Sri RanganathaSwamy temple , Srirangapatna

Sri RanganathaSwamy temple , Srirangapatna

 Our team visited - Srirangapatna , in Mandya District - one of the infamous places of interest near to Bangalore and visited many interesting spots.In this post we cover , Sri Ranganatha Swamy Temple.

Image depicting Actual Idol

 This temple is one among the Pacncharanga Kshethras and is the first/ Adi among them situated near the banks of river kaveri. The temple's history dates thousands of years back during the Ganga Dynasty , beleived to have started during the existence of Gautama Sage, followed then and improved by the Hoysalas, Vijayanagar kings and later by Hyder Ali, Tippu Sultan the rulers of Sriranapatna during the early 18th century.

Stone elephant

This temple is around 125 km from Bangalore. We started off our journey from Bangalore by car at around 8 AM along the Mysore highway NH7 and reached the spot by  10.45 AM. This is a a very famous temple and one will not find any problems locating the temple. There are many path boards guiding the driver to the right direction. There was a long queue of devotees waiting for the darshan and we too joined them . While standing in the queue , we noticed the Bazaar in front of the temple where idols,  photos and other shopping items were being sold , the temple's chariot (ratha) and a small hall (mantapa). 

Temple stone pillars

Front view

Soon we were inside the temple and passed by the entrance gate (gopura), we noticed the temple's big door which seemed be made of hard stone. After the entrance gate , there are 2 large rectangular enclosures . The inner sanctum is surrounded by multiple columned halls. The pillars had beautiful scriptures and shapes which depicted the art work and creativity of the past generations.  Our queue however at entry looked simple one , soon we noticed took many turns while we reached  the main idol of Sri ranganathaswamy by 11:45 AM. One will notice many idols of Saints and sages along the path.

Mantap

Maptap Kalyani

The 10 feet idol of Sri Ranganatha Swamy reclining on the coils of the Snake Aadishesha with this consort Laskmi devi would leave one mesmerized. The door of this inner sanctum does not fully cover the Idol's width. Hence we recommend tourists to take some time to observe the idol starting from one corener to other corner of the walk path and closely observe the ends of the idol to get a full glimpse of this magnificient structure. Further moving forward , we observed idols of Srinivasa , Krishna , Garuda , Hanuman and Sri laskhmi.

Tulasi Brindavan

Chariot carvings

We noted one may not get a glimpse of the temple outer mantapas while entering inside the temple as the entry is restircted one way and may view only on the exit. We spent some time looking at the unique Tulasi Brindavan , Kalyani - a small pond , Old mantapas and small flower plantations over a green grass turf. 

Temple is open for darshan between 07 AM to 1 PM in the morning and again between 04 PM to 08 PM in the evening. One may reach here by public bus or train also. The Srirangapatna train station is exactly behind this temple and is a 5 minutes walk from there. 


Overall a very nice and interesting spot to visit with family and friends on a weekend. Do visit this place and share your experiences. 

Panaromic view inside temple