Temples in Mulbagal

“Mulbagal” is a small, bucolic border town in Karnataka, about 55 miles away from Bangalore, on the way to Tirupathi. A sleepy town, time runs slow here and occasionally stops too. Here, every day is just a copy of the previous day. Sun rises in the morning and sets in the evening, the only cosmic event that occurs daily in Mulbagal: nothing more special happens that cries for anyone’s attention.

Rewind 350 years backward, Mudalabagilu was an important administrative outpost of erstwhile Princely Mysore State. Mudalabagilu means, in native Kannada, Eastern Street, an entry door to Mysuru State. In fact, it was so for Vijayanagar Empire too. As a gateway, it was a busy town verifying the identity of people entering the kingdom and checking of material movements, in and out. However, trampled by time, Emperors have faded, kingdoms have faded and so the importance of Mudalabagilu. The name itself went thru several distortions in time, and perhaps deemed so trivial, nobody bothered to notice it even. Eventually, it is Mulbagal, today.

If you are wondering why I am talking about an insignificant town, is that, it houses many historic temples and I visited two of them last Friday. While my Verna car was passing thru the main street, we halted to enquire about the way to the temple, I found, three young guys, leaning on their stationary cycles, leisurely talking about something I cannot even guess, but must be a mundane topic, as they readily responded and guided us.

Anjeneya Temple.

Information available about temple is very sketchy. No records of, when and who built it. No inscriptions on the temple walls.

The two priests in Anjaneya temple, wearing ceremonious white “Dhoti” with green and red boarder, befitting their priestly duty welcomed us.

  Then, one of them performed routinely, what is expected – took the copper plate with lighted oil lamp and circled it around the main deity Anjeneya and brought it back along with few tulasi leaves as Prasad. The granite statue is close to 12 feet height and around four feet width. Here, Anjeneya is depicted, holding a knife in one hand and his main weapon “Gada” in the other hand. It is very pleasant standing close to the deity and praying, unlike in other temples, where the deity is located deep inside the sanctum sanctorum, barring the entry of public.

When asked about the significance of the temple, the priest narrated the story. Arjuna, after winning the epic Kurukshetra war, came here to pray Hanuman. Thanks giving to Hanuman for having stood as badge on his ensign that fluttered atop his chariot, protecting him throughout the war.  Arjuna installed and consecrated the deity, legend says.

Since Hanuman is inseparable from Vishnu, the premises also houses Varadaraja and Rama temples, believed to have been consecrated by Sage Vasishta. It is said that Great Sage Bhrugu, one of the seven grand sages visited the temple.

It is impossible to verify the veracity of these claims; however, historians confirmed that the temple was built around 1200 AD. 

Someswara Temple.

I wonder why some Shiva temples are known as Someswara Temples; Som is another name of Chandra, the moon. Since Shiva wears moon on his head, is also called Someswar. It is Shiva’s one of many names – accepted, but my doubt persists, yet.

The Someswara temple in Mulbagal is constructed in 12^th century, coinciding with Chola period.

Locals believe the Shiv Linga is swayambu – manifested on its own.

The priest claimed to be new to this temple and could not throw any light about the temple origins. Contended with darshan, we left the temple.

I saw a notice near the main gate, a pale green board with white colour letters, declaring the temple status as protected monument by Karnataka Archaeology Department. Immediately after my return, I had written to Director of Archaeology dept. seeking more information on the temple origins. Hopeful to get interesting reply.

It took almost three hours to reach back home covering 55 miles, wading thru the thick Bangalore traffic.

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