the journey continues…

This is one of the nice temples of Lord Srinivasa located close to Srirangapatna,near Mysore.The deity here is addressed as Karigirivasa i.e one who is staying upon the black hillock.
Apart from the main idol which is in black stone, there are 2 other idols called Yoga Srinivasa and Bhoga Srinivasa.Goddess Padmavathi the consort of Lord Srinivasa is installed in a separate sanctum in the western side.It is believed that the great sage Bhrigu has done the Prathishthapana (installation ceremony) of the main deity.

One interesting thing is you can see a small plant above the temple(below picture). It is believed that Sage Bhrugu is staying in that plant and he himself is performing the poojas everyday.

The hill may be climbed by stone steps (450 in number) or by the winding paved roads.But should be careful about the roads as they are very steep and narrow.Every year on some auspicious day Mettilotsava is performed here with great devotion and a huge crowd will gather to celebrate it.Mettilothsava a traditional function where devotees singing songs and bhajanas ascend the steps leading to the temple.
This link gives more details.
The top of the hillock gives a beautiful view of River Cauvery and Srirangapatna Town.

Hanuma Bheema Madhwa

Rigveda says Mukyaprana came in three incarnations (avatars) to lead the world as a Marga Darshaka (guide), and to uplift the world.His first avatar was Hanuman,second is Bhim and third is great saint Shri Madhwacharya.

Ananta Padmanabha Mandira in Pajaka is the home/birthplace of Sri Madhva. Here you can see a small shrine dedicated to Sri Ananta Padmanabha. Vasudeva [ original name of Shri Madhwacharya] spent his child hood in this house.There are some archaeological evidences of the life and times of Sri Madhwacharya at this place.
One such spot is the stone where his Aksharabhyasa was done.Now also people will come here and do the Aksharabhyasa for their kids on the same stone.

shila

There is small pond called Vasudeva Teertha in the house. Madhwaharys’s parents used to collect water from 4 near by ponds [Parashutirtha ,Dhanustirtha , Baanatirtha, and Gadhaatirtha which are created by Parashurama] to take bath and perform daily rituals.When they become old,they couldn’t able to go,so Vasudeva created a fifth pond which has water from all the 4 ponds and it is called as Vasudeva Teertha.Taking dip in this pond is equivalent is to taking bath in all the other 4 ponds.

Once his father had incurred some debts.That time Shri.Madhwacharya took the creditor under a big tamarind tree and gave him handful of tamarind seeds.Those tamarind seeds turned in to gold coins.Now also there is a big tamarind tree in that place.

tamarind tree

You can also see 2 big stones which the small boy Vasudeva had kept on the pots where his mom had kept curd and milk.

mosaru patre

Manimanta was a demon and he tried to kill Vasudeva.Vasudeva used his big toe to press down on the demon’s head, and killed him. The impression of Vasudeva’s toe where Manimanta was slain, can still be seen in Pajaka.

Near by there is Madhva Mandira.
This is the place where Sri Vadiraja Swamy has installed the idol of Sri Madhva Acharya. You can also see the foot prints of Sri Acharya here.

Other places of interest here are
>>Kunjaru Giri Temple
which is 1km from Pajaka where Sri Durga resides. This small hillock is very beautiful giving the glimpses of Western ghats one side, Manipal at the another other side and the Arabian sea. You can do a nice trekking to reach the top.

>> Parashurama Temple
Opposite to the KunjaruGiri, there’s one more hillock where a temple is built for Lord Parashurama. At the base of the foot hill is one of the teertha he created thorwing his weapons which is called as Bana Teertha.

Bana Teertha

There are buses from Udupi to Pajaka but the frequency is less.
http://www.pajakakshetra.org/index.html is the official site of Pajaka Kshetra.

I grew up in temple town Udupi so obviously I always search for temples around Bangalore.
Weekends if we don’t have any scheduled work as such,I prefer to visit a temple rather than a mall. Except for watching movies I would never want to spend my time in malls as it would be very crowded,noisy and suffocating also.
We made a quick trip to Nanjangud Srikanteshwara Temple last weekend.It is situated on the banks of river Kapila and is one of the oldest temples. Lord Nanjundeshwara/Shiva here is also called as Hakeema Nanjunda.Hakeema means doctor in Urdu. When Tippu Sultan’s Royal elephant had lost its eyesight, he worshiped Lord Nanjundeshwara and had faith in Him. The eyesight of the elephant got recovered and Lord Nanjundeshwara was called as “Hakeema Nanjundeshwara” by Tippu Sultan.
The temple is big,calm and quite.Got nice darshanam of the god and spent some time on the
banks of the river.

NanjundeshwaraTemple

Coracle Ride

Kapila River

Temple is around 30 km from Mysore and takes around 3 hours to reach from Bangalore.