A Traveller's Diary - Konchady, Kudupu, Polali, Moodabidri & Karkala

We (my mother and myself) missed out a few temples around Mangalore in our previous visit in June 2015 due to lack of time. Unexpectedly, we had another chance to go to Mangalore in August 2016. So, we wanted to stay there for one day to visit these temples this time.

26 August 2016

As we started to explore those temples from State Bank (the name of a place in Mangalore), we wanted to have our breakfast in Jain Restaurant. We had our lunch in this restaurant in our previous visit to Mangalore. As the lunch was very good, I had chosen this restaurant again. However, the waiter said only Chapati was available (at 9:00 AM). Though, it was not the ideal breakfast for us, we still wanted to have it as we had good time in this restaurant of late. But, the Chapati which was served with curry, was just ok. We didn`t even have coffee and came out at around 9:30 AM.

Konchady

Our first visit was Konchady (which is in the outskirts of Mangalore and can be considered as a part of Mangalore). We reached the temple at 10:00 AM. The temple is on the main road only and is dedicated to Lord Venkataramana. 

The are two main temples in the complex. One temple is for Lord Venkataramana and the other one is for Goddess Lakshmi. Both the shrines are so attractive as sculpted to perfection. There were around 20 devotees in the temple, but still it was so calm. We inquired a devotee about Kudupu, as it was our next visit. She advised us to go to a place called Nanthoor in Mangalore where the bus to Kudupu would come. We went to Nanthoor in 10 minutes and the bus to Kudupu was readily available. We boarded the bus and reached Kudupu in 20 minutes (which is 10 kms from there). 

Kudupu

The bus stopped exactly in front of the temple in Kudupu. We crossed the road and went in. The temple is much lower than the road level and we had to go 25 steps down to go to the temple. This temple is called Sree Shakti Kshetra. 

The Lord here is in the form of a snake. It's a giant snake with 5 heads. Also, there are small shrines of Ananta Padmanabha with Sridevi and Bhudevi on either sides. We stood in front of the Moolvirat for 10 minutes. 

Then we went to the back side of the temple where there were hundreds of idols of snakes. The priests conduct special pujas for Rahudosham and Kethudosham. When we went, a long harati was going on and we stayed there till the end. 

Our actual plan was to go to Mudabidri from there and then to go to Karkala and then to come back to Mangalore to board our train at 10:15 PM. As we had plenty of time, I inquired the priest about the other temples in that region. He told us to visit Polali where the temple for Sri Raja Rajeshwari exists. He said it was around 15 kms from there. As it was already 11:30 AM, I asked the priest whether the temple would be open by the time we reach. He said it would be open throughout the day as it was Friday. He also guided us how to go to the temple. We thanked him and came out. 

We crossed the road again and stood where we got down earlier. The bus came in 15 minutes. We boarded the bus and reached Polali in 30 minutes. The bus stopped close to the temple.

Polali

Prior to that day, we never heard the name of Polali though we travelled in that region earlier. We thought the temple would be a small one and not so famous. We still wanted to visit it as we had time on hand. To our utmost surprise, the temple in Polali is very big in size. There were around 5,000 devotees present at that time and there was a very long queue. The reason for the heavy crowd was it was the last Friday of the auspicious month of Sravana. We understood it would take some time in queue, so we had a cup of coffee in a hotel opposite to the temple. 

When we went into the temple, I realized that all the people seen in the queue had already had their darshan and stood in line for the 

Mahaprasadam (lunch) offered by the temple. It hardly took 10 minutes for darshan as there were only 500 people in the queue. The Goddess is a 12 feet idol and was made of black marble. She is very attractive and looked powerful too. We stood in front of the Goddess for more than 15 minutes as nobody asked us to move away. 

When we came out, the temple staff asked us to stand in the queue for Mahaprasadam. The queue was not as long as it was half an hour ago. There was rice, aloo curry, sambar, rasam and payasam in Mahaprasadam. After having our lunch we spent some more time in the temple and came back at 2:00 PM. We walked back to the point where the buses stop. There was one bus but it was going to Mangalore and we had to go to Moodabidri. The conductor said, there was no direct bus to Moodabidri from there. He also told us that there was a bus to Kateel in 10 minutes and asked us to board that bus and get down at Kaikamba from where we could get the bus to Moodabidri. (We visited the temple in Kateel dedicated to Goddess Durga Parameshwari, in our previous visit to that region). We thanked him and boarded the bus when it arrived. It took around 20 minutes to reach Kaikamba which is around 12 kms from there. We immediately got our next bus and reached Moodabidri at 3:30 PM. The distance between Kaikamba and Moodabidri is 17 kms.

