Melkote - The charming little temple town

----------Published in Deccan Herald on December 15th 2018

A view of Melkote town

MELKOTE, a small, modest town is known by several names, the most prominent being Thirunarayanapuram.  It is a hill town situated close to Mysore - about 39 kms from Mandya, and around 135 kms from Bangalore.   It is one of the seats of SriVaishnavism, a religion propagated and made famous by the Saint Poet Sri Ramanujacharya. 

Melkote is both a pilgrimage town and a tourist attraction as it offers spectacular views of the green, verdant valley enriched by the River Cauvery.

Cheluvanarayanswamy temple

The Cheluvanarayanaswamy temple

Melkote is home to the famous Cheluvanarayanswamy temple.  This small, sleepy town nestled in the hills, comes alive during the month of March-April when the famous Vairamudi festival is celebrated.  

 The presiding deity of this temple is Lord Vishnu in the form of Cheluvanarayana, ‘cheluva’ meaning beautiful in Kannada.  The famous SriVaishnavite saint, poet cum philosopher, Sri Ramanujacharya, fearing a threat to his life, escaped from Srirangam in Tamilnadu and made his way to Melkote in the 12^th century.  He lived here for about 14 years and spread the message of SriVaishnavism.   He is responsible for recovering the missing statue of the Lord and reinstalling the bronze statue of Cheluvanarayanaswamy in the temple.   The story goes that the statue was taken away by a Muslim ruler in Delhi.  Ramanujacharya went across to Delhi, convinced the ruler to give up the statue and brought it back to Melkote.  Meanwhile, the Princess of Delhi who used to play with the statue was inconsolable and followed Ramanujacharya to Melkote.  She fell at the feet of the Lord’s statue and breathed her last.  Her passion and ‘bhakthi’ have been immortalized - she along with Narayana’s consort Sri Yadugiri Nachiyar, is also worshipped as Bibi Nachiyar.

This temple has been revered and worshipped by all the kings who ruled over the Mysore region – the Hoysalas, the Vijayanagara kings, and the Maharaja of Mysore . 

The Vairamudi festival of Cheluvanarayana is celebrated every year with much aplomb and fanfare, where the Utsava murthy of the Lord is beautifully decked with flowers, jewels and the acclaimed diamond crown, and taken around the streets of Melkote in a procession.        

The Kalyani or Sacred Pond

The beautiful Temple pond!

This amazing man-made pond or ‘kalyani’ is an architectural marvel.  It is a sight to behold and one can spend any amount of time sitting on the steps - watching the water below and the open skies above.   It was constructed as a bathing area for pilgrims visiting the temple town of Melkote.   It can be accessed by foot from the main streets of Melkote before the actual climb to the Yoganarasimhaswamy temple. The scenic beauty of the ‘kalyani’ with the mantapas, pillars and steps leading to the pond, has been captured beautifully in several movies - Rajinikanth’s super hit film ‘Padaiyappa’ comes to mind.   

The Yoga Narasimhaswamy temple

The Yoga Narasimhaswamy Temple Gopuram 

Built atop a hillock, one has to climb several steps to reach this temple which is dedicated to Lord Narasimha.  Going past the ‘Kalyani’, the path leads one to the steps from where the climb begins.  It is not a very hard climb and can be accomplished in about twenty minutes.  Trees on either side of the rocky hillock provide shade and the steps, not being steep, do not pose a problem.   A lovely cool breeze welcomes one at the summit, instantaneously rejuvenating the body and mind.  The view accorded from the top is breath-taking – one can immediately see and identify the ‘kalyani’, the village houses, the off-white gopuram of Cheluvanarayanswamy temple; and in the distance - the green landscape with coconut trees, little hillocks and rocky terrain, and the surrounding valley forms a lovely panorama. 

The Lord's metal picture at the entrance.

Inside the temple, the image of the Lord is captivating as he sits in a yogic posture, with the head of a lion and the body of a man – Nara + Simha.  It was built several centuries ago, during the Hoysala reign.  Legend has it that Prahlad, son of Hiranyakashupu, installed the deity of Narasimha here.    

Location – Melkote is situated about 135 kms from Bangalore.  Take a small deviation of 35 kms from Mandya, which is on the Bangalore-Mysore highway.  The roads are excellent. 

Staircase to heaven - The climb starts here!

