Padutirupathi
Encyclopedia
Sree Venkataramana Temple, Karkala
Karkala is very famous for its Gomateshawra Betta and Jain Basadis. There are many other things which are popular all over the town. One of them is Padutirupathi Sree Venkataramana Temple. This is one of the oldest temple of Gaud Saraswat Brahmins after Sri MadhaAnantheshwar Temple Manjeshwar. A powerful shrine resembling Tirupathi.
A day came when some of the GSB's came to this place wandering from place to place for shelter and food. They met the Jain kings and they told them about Prabhus, Sharmas and GSB priests. They gave these people permission to stay with them. One fine day all these GSB's came to Jain King Immadi Bhairava, asking for a land to build a temple for Lord Sree Venkataramana. This was during year 1450 AD. The Jain king pleasurely gave them the Land for the very same purpose with some black stones which were prevalent all over the area. This shows that the Jains were patronised to other religions also. The land which they gave to these GSB's was occupied by a lady of some Mutt (religious institution for learning Vedas and Puranas). The lady heeded to the people and Jains only one condition that, "There are four powerful Ganas(Lord Shiva`s Servants) who should be worshipped and given sacrifices of coconuts, green pumpkins, Turmeric and so on; unless they would get angry. Also an yearly sacrifice should be performed as no unholy things may happen in and around here".
The GSB's and Jain King openly said yes to lady and then temple was being built. Initially a huge platform was built and four pillars were made to stand in the four corners. Entangled coconut leaves were made as a roof for it. The idol was installed inside and prayed for the betterment of people. The compound wall was in its progress for building up the blocks. One fine day Soma Sharma returned to Karkala from Tirupathi with another idol of Lord Sree Venkataramana which was given to him by the Tirumala priests and this was at the end of 14th century. He installed this idol with the previously installed idol of Lord Venkataramana in the newly built stone platform.
During 1500 AD, some dacoits attacked Karkala and started thefting all the gold and silver ornaments & idols. Karkala GSB's got scared about these bad events. They made up their mind and took all their precious articles with the two idols and ran away to some other place. They asked the Jain kings to protect their area. The Jain King promised them and gave 100% moral support. Karkala GSB's reached an area called Mulki where threw all the materials they had with them in a well. Here in Karkala there was a huge fight going on between Jain rulers and the dacoits. At last the dacoits had to run away from Karkala since they had been defeated. As the happenings cooled down Karkala GSB's returned to the well and tried to retrieved all the idols and articles. But in vain they could not retrieve the idol which Soma Sharma had brought with him. They got depressed and returned to Karkala. One fine morning, a Mulki person was passing near the well and found something shining material. He went down and tried to look at it. At his site it was the same idol which Karkala people were searching for. He thought Lord must have made his mind to stay in Mulki, so he took it and made a plan install it in Sree Veera Vittal Temple of Mulki established by Soira Vittal Bhat.
As soon as Karkala GSBs received this news in few days, they rushed to Mulki. But by that time Mulki people had installed it in the temple. Karkala GSB's stayed there and slept the whole night. That night the idol (Lord Venkataramana installed at Mulki) appeared in their dream and said "You all please go to Karkala and stay there, dont get frustrated or depressed because of this event. I will come again to your place and stay there; a Saint from Tirumala Tirupati will be coming to Karkala with me. There will be Sampurna Sannidhi(meant that the idol would be having powerful grace of Tirupathi) in me. Install it with the idol which you have at present in your temple." The very next morning they met Mulki residents and said about all the dream and went back to Karkala with a hope that Tirupathi Sreenivasa would come.
Days and months passed by GSB's waited. All of a sudden one day a person arrived to Karkala with a bag on his shoulder and dressed in the form of a hermit. He asked for a place to take rest with GSBs over there. They gave him a small place to stay. The person was old in age. He had some idol of Lord Vishnu which he used to take it with himself for a pilgrimage. That night when everyone was in deep sleep a strange dream appeared for the GSB's and the saint. Lord of Tirupathi was the main character in the dream. For GSB's the dream was, "Devotees of mine i have already come over here as i promised. The saint who came to this place has come Tirumala and the idol which he has is mine. You take the idol from him and nstall it but as per my instructions.During the ceremony a cow and her calf should be left for feeding after pooja. The place where the cow drops her milk after milking the calf will be my scared place. Do all these things first and then rest leave it to me."For the saint the dream appeared as, "Oh Saint you have travelled much in your life and now its time for you to take rest in your life. I like this place very much and want to stay here for the rest of the time. The people from whom you asked the land are in need of me as i had promised them that i would come from Tirumala Tirupathi and stay in this place. So please hand over me to them." The saint agreed to Lord's wishes and very next morning went to GSB people to hand over the idol with one condition. His condition was,"Any offerings given to Lord almighty would be taken to Tirupathi occasionally and Lord would be taken to Tirupathi once a year". They agreed to hermits condition and installed the idol as per Lord's instructions. This installation was on the day 25 April 1537.
