Murudeshwara Temple & the story of the Atma Lingam.

Murudeshwara Temple Complex

The temple town of Murudeshwara signals the rise of the Hindus at every level. If hindu renaissance had to pick a place, this would be it. Entire town-temple complex showcases the enormous potential Hindu pilgrimage has for the rest to emulate.

This is the Raja Gopuram of the Murudeshwara Shiva temple, at around 238 feet it is the tallest gopuram in the State of Karnataka.

Gopuram

The Gopuram sits on a tiny bit of land connecting the mainland to the Kanduka Hill, which is home to India's tallest Shiva statue.

The gold coloured Vimana of the main Shiva temple,which houses a part of Mahadeva's atma. Overlooking it is the massive Raja gopuram.

Vimana & Gopuram

Breathtaking view of Bharat's tallest Shiva statue from the temple complex.

Vimana & Shiva statue

Was blessed with this view on my 3 day stay at Murudeshwara. Just can't get enough of Shiva!

Shiva on Kanduka Hill

Gopuram 

The Nandi facing the Shiva statue, in the back drop the rajagopuram

Nandi

On the base of the massive Shiva statue is a cave, its called Bhookailasa. It depicts the story of the Atmalingam beautifully via tableaus. The tableaus are so life like that one wouldn't even need a backdrop to understand the story of the atmalingam. Every kid must be shown this.

Here is the story. Ravana's mother Kaikesi praying to the lord in form of a lingam made out of clay.

Kaikesi praying to clay Lingam

Upon realizing the clay lingam getting washed away everytime on the seashore, Ravana vows to get his mother Lord Shiva's atma itself

Shocked expressions all around as Ravana vows to get Shiva's atma.

Ravana sets out on a long penance to please Lord Shiva to grant him his varam.

Ravana performing penance

Ravana intensifies his tapasya to please the lord.

Ravana in intense tapasya

Despite months and years of intense tapasya, Shiva doesn't pay heed to Ravana's call. Enraged by this he goes lifts Kailasa to get Lord Shiva's attention

Ravana lifts Kailasa parvata

Moved by Ravana's steadfast devotion, lord finally grants him darshanam. Shocked look on Parvathi's face when Ravana asks for the atmalingam,

Shiva grants darshan to Ravana

Meanwhile Narada, who is always on the move in all the trilokas gets a whiff of the entire thing & approaches Maha Vishnu for help at Vaikuntam.

Narada approaches Maha Vishnu for help

Vishnu diplomatically tells Narada that he can't do much at this point & asks him to approach Lord Ganesha, which Narada does so dutifully.

Narada approaches Ganesha on Vishnu's advice.

Meanwhile Ravana who is convinced that the atmalingam is all his, enters into to marriage with Mandodari in Lanka.

Ravana weds Mandodari

Ravana leaves his newly wedded wife Mandodari for the forests for another round of intense tapasya in his quest for the Atmalingam.

Shocked expression on Kaikesi's face as she learns Ravana departing for the forest.

There's no response from Shiva despite the intense calls of Ravana, enraged he goes on to severe his own heads.

Ravana severing his own heads in rage

Unable to watch, Shiva descends & hands him the atmalinga, with a condition that it should not be placed on the ground till he reaches Lanka.And that if the lingam were ever to be placed on the ground, it would remain there forever. Ravana now sets on his journey back to lanka.

Lord Shiva handing the Atmalinga to Ravana

While Ravana makes his way back to Lanka, Vishnu & Ganesha device a plan to retrive the atmaligam from Ravana's possession. Vishnu uses his sudarshana chakra to hide the sun thus making Ravana believe that it was dusk & time for his routine evening rituals. Ravana being a devout brahmin never missed his rituals. While Lord Ganesha takes the form of a young short Brahmin boy & approaches Ravana.

Ganesha disguised at a Brahmin boy approaches Ravana.