A brief view of the Temple Gopuram

How to Reach - It is easy to drive down to Melkote from Bangalore or from Mysore.  Plenty of buses also ply between Bangalore and Melkote.  The nearest rail head is Mandya.

Time needed - Considering a travel time of 3 hours from Bangalore, Melkote can be covered in a day.  

Lunch Facility - Subanna's Mess on the lane near the market square is a good place to have breakfast or lunch.   

Bangalore to Mantralayam - by road

Entrance to the temple

We had been wanting to visit the Raghavendra temple in Mantralayam for quite some time.  What with the whole family being busy - the husband travelling or generally being  occupied on weekends, with daughters having some event, project or activity at school - we were unable to plan a trip.  Finally out of the blue, when we found a weekend when everyone was free, we decided to head out to Mantralayam.  Railway tickets are very rarely available and on a weekend, definitely not; so we set out by road.

A beautiful stone sculpture at the entrance

Mantralayam is 408kms from our house in Jayanagar (as given by our car's odometer) and the roads are pretty good.  We set out early by 5:30 AM and hence had the road to ourselves.  We took the National Highway 7- the Hyderabad route - stopped at Chikbalapur's Kamat Upachar restaurant for breakfast.  It was quite decent.  We crossed Anantpur, Gooty and then took the state highway towards Pattikonda; passed by Adoni, Yemmiganur and reached Mantralyam by 12:30 pm - a good 7 hours drive with a couple of stops for breakfast and mid-morning tea.

We booked a room at the Temple Trust - we got a 3-cot bed which came in handy for our family of 3 adults and 2 children.  We had also carried pillows and bed sheets with us (the luxuries of travelling by car) and so could manage a good night's sleep on the not so well-washed hotel bedding.  We visited the temple and headed straight to lunch (as the last batch was at 2:00 pm).  There is something to be said of the lunch served in temples - it may be a simple fare but all of us ate heartily, especially my little girl who relished the sweet-tasting sambhar and rasam.  Back in the room, we rested for a while and then set out to the temple to have our darshan of Raghavendra Swamy.  It was quiet and peaceful when we went in, not much of a crowd; we could enjoy the peace and tranquility of the place and feel one with the Lord.

Sunset on the banks of the Tunga river

We also visited the Tungabhadra river, but were disappointed to see nothing but rocks with no trace of a river flowing.  We sat on the banks and witnessed the sun-set while listening to the recorded voice of the Temple security person (we possibly heard it close to 20 times!!) alerting pilgrims to be wary of pick-pockets and thieves in all 5 languages - Telugu, English, Kannada, Hindi and Tamil.   We also saw several animals walking past the river bank, serenely and peacefully, doing whatever they had set out to do.

the Rathotsava in progress

When we returned to the temple, it was packed - it being a second-Saturday, lots of holiday goers were present.  Also, several had come to see the Rathotsava that was held around 7:30 pm.  A beautiful sight it was, with the colorfully be-decked and garlanded Utsava murthy, placed on chariots - first on the silvery-white elephant and then on the traditional wooden one - and pulled around the temple shrine.  We expected the devotees to use ropes to pull the chariot, instead found that the chariot was motorized - so no tugging and pulling, just a quick circle of the outer shrine.

After witnessing  the beautiful ceremony, we then found out that they also served dinner at the temple and so headed to the Bhojanalaya to have our simple but tasty dinner of rasam rice and curd rice. While sitting in neat rows for the food to be served, we could not but be in awe of the service rendered by the temple authorities and more so by the cooks who serve food day in and day out for the thousands of devotees visiting the temple everyday - truly inspiring and amazing work!

the Utsavamurthy atop the silver elephant

The next morning, we again visited the temple and prayed to Raghavendra Swamy and Lord Hanuman - who appeared more like Hayagreeva as the horse's facial outline plate that is put on the Lord's chest stood highlighted.  With prayers to visit again, we bid goodbye to the temple town of Mantralayam and made our way back to Bangalore.   We took the same route on the return trip but we spent nearly 8 hours, possibly because of the later start.  Lunch on the way was a challenge as we did not find decent places to eat.  We finally stopped at the same Kamat restaurant in Chikbalapur where we'd had our breakfast earlier.

So all in all, it was a pleasant 2-day trip; we collected memories and enjoyed the family time, and ofcourse, returned as rejuvenated souls!