Moodabidri

Moodabidri is famous for Jain temples and Mutts. Among all those, Chandranath temple is the most famous one. We boarded an auto from the bus-stand and reached the temple in 5 minutes. We went in after paying the entree fee of Rs.5/- per person.

The temple is very old but is well maintained. There was absolutely pin drop silence inside the temple. The idol of Chandranath was too smooth as it was made of white marble and was shining. Outside the temple, there was a 15 feet idol of Bahubali. It is the replica of Gomatheshwara in Sravanabelagola.  

We told the man who collected the entry fee that we had seen the statue of Bahubali not only in Sravanabelogala, but also in Dharmasthala. He said there were 5 such statues in Karnataka. One more statue is at Gomatheshwara Betta in Karkala. Out of the remaining two statues, one is located near Mysore and the other one is located 30 kms away from Moodabidri. As we were going to Karkala, we then decided to go to Gomatheshwara Betta also.


Karkala

Karkala is 17 kms away from Moodabidri and the bus to Karkala stops just a few steps away from the temple. We boarded the bus and reached Karkala in 30 minutes. We hired an auto and reached Gomatheshara Betta in 5 minutes.

The statue of Bahubali is located on a small hill (in Kannada, betta means hill) and there are 210 steps. It took around 20 minutes for us to go up. The statue of Bahubali is 52 feet tall and is sculpted like the other Bahubali statues we have seen. The priest here told us that it was erected in 1974 and is the latest among all the 5 Bahubali statues in Karnataka. 

There are two types of sects in Jainism. Swetambar (who wear white dress only) and Digambar (who wear nothing). They have 24 Thirthankars (like 10 Gurus of Sikhism). Vrishabhanath was the first Thirthankar, hence, he is also called Adinath. Mahaveer Jain was the 24th (last) Thirthankar. The statue of Bahubali represents Digambar Jains. Maha Mastaka Abhishekam is held once in 12 years to the statue held in Sravanabelogala (it is the tallest among all these five statues).

We came down after being there for more than 20 minutes and had our evening tea in a restaurant at the footsteps of the hill. Our next visit was Ananta Padmanabha temple and the owner of the restaurant said it could be reached by walk. We went to the temple on foot, but it would have been better had we hired an auto as the distance was around one kilometer.

We reached there at around 5:15 PM. The temple was open and there were hardly 10 people in the temple at that time. The Moolvirat is made of a 10 feet black stone and is in sleeping pose with Lord Brahma coming from his naval and Sridevi and Bhudevi at his feet. We were in front of the idol for more than 10 minutes. 

Our next plan was to visit Padu Tirupati and then to return to Mangalore. However, the priest said that temple would be opened only at 6:00 PM. As it was just 5:30 PM, I wanted to go to two more temples which were nearby. I saw these temples from the auto when we were going from the bus-stand to Gomatheshwara Betta. 

We walked down and reached the next temple which was just 200 meters away from there. The temple is dedicated to both Lord Shiva and Lord Krishna. In the sannithi also there was a shrine of Sri Krishna playing flute and there was a Shiva Linga also. The name of the temple is Visweshwara Venugopala temple. 

We came out after having our darshan. Within a distance of 100 meters, there is another temple dedicated to Goddess Durga who is worshiped as Mahamaya there. 

There is another temple in the same complex for Lord Hanuman. 

After having our darshan, we hired an auto and reached Padu Tirupati in 5 minutes. It is just one kilometer away from there.

In Kannada, Padu Tirupati means West Tirupati. The temple is dedicated to Balaji who is worshiped as Lord Venkataramana here. 

The temple was open and there were around 100 devotees there. 

Though, the temple is called Padu Tirupati, the Moolvirat in this temple is not like the one in Tirupati. In fact, the main idol is in this temple is exactly like the one in the Venkataramana temple at Katapady (near Udupi). The entire temple looked very beautiful as it has been renovated recently. 

There is one more temple for Lord Hanuman exactly opposite to this temple (just like the Bedi Hanuman temple in Tirupati). The height of the idol is about 25 feet and is very attractive.  

We hired an auto and came back to the bus-stand by 6:45 PM. We had another cup of tea in a restaurant which is located in a big complex beside the bus stand. We boarded the bus at 7:00 PM and reached Mangalore at 8:45 PM.