Slowly and steadily the temple got built up with its Garbha Griha (sanctum sanctorum). The whole temple got renovated in the year 1699-1700. Then Parivar Devas like Lord Mukyaprana, Lord Gaurda, Lord Lakshmi and Lord Ganapathi were installed after 2 years of renovation. Days and months passed and number of devotees entering this gradually increased due to the divine environment of this place.
Suprabhatam is a special slokha recited to wake up the Lord from his sleeps. Then after the end of Suprabhata Nirmala Visarjana (removal of old flowers and decoration of new ones to deities) is performed with Ganji Naivedyam (serving of rice and rice item foods, including Navaneetham-mixture of butter, til and sugar) at about 6:30 am. At 10:00 am Panchaamrutha abhishekha is performed for the Saligrama. This abhishekha is a typical one as performed in Tirupathi. In Tirumala this is performed on Lord Venkateshwara's Stone Statue and to honour the same here it is performed on the Saligrama.
In the afternoon at 12:00 pm Naivedyam is performed wherein several items are served for the lord in a huge plate and utensil made out of copper. Once the Naivedya is over little bit of rice is served in small utensils and is kept in front of Parivar Devas while one is offered to Sree Veeramaruthi Temple. After this Maha Puja is performed at 1:00 pm, this is called here as Raajopchaara Puja. The temple doors are closed after this for Vishrama Seva.
Late in the evening at about 6:00 pm, temple doors are again opened with lighting of oil lamps. A special shlokha is sung called as Deevtige Salaam Shlokham. Recorded cassettes of bhajans are played on loud speakers at this divine time of sunset. At 6:30PM people from all over the town come to temple to sing the hyms of Lord Almighties and this goes on until 8:00 pm.
At 8`O clock again Naivedyam is offered with Mangalaarthi. Once Mangalaaarthi finishes night Utsava is offered, this is usually an outing to the town except on Amavasya and Ekadashi. Once Utsava returns to temple there are five rounds inside; first one being Vaadya Sutthu(Instrumental), second and third is Rigveda and Yajurveda Sutthu, fourth is Sangeetha Sutthu (Yakshagana's Thaala Maddhale) and last one is Sarva Vaadya Sutthu. After the utsav ends with Vasantha Puja (Lord is given Uyaala Seva with recitals of shlokhas) deities are put to sleep which is known as Ekaantha Seva (11:30PM or on festive days depends on time taken).
The temple also owns Gold, Silver articles which were given as gift to the Lord Almighties. The wooden, golden and silver Vahanas in the temple were also given as gifts to the temple for utsavas. Many people have given barren and agricultural lands to this temple for the daily serving of food to the Lords.
Karkala is very famous for its Gomateshawra Betta and Jain Basadis. There are many other things which are popular all over the town. One of them is Padutirupathi Sree Venkataramana Temple. This is one of the oldest temple of Gaud Saraswat Brahmins after Sri MadhaAnantheshwar Temple Manjeshwar. A powerful shrine resembling Tirupathi.
