Shri Lakshmi Narasimha Swamy Temple, Horakere Devapura, Chitradurga

    According to our source, the temple in Horakere (Kolar DT) houses a very beautiful idol of Lord Lakshmi Narasimha and all our efforts put in to find out the location of this temple went in vain.  Nor were the internet search engines of any help this time. It so happened that once, while listing the places to visit in Chitradurga, I noted down a place called Horakere Devapura which had a temple dedicated to Lord Lakshmi Narasimha. This made me think about the temple we were searching for, in Kolar and a thought crossed my mind about the chances of the location being misspelled in our source (which is a very rare event). During one of our trips, while returning from Chitradurga, we decided to check this place, and see whether it was the same temple we were on the lookout for but in a wrong place! The temple was about 28 Km from the National highway and our journey was a pleasant one. We drove through narrow   roads decked with hills that housed windmills atop.  After confirmation about the route at a few places, we reached the village of Horakere Devapura, which was busy because of the Saturday Sandy.

Wind Mills

Kalyani

Rajagopura and Garuda Khamba

   A unique, magnificent and huge Rajagopura (an entrance gateway) built of stone welcomed us into the temple. By far, it is the most beautiful stone entrance gateway we have witnessed. As it had some structural resemblance to the gateways of Hampi and Chitradurga, a thought struck in our minds that this could be a handiwork of the Vijayanagara kings. This temple has been constantly renovated time to time under various dynasties. We could see some minor contributions of our generation too. The idol was very beautiful and so we had read, thus confirming us about the temple. The temple complex is vast with many of the structures belonging to the Vijayanagara period, except for the basic temple (Garbhagriha) and the beautiful idol which with no doubt, belongs to the Hoysalas.

Temple Complex

Anjaneya Pillar

Shri Lakshmi Narshima swamy Temple

Huge pillars

Kalyan Mantapa

Ceiling of Kalyan Mantapa

Lord Hanuman

Lord Lakshmi Narasimha Swamy

  According to the legend, this place was formerly called Nanjundarajapattanam as it ruled by a cruel king named Nanjundaraja. He had a bad reputation of being demonic, ill treated people who visited other pilgrimages and was against people worshipping god. One day, Lord Venkateshwara (Vishnu) being aware of all the happenings decides to teach this king a lesson and free the people of his town from his evil deeds. On reaching the town, the lord decides to be seated atop a hillock named Krishnachala Betta in order to protect the people. He   destroys the king and his palace within no time. The people of the village then performed Puja to this hill and requested the Lord to stay back in their village. He decides to stay back, though in his other form of Lord Lakshmi Narasimha just outside the village nearby a lake, and hence the Horakere Devapura (Hora-outside; kere-lake; Deva-god; pura-village). There are many more stories from this place.

Erotic

Dwarapalas

 On Saturdays, there is special annadana (meals) program for all the devotees.   

Majestic Gateways