Friday, October 5, 2007

Tondanur Temples


About the Place

After leaving Srirangam, Ramanujacharya stayed for many years at Tondanur before travelling further to Melkote. Here, Ramanujacharya relieved the Jain king Bittideva’s daughter from evil spirits. When the king embraced Srivaishnavism, around 12,000 jain scholars reached the Narashima temple in Tondanur where Ramanuja was staying and asked the saint to enter into a debate with them regarding religion. When Ramanujacharya answered all their questions simultaneously taking the form of adishesha, all of them accepted him as their guru and they too embraced Srivaishnavism.

How to Reach

Tondanur is just 8 kms from Pandavpura in Mandya District, Karnataka. Pandavpura is linked to the Bangalore-Mysore Highway. Also, Tondanur is just 20 kms from Melkote. While travelling from Melkote to Pandavpura, Tondanur is a diversion on the right side.

You need to pass through the village and sugarcane farms on both sides to reach the temples. It would be ideal to hire some private vehicle to visit these temples. Distance between Bangalore and Tondanur is about 130 kms.

Lake




A lake was constructed at Tondanur during Ramanuja’s stay. It is popularly known as ‘Tirumala Sagara’ and also Moti-Talab meaning Pearl Lake. A dip in this lake is said to be very auspicious.

Temples in Tondanur

There are three ancient temples in Tondanur.


The first is Laxminarayana or Nambinarayana temple where the lord holds shanku, charka, gadha and padma in four hands. Nambi Narayana in this temple holds the Chanku on right and chakra on left, which is very rare. The lord is holding it so to perform smashrayana for Tondanur nambi.


Exactly opposite the temple is Gopalakrishnaswamy temple.

Lord Krishna looks splendid in the Gopalakrishnaswamy temple with his consorts Rukmini and Satyabhama.


The third temple of Lord Yoga Narasimha is a bit away from these two temple and is on a small hillock.



The lake is close to the YogaNarasimha temple. Ramanujacharya looks splendid in shesha avataram in this temple. The priest also shows a small glass box with a bag inside that is said to be brought by Ramanujacharya when he came to Tondanur.

Search Terms

Tonnur, Thondanur, Tondanur, Thonnur

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