Etymology
This shrine lies to the west of Tirupathi while original shrine is in the east. The name itself signifies its meaning. Padu means 'West' in Kannada and Tirupathi means Tirumala temple.History and origin
This ancient temple of Karkala, Karnataka, India was built by Gaud Saraswat Brahmins of Karkal. They migrated from Goa after the Portuguese invaded it. They could not suffer their tortures. So they came to places like Karnataka and Kerala where they brought all their household items.Original installation
This temple has a history dating about 14th century when the Jain Bhairarasa Odeyars ruled Karkala and surrounding places. The Gaud Saraswat Brahmins were given land by the Jain Odeyars so that these people can lead a happy life. They also gave them lands for agriculture as these Brahmins had it as an occupation. The priests of this community namely Joishys, Puraniks and Tantris are the main people who had an existence from 14th century. The exact date of installation of this temple is still unknown as during that time there was no written material or documents.Installation ceremony and its history
The main attraction of this temple was its installation ceremony. The Gaud Saraswat Brahmins came to Karnataka in search of place food and shelter. They paid a visit to all the places along the coastline. Some of them settled in Karwar, Ankola, Kumta, Bhatkal, Shirali and so on. Few of them went to Kerala side and settled in Ernakulam, Cochin, Manjeshwar etc. Rest of the others went to Udupi and Dakshina Kannada (which was previously under Mysore State). These GSB's came and settled in Pandya Nagari of Jains between 1400 AD and 1450 AD (now been called as Karkala). They brought with them all their articles and household items which also included idol of Lord Venkataramana. The first GSB, one to enter Karkala was Soire Prabhu whose great grandson is K.Ramesh Prabhu the present trustee of the temple. They are also called as 1st citizen of Karkala. One more family who migrated from Goa along with Prabhu's were the Soma Sharma's. He was a priest in Tirupathi Temple. Prabhu's started their life in Karkala as usual how they used to live in Goa with all the rites and rituals. Also the priests joined them.A day came when some of the GSB's came to this place wandering from place to place for shelter and food. They met the Jain kings and they told them about Prabhus, Sharmas and GSB priests. They gave these people permission to stay with them. One fine day all these GSB's came to Jain King Immadi Bhairava, asking for a land to build a temple for Lord Sree Venkataramana. This was during year 1450 AD. The Jain king pleasurely gave them the Land for the very same purpose with some black stones which were prevalent all over the area. This shows that the Jains were patronised to other religions also. The land which they gave to these GSB's was occupied by a lady of some Mutt (religious institution for learning Vedas and Puranas). The lady heeded to the people and Jains only one condition that, "There are four powerful Ganas(Lord Shiva`s Servants) who should be worshipped and given sacrifices of coconuts, green pumpkins, Turmeric and so on; unless they would get angry. Also an yearly sacrifice should be performed as no unholy things may happen in and around here".
The GSB's and Jain King openly said yes to lady and then temple was being built. Initially a huge platform was built and four pillars were made to stand in the four corners. Entangled coconut leaves were made as a roof for it. The idol was installed inside and prayed for the betterment of people. The compound wall was in its progress for building up the blocks. One fine day Soma Sharma returned to Karkala from Tirupathi with another idol of Lord Sree Venkataramana which was given to him by the Tirumala priests and this was at the end of 14th century. He installed this idol with the previously installed idol of Lord Venkataramana in the newly built stone platform.
During 1500 AD, some dacoits attacked Karkala and started thefting all the gold and silver ornaments & idols. Karkala GSB's got scared about these bad events. They made up their mind and took all their precious articles with the two idols and ran away to some other place. They asked the Jain kings to protect their area. The Jain King promised them and gave 100% moral support. Karkala GSB's reached an area called Mulki where threw all the materials they had with them in a well. Here in Karkala there was a huge fight going on between Jain rulers and the dacoits. At last the dacoits had to run away from Karkala since they had been defeated. As the happenings cooled down Karkala GSB's returned to the well and tried to retrieved all the idols and articles. But in vain they could not retrieve the idol which Soma Sharma had brought with him. They got depressed and returned to Karkala. One fine morning, a Mulki person was passing near the well and found something shining material. He went down and tried to look at it. At his site it was the same idol which Karkala people were searching for. He thought Lord must have made his mind to stay in Mulki, so he took it and made a plan install it in Sree Veera Vittal Temple of Mulki established by Soira Vittal Bhat.
As soon as Karkala GSBs received this news in few days, they rushed to Mulki. But by that time Mulki people had installed it in the temple. Karkala GSB's stayed there and slept the whole night. That night the idol (Lord Venkataramana installed at Mulki) appeared in their dream and said "You all please go to Karkala and stay there, dont get frustrated or depressed because of this event. I will come again to your place and stay there; a Saint from Tirumala Tirupati will be coming to Karkala with me. There will be Sampurna Sannidhi(meant that the idol would be having powerful grace of Tirupathi) in me. Install it with the idol which you have at present in your temple." The very next morning they met Mulki residents and said about all the dream and went back to Karkala with a hope that Tirupathi Sreenivasa would come.
