Three things are left out until they can be checked against a written source. The first is the date of Kanakadasa's visit and the name of the swami who then held the temple. The second is a published argument, reported in the press, over whether he was in fact refused entry; we have not yet been able to read that report, so the dispute is noted rather than summarised. The third is the account of how Madhvacharya obtained the image itself.
Where this account comes from
- Government: Karnataka Tourism, Udupi Sri Krishna Temple — founding, Navagraha Kitiki, Kanakadasa window, Paryaya, timings, how to reach karnatakatourism.org · seen 2026-10-09
- Government: Karnataka Tourism, Udupi — Sri Krishna Matha, Ashta Mathas and Paryaya, getting there, Malpe karnatakatourism.org · seen 2026-10-09