From
Dharmastala to Subrahmanya to Sringeri to Udupi, South Karnataka offers a host of temples for
pilgrimage. Located on the serene
locales around Mangalore, these places are best travelled by cab. December was the month and we were a group of
10 members from my family – my grandmother included. Mangalore was our base and hence we travelled
to Mangalore from Chennai by Mangalore Exp that left Chennai at 17 00 hrs and
reached Mangalore at 08 30 the next morning.
The train travel was very comfortable, considering our fear that it
would be very cold since it was late December.
We
had booked a cab, a tempo traveler with capacity of 12 members which had
reached the station by the time our train chugged into Mangalore Central. We got into the vehicle and were taken to our
hotel – we had booked Hotel Parkway near Old Bus Stand. After a quick bath and breakfast at a
restaurant below, we left for our first destination – Dharmastala.
Dharmastala
is a temple village on banks of the Netravati River and around 70kms away from
Mangalore. The journey to the temple
took an hour and a half and road was good.
The Dharmastala temple houses the shrines of Lord Manjunatha,
Kanyakumari Devi and Dharma devas. The
temple is run by a Jain administration and pujas are conducted by Hindu priests
of Madhva order. Long queues defined
entries to the sanctum sanctorum – though senior citizens were allowed to enter
from a separate entrance and worship the deity without delay due to long
queues. The temple administration runs a
number of educational institutions and hospitals which they believe is a
service to God.
The
senior members of our group made a quick entry to the sanctum sanctorum through
the special queue and had a nice worship of the deities. The rest of the group took around an hour to
complete their worship as we all assembled at the outer chamber of the temple
premises. Dharmastala is also very
famous for the free food it provides to all pilgrims visiting the temple. The temple administration runs mechanized
kitchens that serve hot food to around 2000 pilgrims seated at a single time in
the huge halls that are allocated for ‘Annadana’ – free meal service. Every one of the thousands of pilgrims who
visit the temple is an honored guest irrespective of caste, creed, race or
color. The dining hall is called
Annapoorna. As we sat for our turn to
eat, we were served hot food in organic leaves.
Food was served at a very quick pace, in order to ensure people do not
wait too long for their food. The meal
was simple – rice, sambar, rasam and buttermilk. We were astonished at the sight of the large
number of people who were being served at the same time. The food is served every afternoon and night
for two hours. After lunch, we sat by
the shade for a while before we resumed our journey. The next stop was Kukke Subrahmanya – around
60 kms away.
Lapped
in the luxurious abundance of the beauty of the nature the village of
Subramanya lies in the Sullia Taluk in Dakshina Kannada with a sancity which
very few places can boast of. The temple is situated in the heart of the
village. Nature reveals herself in all her unhidden beauty in the rivers,
forests and mountains which the temples is surrounded by.
Lord
Subrahmanya is the main deity of Subrahmanya. The main entrance of the temple
lies to the east. We entered from west through main Gopuram and through the
inner quadrangle from the east. There is a pedestal in the centre of the
sanctum. On the upper Dias there is the idol of Shree Subrahmanya and then the
idol of Vasuki and little lower the idol of Shesha. While entering the inner
quadrangle devotees had to remove their shirts and banyans.
The
temple was not too crowded and we had a satisfying darshan of the deity. The temple town had a number of shops lined
on either side outside the main entrance.
After having light refreshments, we returned back to Mangalore in our
cab – a journey of around 104 kms that took us a little over two hours.
After
dinner at the restaurant below our hotel, we retired for a deserved sleep. We woke up early next morning and checked out
of the hotel by 5 AM. Our next stop was
Udupi – around 60 kms away. It took an
hour to reach Udupi, which is well-known for the Krishna Mutt.
The
Mutt area resembles a living ashram, a holy place for daily devotion and
living. Surrounding the Sri Krishna Mutt are several temples, the most ancient
being made of basic wood and stone of 1,500 years origin. The Krishna Mutt was founded by the
Vaishnavite saint Shri Madhvacharya in the 13th century. He was the founder of
the Dvaita school of Vedanta. It is believed that Madhvacharya found the idol
of Sri Krishna in a large ball of gopichanda.
Legend
has it that once Kanakadasa, a pious worshiper and devotee of Lord Krishna, was
not allowed entry into the temple. It did not upset him; instead it made him
pray with intense devotion. Lord Krishna was so pleased that the statue turned
back to where Kanakadasa was praying, and the wall before Kanakadasa broke up
to allow the disciple to gaze upon his heavenly form at the back of the mutt.
Till today, devotees still worship Lord Krishna by praying through the same
window that Kanakadasa was blessed with a view. It is known as Kanakanakhindi.
We
had a peaceful early morning darshan with the chant of slokas in the
background. The mutt administration
maintains a Goshala – a place where a large number of cows are sheltered. Goshalas focus on treating cows well out of
their religious significance in Hinduism and consequent cultural sensitivity
towards its welfare. After visiting the
smaller shrines, goshala and a few shops selling pooja items, we returned back
to our cab.