Ravana asks the boy to hold the lingam for him while he completes his rituals, ganesha agrees to it with a condition to which Ravana agrees. Condition being that he would hold onto the lingam for as long as its enormous weight permitted him to & thereafter call ravana out 3 times. And if Ravana didn't turn up by the 3rd call he'd place the lingam on the ground..which is what exactly happens. Ganesha out smarts Ravana.

Ganesha about to place the Atmalingam on the ground.

An enraged Ravana attacks the little boy. Ganesha being the cute naughty boy that he is makes all those funny faces pretending to be scared.

A furious Ravana attacking Ganesha

Meanwhile Vishnu withdraws his sudarshana chakra, restoring the sun to its original bright state. Ravana realizes he has been tricked.

Ravana trying to uproot the Atmalingam from the ground & failing.

An enraged Ravana tries to uproot the atmalingam, fails in the process. A few pieces of it do scatter & fall away at 4 other distant places.

Ravana trying to uproot the atmalingam

The Ganesha & the main Atmalingam still stand to this day & the place is called Gokarna. Its around 90 kms north of Murudeshwara. These are the panchalinga sthala associated with the atmalingam story. Murudeshwara being one of them. The others are Gokarna, Sajjeshwara, Dareshwara & Gunavanteshwara. All these kshetras are loacted within a 100 kms radius of each other.

Panchalinga Sthalas

The scene of Ravana handing over the Atmalingam to Ganesha is beautifully depicted, this is just below the Huge Shiva statue.

Ravana tricked into handing the Atmalinga to Ganesha

Another noteworthy sculpture is this one of King Bhagiratha brings down Ganga to Bhoolokha. Ganga flows from Lord Shiva's matted hair down to earth.

Bhagiratha brings down Ganga down to earth.

Gopuram at dusk

Gopuram at dusk

Lord Shiva at night.

A brief post on the Thillai Shri Nataraja Temple at Chidambaram

Rajagopuram

A brief post on the legendary Shiva temple. Much of the structure standing today was rebuilt by the rulers of the Vijayanagara empire after the temple had been pillaged, ransacked & looted by islamic invaders in the 13th century.

East Gopuram

South Gopuram

Close up of the carvings on the North Gopuram. It depicts many event. For example in the 1st picture, on the 1st tier on the right is the marriage of Shiva & Parvati with Vishnu in between doing Kanyadhana. In the 2nd pic on the 3rd tier on the right shows Krishna & the Gopikas.

Carvings depicting marriage between Shiva & Parvathi

Krishna & gopikas on the 3rd tier

Samudra Mantan depicted on the 3rd tier of the South Gopuram on the right side. 1st tier also has carving of marriage of Shiva-Parvati attended by Lakshmi-Vishnu & Saraswati-Brahma.

South Gopuram

Carvings of goddess Kali & Lord Shiva as Urdhvatandavamurti on one of the Mantapams. By performing this one stupendous dance move, Lord Shiva establishes himself as the ultimate master of Nrithya.

Urdhvatandavamurti

Kali & Urdhavatandavamurthi

The glorious Brahmakamalam carved on to the ceiling of the same Mantapam. Also painted are the various sthala puranas associated with Thillai Nataraja.

Brahmakamalam & Stalapurana stories

Goddess Parvati at Thillai is known as Shivakamasundari. She has a massive shrine for herself. The ceiling of the Devi mantapam is adorned with such magnificent paintings which depict the greatness of Devi over other Devas. These were originally painted during the Vijayanagara era.

Shivakamasundari

The Glorious Chalukyan Cave Temples of Vatapi

Bhuthanata Temple

These rock temples have withstood the test of time, from harsh weather to marauding invaders to present day apathy, its seen them all. It still stands there majestically even after 1500 years.

View of Bhutanatha Temple from Vatapi caves

View of the Agastya lake & Bhutanatha temple from the Vatapi caves. Its over 1500 years old. It was built by the Chalukyas of Vatapi, who were one of the major imperial powers in Bharat at the time.

