This is a very ancient cave temple and probably the only one cave temple in Bangalore which is of historic importance . Lord Shiva is worshiped here by the name "Sri Gavigangadhareshwara". This is an awesome must visit place in Bangalore to experience the cave. Though inside the city , The temple is surrounded with beautiful lush green parks. The temple also houses a small rock face. This is now maintained by Government of Karnataka and is one of the main tourist attractions.
History of the temple
This is one of the ancient cave temple in India. Sage Gouthama performed penance and three times pooja in a day to this Shivlinga , also called as Gouthama Kshethra .Sage Bharadwaja has also done penance here , there are two idols of sage Gouthama and Baradwaja in cave path surrounding the main shrine.
The outer mantapa in front of the cave entrance had fourteen pillars of Vijayanagara style in the big corridor ,the beautiful unique , rare granite stone structure like two suryapanas , a trident. A Dhamaruga (Shiva's Instrument) , two shikaras (Gopuram) on the cave , a tower on the rock outside the temple compound and a parasol on the HariHaraRayana Gudda are all said to be built during the period of Kempegowda , the founder of Bangalore.
The Shivalinga inside the man shrine of the cave is tall and attractive , interesting part is that , the water of the pedestal of shivalinga is to the right , always thin stream of water flows in this cave , Ishwara adorns Gange in the cave to become GaviGangaDhareshwara . To the right of the main shrine are small idols of parvathi and Durga goddess. There is a long path surrounding the shrine , beautiful idols of SapthaMatrikas , Sridevi and BhooDevi installed in this passage.Another cave path bifurcates , belief is that one goes to Kaashi and the other to Shivaganga.
On Makara Sankranthi day of every year (Usually during January 14 / 15th ), a beam of sun rays pass through two windows of the south facing temple and slide down through the horns of Nandi , disappears after touching of ShivaLinga. Thousands of Devotees gather to witness this rare phenomenon.
Below are few temple images we captured . Hope this helps to locate the temple during your visit. Images of cave are purposefully not taken to support tourism interest.
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| GaviGangadhareshwara temple - Entrace |
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| GaviGangadhareshwara temple - Gopuram above cave |
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| Gaviganadhareshwara temple - Gopuram close view |
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| Gavigangadhareshwara temple - inside view |
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| Gavigangadhareshwara temple- Kempegowda Statue |
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| Gavigangadhareshwara temple - Mahadwara |
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| Gavigangadhareshwara temple - Cave view |
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| Gavigangadhareshwara temple - old house |
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| Gavigangadhareshwara temple - Rock face view |
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| GaviGangadhareshwara temple - Sankranthi Sunrays illustration |
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| Sunrays during Sankranthi - 14Jan2014 . Left : Sunrays from Mahadwara , Right : Sunrays on Shivalinga Image Courtesy : Prajavani Kannada Daily |
Best time to visit this temple is during 06 AM to 11 AM in the morning and after 5 PM to 7 PM in the evening. Mind your head while crawling through the cave rocks ! - one does not forget the cave experienced here. Some aged people may find it difficult to crawl through the narrow caves - just an advise. In the evening you can also visit a park near to this temple which houses a musical fountain and enjoy with your friends and family with mouth watering snacks.
Hope this is useful to plan your visit to this temple. Share your visit experiences.
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