Kadiri (Kadri)Manjunath, Mangala devi Temples

Kadri Manjunath Temple

The Manjunath Temple is situated at the foot of the Kadiri Hill, 3 km north of Mangalore city. The temple is from the 17th century and has some beautiful bronze images of Buddha from the 10th or 11th centuries. The idol of Lord Manjunathaswamy of the temple is believed to be the oldest of the South Indian Temples. On the top of the hill lies a mutt called as 'Jogimutt'. There are some stone caves here which are known as the caves of the Pandavas.I heard about this temple first time in 1995. My younger sister, my son and I were visiting Bangalore and the taxi driver we hired then spoke very highly of this temple. I wonder whether he talked about the one in Dharmasthala!!!.

Mangaladevi Temple

The place Mangalapura (or Mangalore) derives its name from the temple of Mangaladevi situated in Bolar, some 3 kms away from the heart of the city. The temple’s history dates back to ninth century and even today people believe that the worship of Mangaldevi brings them prosperity and happiness. I am sure this is true of every temple we visited. During Navarathri (Dussehra) festival special pujas are performed for nine days and we were told that the place becomes very lively. We were there in Nov/Dec, so not much activity.

Karnataka continued............Udupi and around

After Gokarna, Muradeswar and Mookambika (Kollur) we were exhausted. Why? Because the roads felt long and strenuous. There was construction and repairs going on and we were lucky to have not experienced a flat tire. The driver Ramachandra loved only long drives.
Anyway, our next list of Temples included Udupi Krishna(Udipi), Sringeri Shankara acharya and Annapoorneswari.

We were ready by 6 a.m. on 29th and the driver was very punctual.

Udupi is a coastal town in the western ghats region of Karnataka state. This is an old temple city famous for its Krishna temple. It is located right on a national highway connecting Mangalore with Mumbai. From Bangalore, you need to come to Mangalore via another national highway. Inspite of the condition of the roads,we enjoyed the scenic beauty around the highways. Our wait in line was so long compared tothe darsan we had for a few seconds. To tell you the truth, the form of the idol did not even make an impression in my mind. I silently sang to myself some of the Purandara dasa songs that I knew.

It is also the birth place of the Dwaita philosopher, Madhwacharya (Pajaka which is about 10 kms. from Udupi). Udipi vegetarian restaurants are famous all over the world for their authentic and tasty food.

The following were some Devi temples around Udupi.

Janardana and Mahakali Temple, Ambalpady
Mahishamardhini Temple, Kadiyali
Panchadurgaparameshwari Temple, Indrali
Jayadurgaparameshwari Temple, Kannarpady

I don't recall any details about these temples.I did not record any in my notes.
We stayed overnight at Shri Ramakrishna hotel on 28th night. Just FYI.
My next post will be about Sringeri.

The first one - Gokarneswara

Ganapathi Temple was the first one we visited. We were ready by 10:30 a.m. and the driver came on time. The following were on our list. Gokarneswara, Kadiri, Mangala Devi and Durga Parameswari in Katil. We visited a Jain Temple also (driver's choice).

Gokarna is a pilgrimage center of Karnataka, Worshipped here is the Aatma Lingam Mahabaleshwar. It is regarded as one of the 7 Mukti Stalas of Karnataka. Gokarna is located at a distance of 170 km from Mangalore. The other six being Kollur, Kodeshwara, Kumbasi, Subramanya, Sankaranarayana and Udipi.
Legend goes that Vinayaka (Ganapathi) tricked the demon Ravana into leaving behind a Shivalingam here, a legend similar to that of Tiruchirappalli. In spite of the strength exerted by Ravana, the Maha Bala, the Shivalingam stayed fixed, hence the name Mahabaleshwar. Because of the pull exerted by Ravana, the Shivalingam resembled the shape of a cow's ear and hence the name Gokarnam. A very similar legend holds at the Vaidyanath - Jyotirlingam temple at Deogarh in Bihar, which we plan to visit in 2008. The female deity Gokarna Nayaki also known as Taamragowri - her shrine is behind the sanctum.

