After
lunch, we started to Murudheshwar Sivan temple. This was the temple which I was
waiting for... While travelling before a few kilometers itself.. we are able to
see the gopuram of the temple. This temple is build on the beach shore. We
parked our vehicle in the beach and went towards the temple. Wow..It’s most
majestic Gopuram I have ever seen. I was superb, it took a while for me to
return back to the real world. From the
beach you can see the huge statue of Sivan (123 feet , seen
very long from Arabian sea) which makes us stumble in devotion. If I am not
wrong, this is the tallest Shiva statue in the world.
To reveal the history of this
place, you have to travel back to Ramayana. To tell the story in short. Once
Ravana got the athma Lingam (which belonged to lord shiva ) through his prayers
for immortality and started travelling. Lord Vishnu appears and blocks the sun,
to appear as dusk. Since Ravana has to perform the evening rituals, he needs
someone to hold the Atham linga which cant be grounded on earth. Mean while a
small brhamin boy passed near by. Ravana
told the Brahmin boy to hold the Athma Linga and he also told him that the
Athma Linga must not be grounded.
Being tricky, the brahim boy kept the Aathma
Linga in the ground and ran away. Actually lord Ganesha was in disguise of the
Brahmin boy. Vishnu unblocked the sun and the dusk turned into normal daylight.
Now Ravana after rituals, knowing that he is tricked got angry and tried to
uproot the Athma lingam. Due to the enourmous force exerted by Ravana, the
Linga broke into pieces.
One of the head piece went to Surathkal.
The famous Sadashiva temple is built around the scattered piece. Then he
decided to destroy the covering of the AtmaLinga, and threw the case
covering it to a place called Sajjeshwara, 23 miles away. Then he threw
the lid of the case to a placed called Guneshwara (now Gunavanthe) and
Dhareshwara, 10–12 miles away. Finally, he threw the cloth covering the AtmaLinga
to a placed called Mrideshwara in Kanduka-Giri (Kanduka Hill).
Mrideshwara has been renamed to Murudeshwara.
I
clicked a lot of pictures. Thank God I had a bit wide angle lens to tilt the
camera and take the picture of the whole Gopuram. Many of the cameras were not
able to cover the whole temple in a single shot. We then entered the temple, worshipped and
climbed up to see the huge Shiva statue. From there you can find the Big Ratham
(war scene).
Near to the huge Shiva, you can find the Saneeswara bhagavan
temple.One good facility in this temple is they provide the lift facitlity to go
the top of the gopuram and have the entire site seeing.. It was superb for us
and we enjoyed the sunset in the sea with our Shivan statue. The ticket cost
for this is around 15rs . Don’t miss the lift trip.
From there we went to the
beach which was a silent beach which less waves. There some sports like speed
boats and individual boat rides were there. It was around night, and we enjoyed
the lighting around the temple. But I still wonder why they did not give
lighting facilities to the Gopuram. We
then left to the room. It was a wonderful temple.
How to reach the temple:
Road: (1 km off National
Highway)
From Mangalore: Udupi - Kundapur - Byndoor - Bhatkal - Murudeshwar
From Karwar: Kumata - Honnavar – Murudeshwar
From Mangalore: Udupi - Kundapur - Byndoor - Bhatkal - Murudeshwar
From Karwar: Kumata - Honnavar – Murudeshwar
Bhatkal - 16 kms
Idagunji - 20 kms
Gokarna - 65 kms
Karwar - 120 kms
Kollur - 63 kms
Jog Falls - 90 kms
Manjuguni
- 90 kms
Udupi - 100 kms
Clicks:
