Sri Malyavanta Raghunatha Temple, Karnataka

Address

Sri Malyavanta Raghunatha Temple, Venkatapura, Hampi Karnataka 583239

Diety

Raghunatha

Introduction

This 16 th century AD Raghunatha temple is one of the living temples in Hampi ruins on a medium sized hill called Malayavanta Parvatha on the main road between Hospet and Hampli and 2 Km from Kamalapura. This is one of the spatha (seven) hills of this region. This hill has globe/ round shaped boulders and natural caves. The roads to this temple is really narrow. The temple is in ruined state.

Puranic Significance

Legend says that this is the place where Lord Rama and his brother Lakshmana had sought shelter during monsoon on his expedition to find his wife the Goddess Seeta. Once the monsoon was over, both the brothers along with their gang of Vanaras (monkeys) marched to Lanka to find the Goddess Seeta from this place. There are huge boulders besides the main temple and a passage is created in between them that leads us to the top, to the right is a temple dedicated to Lord Hanuman. Going further up to the hill top, get to see a Shiva Linga and his vehicle Nandi. The temple has a lot of motifs being carved on the walls and is spread across a huge campus. The temple is built in the Vijayanagara style of architecture. The temple never closes and is open at tall times and there hymns of Lord Rama would be heard continuously from the temple premises. This Raghunathaswamy Temple is facing east with a DeepaSthamba and Garuda’s sannadhi are immediately after the east side 3 tier Rajagopuram. There is a 5 tier Rajagopuram on the south side also. The is a cave temple carved during Vijayanagara Period. The reliefs of Sri Rama, Lakshmana with Sita and Hanuman are in the sanctum. The temple consists a sanctum, the cave, arthamandapa, Maha mandapa and a muka mandapa. The sanctum Vimana was built with bricks over the sanctum boulder or the rock. There is a big Naathanamandapa is on the left and Thayar sannadhi is on the right, both are facing east. The Narthanamandapa was built with ornate pillars and a raised platform at the centre. The pillars have the Vaishnava reliefs.