Sri Gopalakrishna temple Madhugiri

Address

Sri Gopalakrishna temple Madhugiri Tumkur district Karanataka -572132

Diety

Venkataramanaswami, Malleshwara

Introduction

Madhugiri is a town in Tumkur district in the Indian state of Karnataka. The town derives its name from a hillock, Madhu-giri (honey-hill) which is to the south of the place. The ruined temple of Gopalakrishna is located at the top. Madhugiri, once known as Maddagiri over a hundred years ago, is located around 43 km north of Tumkuru town, and 107 km north-west of Bengaluru city. The monolith and the surrounding greenery of Madhugiri are the main attractions. The place has old temples of Venkataramanaswami and Malleshwara built by the Vijayanagara feudatories in the Dravidian style

Puranic Significance

The construction of the original mud fort was undertaken by Raja Hire Gowda in the 17th century around 1670 AD. An interesting incident prompted the Gowda family to consider building a fortress. A stray sheep went missing around the Madhugiri hillock only to return late in the night dripping with water. This was music to the ears since a spring would definitely be welcome sign for rain deficient area. A decision to construct a fortress was arrived and the task was completed. The Gowdas started ruling this region based at Madhugiri Fort.Genesis of the name Madhugiri is derived from the Honeybee colonies which were prevalent in those days towards the northern parts of the Madhugiri fortress. There are several historical temples in and around Madhugiri. However three of them are the main ones that draw regular devotees, one is Sri VenkatramanaSwamy then Sri MalleswaraSwamy both are situated next to each other. the third one is the DandinaMaramma temple at the entrance of the town while coming from Bangalore/Tumkur. There is also a Jaina temple on the precincts of the Madhugiri fort.To reach the top of the fort, one has to climb the steep slope. The climb takes about two hours and various water tanks are visible throughout the way. These tanks were built to harvest rainwater. Beside the fort, lies a temple of GopalaKrishna. It is at the top of the hill, but lies in a ruined condition today. The highlight is the rock dome, atop which stands a fort. There are a series of doorways leading to the top and the climb is steep and exposed in some places. On the top is the ruined Gopalakrishna temple. The difficulty level is moderate to difficult and takes around 4 hours for the ascend.