The Temple of Mahabaleshwar faces west in a square Saligrama Peetham. A golden rekha (line) on the peetham, and a small hole in its middle permits devotees to have a glimpse of the top of the Aatma Lingam. Once in 40 years, during the Ashta bandhana Kumbhabhishekam, the six foot tall Shivalingam that is encolsed inside the Peetham is seen. We were there at a different time!!! There are also shrines of Vinayaka, Chandikeswara, Aadi Gokarneswara and Dattatreya.

Karnataka, dream come true!!! - chapter 1

The abovephoto was taken near Sringeri. Rao and our driver.

I was in the province of Karnataka many times in my life. I did my 8th grade public exam (in the good old 50s) in Bangalore. We lived there for about 3 years. I love the place. Many sweet memories!! But this yatra, my desire was to see Sringeri Sarada Peetham. The holy place established by Sri Shankara Acharya. We added few more places like mangalore, Dharmasthala, Kukke (Subrahmanyam), Talakaveri, Udipi, Madikare, Annapurneswari etc.
We left Tirupathi on Nov 26th around 10:30 a.m. by Taxi. Reached Katpadi Junction by 12:30. Great driver, scenic drive. On the way I noticed a structure with symbols of the three major religions Hinduism, Islam and Christianity. The driver said it was a school!!! The train at Katpadi was at 1:30 p.m.to reach Mangalore by 5 a.m. We slept well. Nirmala had arranged for a Taxi, driver cum guide to meet us at the train station. This was done through the help of her niece and her husband who live in Ernakulam, Kerala. The driver had a sign and we recognized each other. Nirmala was told that the driver could speak Telugu, Tamil, Kannada, Hindi and English. We were thrilled. But, as soon as Rao spoke a few words in Kannada, the driver dropped the other languages (which he knew very little anyway). But he was intelligent and polite, unlike our Tirupathi driver.
It was already 27th. We went to Hotel Manorama, on K.S. Rao Road in Mangalore (excellent) to shower, rest, have breakfast etc. Attached to this hotel was a restaurant.The rates were reasonable, food was healthy and tasty. The official tour began at 10:30 a.m. on Nov 27th visiting the local Temples. The driver knew where he was going and what he was talking about. We will meet in my next post.

Return to Tirupathi - Nov 8, 2007

We had an enjoyable trip overall. But all of us were exhausted. The weather, the food, the hotels were all good. The driver's aptitude did not change. The men in our group pampered him a little bit. He took advantage of that and his attitude had changed. Now it was our return journey to Tirupathi. On the way we were passing by Kanchi. Rao's brother wanted to see that place also. The two of them (he and his wife) even considered getting off and exploring by themselves. Since there was so much to see there, we wanted to make a separate trip. But we weren't sure whether they should take the risk of travelling by themselves. Anyway, as we approached kanchi, Rao's brother had some uneasy feeling healthwise. So, we did not stop and hence returned to Tirupathi.

There was a wedding from my father's side of the family that I wanted to attend in Nellore on the 10th. So, I went to Nellore on the 9th and returned on the 11th. I saw tons of relatives and old friends and aquaintances whom I have not seen in decades, at that wedding. Rao rested at Nirmala's place for 2 days. his brother and sister-in-law returned to Hyderabad with happy memories and some health issues.

Rao and I made a day trip (night journey) to Puttaparthi to see our beloved Sathya Sai Baba. We had great darsan and returned to Tirupathi. The trip was short and sweet. By the time we returned, Nirmala was ready with the plans for the next leg of the yatra.

Thanks to all of you who read my posts so far. Please comment and help me improve my blog. The next chapter would be our trip to Karnataka.

Palani , last, but not the least!!!