The lake gets its name from sage Agastya who is said to have performed penance here. There is also a carving of him in one of the caves opposite the lake.

Rishi Agastya

Carvings of Varahaswamy, Ganapathi, Trimurthi Brahma/Vishnu/Maheshwara, Mahishasuramardini Durga & Narasimha en route Bhuthanatha temple

Rock carvings of various deities

Carving of Anantashayana Vishnu with Lakshmi and Garuda to the right. Above the reclining carved relief are the ten avatars of Vishnu Matsya, Kurma, Varaha, Narasimha, Vamana, Parashurama, Rama, Balarama, Krishna & Kalki. Between the Narasimha & Vamana is shown relief of Brahma cord connected to Vishnu's navel. To the left of the relief is depicted the Trimurthi of Vishnu, Shiva & Brahma, To the right is a human couple and a Kamadhenu.

Anantashayana Vishnu 

A look at some of the carvings from the Caves of Vatapi. There are 5 caves in total. The one seen above is cave 1 which is dedicated to Lord Shiva. 

Cave I dedicated to Lord Shiva

The cave depicts Shiva as Maha Nata(Great dancer) on the rock face to the right of entrance.The eighteen arms of Shiva express Natya mudras with some holding objects such as damaru, agni, a sarpa, a Trishula and a kuThAra (axe). Shiva has Ganesha and Nandi by his side.

Maha-Nata Shiva

                             

Carving of Durga slaying Mahishasura from the adjoining wall.

                                          

 Shiva Lingam inside the garbhagriha of Cave I

Unfortunately not all murthis have survived. This Nandi opposite the Shiva Lingam has borne the full brunt of medieval islamic savages. The adil shahis & nizams frequently plundered Temples around the area. Infact these Temples were subject to islamic iconoclasm by even hyder ali, father of genocidal tyrant tipu sultan.

Beheaded Nandi

Cave II to is dedicated to the various avataras of Maha Vishnu. Seen above is the 3rd Avatara of Vishnu, Varahaswamy. The carving depicts Varaha saving Bhudevi from evil asura Hiranyaksha. Varaha is depicted as lifting Bhudevi who had sunk deep beneath the ocean. At his feet is the Nagadeva. Also seen on the top right corner is Lord Brahma.Varahaswamy was a major pan-Bharat deity. From the Guptas to the Pallavas to the Chalukyas, all of them majorly incorporated this iconography in their architecture.

Varahaswamy

Cave II also has a relief of Trivikrama, who is a manifestation of the 5th avatara of Vishnu, the dwarf Vamana. Vishnu takes the avatara of Vamana, a dwarf to approach asura mahabali who had become mighty powerful & filled with arrogance posing a danger to all the trilokas. Mahabali also had a quality of giving dhaanams. Vamana asks mahabali for 3 paces of land.Vamana grows to a gargantuan size, known as Trivikrama, with the 1st step covers all of bhoolokha, 2nd step swarga & 3rd & final step mahabali offers his head for vamana to place his feet on, thereby sending mahabali to patalaloka. That's the depiction here.

Trivikrama

Cave II is again dedicated primarily to Maha Vishu. Seen above is a brilliant carving of Maha Vishnu seated on Adi Shesha. He has 4 arms. The rear arms hold a Shanka & chakra. Notice the scales on the Shesha.

Maha Vishnu on Adi Shesha

Cave III also has a relief sculpture of Narasimha in standing posture.

Narasimha

Most amazing aspect of cave 3 is how the Chalukyan architects managed to combine engineering with spiritual meaning. Carvings on the plinth.These are unique to cave 3. Just in awe at their resourcefulness. Not only does it strengthen the load bearing pillar, but also adds beauty.Amazing prowess of structural engineering our ancestors had. To go with it artistic taste.

Bracket sculptures

Cave 4 is dedicated to Jainism. There are carvings of Mahavira & other notable Tirthankaras. Equally artistic as the hindu ones. Seen above is the carving of the 23rd tirthankara Parshvanatha.

Parshvanatha