We
were now heading to Kollur – a village situated 75 kms away on the foot of
Western Ghats and famous for the Mookambika temple. This temple was also crowded and like other
temples in South Karnataka had a special entrance for senior citizens. In spite of the crowd, we completed our
darshan in around 45 minutes. The
Goddess is called Mookambika as she is said to have slain the demon Mookasura. The goddess is described as in the form of a
jyotirlinga incorporating both Shiva and Shakti. The panchaloha image of the
goddess on Shri Chakra is stated to have been consecrated by Shri Adi
Shankaracharya. The Divine Mother is said to be a manifestation of trigunas or
triple forms. The shikhara of the temple is well gilded with gold.
The
temple is constructed on the banks of a tributary of souparnika river and in
the middle of forest. Just in front of the temple, Kodachadri peak and mountain
is visible, which is a delightful sight. It is believed that original temple is
on top of Kodachadri peak, and to make it convenient for devotees to offer
pooja, the temple was constructed at Kollur. Devotees from all over South India
visit this temple.
It
was too early for lunch and hence we decided not to wait, but proceed to our
next destination – Sringeri. Sringeri is
situated around 110 kms away from Kollur and the approach was through a hill
route.
Sringeri
is the site of the first Mutt established by Adi Shankara in the 8th
Century on the banks of River Tunga. According
to legend, Adi Shankaracharya is said to have selected the site as the place to
stay and teach his disciples, because when he was walking by the Tunga river,
he saw a cobra with a raised hood, providing shelter from the hot sun, to a
frog about to spawn. Impressed with the place where natural enemies had gone
beyond their instincts, he stayed here for twelve years.
Sringeri
is famous for the Sharadamba temple. We
stayed at the temple guest house, right opposite to the main entrance to the
temple. The temple complex housed the
two main temples, Sharadamba temple and Vidya Shankara temple, in addition to
huge prayer halls and congregation centers.
The current head saint of the Sringeri Sankara Mutt resides in the
temple campus.
The
Sharada temple, dedicated to the Goddess of learning and wisdom, has grown from
a simple shrine dating to the time of Adi Shankaracharya. In the fourteenth
century, Vidyaranya is said to have replaced the old sandalwood image with a
stone and gold image. The temple structure itself continued to be made of wood
till the early 20th century. After an unexpected fire that damaged the
structure, the current structure was built in the traditional south Indian style
of temple architecture.
The
Vidyashankara temple was built in commemoration of the pontiff Vidyashankara,
around 1357-58 C.E.. It was built by Vidyaranya, patron-saint of Harihara and
Bukka, the brothers who founded the Vijayanagara empire. The niches in the
temple have a number of sculptures from Hindu, Buddhist and Jain mythologies.
Inscriptions in the temple record contributions made by several Vijayanagara
emperors but the temple was probably built on an earlier Hoysala site as it
combines Hoysala and Vijayanagara architectural features. The temple
architecture is also an exhibition of the astronomical expertise of medieval
south Indian temple builders. The main temple hall features 12 pillars
designated for the 12 signs of the zodiac. Windows and doors along the temple
walls are arranged such that equinox’s sunrise views reach the deity. The
northern and southern gates enable the sunrise view from the hall during
solstices.
Food
is served free for all pilgrims on the hall to the right side of the main
entrance in the temple campus. The meal
consists of rice, sambar, rasam and buttermilk is served on metal plates that
are maintained spic and span by the temple authorities. The cleanliness of the dining hall, in spite
of the large number of pilgrims who eat their meals there, is just for all to
see.
We
had our dinner at the dining hall after our visit to the various establishments
in the temple campus. The temple guest
house offered clean rooms with attached baths.
We retired for sleep after our tiring day.
Next
morning, we had another quick darshan of Goddess Sharada and started our journey
to Horanadu – around 75 kms away. The
journey took us through some forest areas and lasted around an hour and a half. Horanadu is famous for its Annapoorneshwari
temple. We had breakfast at a small
restaurant before we headed into the temple.
The main deity of the goddess was put in place by Adi Shankaracharya;
the new deity of goddess Annapurneshwari was consecrated in the temple in 1973.
Male
visitors to the temple had to remove their shirts and banians and preferably
cover their shoulders with a towel or a shawl, as a symbol of respect and
humility in front of god. The main deity
of Annapoorna is made of gold. It is believed that a person who seeks the
goddess' blessings would never have any scarcity for food in life. It is
believed that Lord Shiva once had a curse and that this curse was reversed when
the lord visited Goddess Annapoorna and sought her blessings. The temple was not too crowded and we had a
quick and peaceful darshan of the Goddess.
This
was our last stop in our pilgrimage trip and hence we returned back to
Mangalore, a journey of more than 3 hours through the Kudremukh forest reserve,
by afternoon to have lunch. We were then
dropped at the railway station by the cab driver. As we had dinner and retired for sleep in the
train, the peaceful locales of the various temples we visited over the past few
days flashed through our minds.
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