This will be my last post of our Tamil Nadu tour. Nagalakshmi very much wanted to stay overnight here. But, like I said in one of my previous posts, we were short of time and the night halt at Palani would have added more miles to our travel. By the time we reached Palani, it was late afternoon. After the darsan, we returned towards Madurai.
Palani is situated at about 110 kms from Madurai amd 150 kms from Trichy. The Temple is situated on a hilltop, about 450 feet high. if we took the steps to climb, we may have to climb close to 700 steps. We decided to take the very comfortable Trolly (electric winch?). I remember in 1985 when I visited (along with my children) my sister (akka, who was then working as a principal of a local college in Palani) I was nervous going on that trolly with a steep upward motion. But this time, I wasn't nervous. That train made many trips each day taking devotees up and down.
The deity is Dandayadhapani, another name for Subrahmanya swami (Murugan). This is one of the six Murugan Temples one should visit. We had a wonderful darsan here. As soon as we entered the Temple, we were fortunate to witness the chariot procession sponsored by somebody. We walked around along with that party.

I don't want to go into sthala puranas about this Temple. About sage Agastya, Narada bringing a special mango, the competition between Vinayaka and Subrahmanya and so on. Once you search the internet, you can see all that.

Samayapuram, Tiruvanaikkaval Jambukeshwara

I should have mentioned this in the Srirangam-Trichy post. But never too late.

Samayapuram Temple has been dedicated to Mariamman. She is the manifestation of Shakti. People believe that the Goddess Mariamman is capable of curing diseases like Small Pox and Chicken Pox. I felt that this was like the village deity. In my childhood, I have seen such Temples in Nellore also. Especially when I saw goats (tied to the poles) and cocks waiting to be sacrificed, I felt very uncomfortable. This was the typical grama devata (village deity)style. I did not want to go inside the shrine as soon as I realized that such superstitions still existed!! People believe in it and pray for the cure and once cured(or not) they sacrifice these animals. There are other festivals like annual floats etc., but I wasn't interested in knowing any more details. Sorry folks, Not much to elaborate here.

The legend goes that when Lord Shiva swallowed the Kaalakoota poison he created Goddess Kali from that poison and so, henceforth she assumed the name Kali.

The temple at Tiruvanaikaval is a big one covering an area of about 18 acres with high walls and gopurams on all the four sides. The temple has five prakarams. The main shrine(the 5th prakaram) can be reached by entering a series of Gopurams. Situated in the 4th prakaram, Akhilandeswari is the presiding female deity and Jambukeshwara is the male deity. I did not take any photos. But I liked the photos on this site. I mentioned this Temple under the 'Five elements' theme.

According to the legend there was once a forest of Jambu trees at this location. Near by was a tank called Chandratheertha which was filled by water from the river Kaveri. Lord shiva appeared as a Lingam under one of the trees. Hence the name Jambukeshwara (and more on the name, you can search). Due to a curse, two of the shiva ganas Pushpadanta and Malyava, were born in the forest as a white elephant and as a spider. The elephant worshipped the Lingam with flowers and with water brought in its trunk. The spider too worshipped the Lingam, spinning out a web over the Lingam to prevent leaves of the tree from falling on it. The spider's web appeared to be unclean for the elephant and it destroyed the web. This lead to big clash between the two and ultimately resulted in their death. Lord shiva granted salvation to both.
Anyway, we were told that the river Kaveri water can be seen in the slabs under the lingam. I thought it was a spring underneath slab.

The concentric walls make the Jambukeshwara Temple more interesting and exciting. For the Shaivites the Jambukeshwara Temple is an absolute charm. There are also seven Gopurams and they are captivating for both the religiously inclined and the artistically minded.

The non Hindus are not allowed to enter the temple premises.

I was totally confused in some of these Temples. I am writing this in a rush to finish this post. Please feel free to make corrections or additional comments about this temple.www.googlemaps.com