Temple Town - T Narasipura

 

Temple town of Tirumakudalu Narasipura

This temple city in the state of Karnataka is unique and draws a parallel to Prayagraj in the north. Both these places have a Triveni Sangam and host Kumbh Mela.

While the Sangam in Prayagraj is a confluence of three rivers, Ganga, Yamuna and the mythical underground Saraswati, at T Narasipura it is the confluence of rivers Cauvery, Kabini and Mythical Spatika Sarovara. Also known as Dhakshina Kashi, T Narasipura is a sacred pilgrimage center and hosts Kumbh Mela, once every three years.

The two temples Gunja Narasimhaswamy and Agastyeshwara are significant, being more than 450 years old and finds a mention in Skanda Purana. This sacred town was patronaged by Vijayanagar and Mysore Kings. The name of the village – Tiru stands for ‘three’, Kudalu means ‘Sangama’ and Narasimhapura means the place of Lord Narasimha.

While we had visited this holy town almost a decade ago, we hadn’t paid much attention to the temple history. This time on 7^th December 2025, we were invited to join for the 10^th year annual ritual of my father-in-law’s younger brother. My brother-in-law suggested that we join him on the 3 hours’ drive and we did! This time we reached a bit early and found ample time to spend some quality time at the two temples and learn about its origins and history.

Getting to learn about some finer aspects from Priests themselves is extremely interesting. Later, reading about it in Google is like joining the pieces of a big puzzle and it all adds up to recreate history in our minds. Documenting it makes an interesting read not just to ourselves, but also for the generations to come.

Gunja seed is an ancient medicine, toxic because of the presence of Abrin, a protein similar to ricin and viper snake venom. Its botanical name is Abrus Precatorius and its also called Rosary Pea. This is used as beads in a percussion instrument and each seed weighs less than 0.15 gram. This plant is a perennial climber, slender and twines around trees, shrubs and hedges.

I wonder how many people know that Gunja seed is the determining factor in deciding which kshetra was more sacred – Kashi or T Narasipura.

As the legend goes, a washerman used to come to this Triveni Sangam to wash clothes daily. One night Lord Narasimha appeared in his dream and guided him to an anthill which had a Vigraha of the Lord himself embedded deep within. Next morning the washerman went to the same anthill and poured water on it and unbelievably found a beautiful Vigraha reveal itself as the mud slipped away. Having found the Vigraha, the washerman deemed it fit to build a temple at the same place. For this he would require financial resources and he had none! The Lord himself appeared in his dream again and guided him to his washing stone, and lying beneath this stone was treasure – enough to help the washerman build a magnificent temple. The Lord was mighty pleased with the washerman’s devotion and commitment and wanted to bless him. Lord Narasimha said “Ask and you shall be given”! The washerman wished that he get an opportunity to travel to Kashi, take a holy dip in the Ganges to rid himself of all sins and attain moksha. Lord Narasimha replied that there was no need to travel to Kashi as this place was more sacred than Kashi. To prove his point the Lord put Kashi and Narasipura on the two sides of a balance (measuring) scale. Narasipura was heavier by weight equal to one Gunja seed. To this day Lord Narasimhaswamy holds a gulaganji in his hand. There is more similarity between the two sacred places – In Kashi Lord Shiva is worshipped as Visveshwara and here he is worshipped as Agastyeshwara. In Kashi one can have darshana of Vata-Vrikshsa and here it is Brahma Ashwatha Vriksha.

This Brahma Ashwatha Vriksha is adjacent to the Agastyeshwara temple, yet another place of worship in T Narasipura. This temple is built on a slender strip of land that guides the two rivers Cauvery and Kabini to a meeting point. As the legends goes, Agastya muni while traversing the Dandakaranya forest decided to halt at T Narasipura and offer his prayers to Lord Shiva. He directed Lord Hanuman to get him a Linga from Kashi but didn’t have the patience to wait for his return. Even the auspicious time for doing the Prana Pratishtapana was fast approaching. He then decided to make a Linga out of the river sand on the banks and performed the Prana-Pratishtapana of this Linga. When Lord Hanuman returned with a Linga from Kashi, he was surprised to see that Agastya muni had already completed his installation, Prana Pratishtapana and worship of the idol. He was visibly upset and in a fit of rage, he dealt a severe blow atop the newly made Linga. But since the Prana Pratishtapana was already done, this had turned into a living idol and couldn’t be destroyed. The rear of the Linga remained intact and it is so to this day. But the front portion developed a slit giving passage to Ganga to trickle from the opening. To this day water trickles from this slit and is offered as tirtha prasada by the purohit. While the purohit was telling us this story that probably dates back to the ancient times, we listened with absolute awe and seeing the surprise, he went to the Linga and scooped up 5 to 6 Udharne of this holy water and gave it to us as prasada.

We then proceeded to partake in the annual rituals and offered our respects to the departed soul. It is considered good to conduct these rituals in a tirtha kshetra and this town has a sizable population of priests who conduct them. The arrangements were extremely good and so was the food – homemade!

What came as a pleasant surprise was the pot hole free roads all the way to the town. Living in Bangalore city which has only pot holes and virtually no road, this came as a BIG surprise to all of us. On the return journey however, there was an accident and the traffic was diverted through a single lane mud track. Some anxious moments before we hit the main highway once again and the return journey was event free. We must thank Google for mapping all the narrow lanes as well – such a detour is important in case of an emergency.

We stopped enroute at a restaurant for a cup of coffee and it was pretty good and perhaps a tad better than what is dished out in Bangalore restaurants/Darshini’s these days.