Days and months passed by GSB's waited. All of a sudden one day a person arrived to Karkala with a bag on his shoulder and dressed in the form of a hermit. He asked for a place to take rest with GSBs over there. They gave him a small place to stay. The person was old in age. He had some idol of Lord Vishnu which he used to take it with himself for a pilgrimage. That night when everyone was in deep sleep a strange dream appeared for the GSB's and the saint. Lord of Tirupathi was the main character in the dream. For GSB's the dream was, "Devotees of mine i have already come over here as i promised. The saint who came to this place has come Tirumala and the idol which he has is mine. You take the idol from him and nstall it but as per my instructions.During the ceremony a cow and her calf should be left for feeding after pooja. The place where the cow drops her milk after milking the calf will be my scared place. Do all these things first and then rest leave it to me."For the saint the dream appeared as, "Oh Saint you have travelled much in your life and now its time for you to take rest in your life. I like this place very much and want to stay here for the rest of the time. The people from whom you asked the land are in need of me as i had promised them that i would come from Tirumala Tirupathi and stay in this place. So please hand over me to them." The saint agreed to Lord's wishes and very next morning went to GSB people to hand over the idol with one condition. His condition was,"Any offerings given to Lord almighty would be taken to Tirupathi occasionally and Lord would be taken to Tirupathi once a year". They agreed to hermits condition and installed the idol as per Lord's instructions. This installation was on the day 25 April 1537.
Rites and rituals
Since this temple is related to Tirumala it follows the same rituals as in Tirupathi Temple. In the morning at 6:00AM (in some cases it is 5:30 am during Ashwija Month) the temple doors are opened with Dwara Pooja and Suprabhatam. Dwara Pooja is performed for the door keepers Jaya-Vijaya (in Vishnu Loka they represent DwaraPaalakaas).Suprabhatam is a special slokha recited to wake up the Lord from his sleeps. Then after the end of Suprabhata Nirmala Visarjana (removal of old flowers and decoration of new ones to deities) is performed with Ganji Naivedyam (serving of rice and rice item foods, including Navaneetham-mixture of butter, til and sugar) at about 6:30 am. At 10:00 am Panchaamrutha abhishekha is performed for the Saligrama. This abhishekha is a typical one as performed in Tirupathi. In Tirumala this is performed on Lord Venkateshwara's Stone Statue and to honour the same here it is performed on the Saligrama.
In the afternoon at 12:00 pm Naivedyam is performed wherein several items are served for the lord in a huge plate and utensil made out of copper. Once the Naivedya is over little bit of rice is served in small utensils and is kept in front of Parivar Devas while one is offered to Sree Veeramaruthi Temple. After this Maha Puja is performed at 1:00 pm, this is called here as Raajopchaara Puja. The temple doors are closed after this for Vishrama Seva.
Late in the evening at about 6:00 pm, temple doors are again opened with lighting of oil lamps. A special shlokha is sung called as Deevtige Salaam Shlokham. Recorded cassettes of bhajans are played on loud speakers at this divine time of sunset. At 6:30PM people from all over the town come to temple to sing the hyms of Lord Almighties and this goes on until 8:00 pm.
At 8`O clock again Naivedyam is offered with Mangalaarthi. Once Mangalaaarthi finishes night Utsava is offered, this is usually an outing to the town except on Amavasya and Ekadashi. Once Utsava returns to temple there are five rounds inside; first one being Vaadya Sutthu(Instrumental), second and third is Rigveda and Yajurveda Sutthu, fourth is Sangeetha Sutthu (Yakshagana's Thaala Maddhale) and last one is Sarva Vaadya Sutthu. After the utsav ends with Vasantha Puja (Lord is given Uyaala Seva with recitals of shlokhas) deities are put to sleep which is known as Ekaantha Seva (11:30PM or on festive days depends on time taken).
Income and economy
The income for this temple mainly comes from the Kaanikas(money) given as offering to the Lord. Also the temple has some rental houses and some lands given on lease, so economy of this temple gets higher through this manner. Halls built by this temple are given for some occasions and their rents also adds to the income. But the most important fact is that the work done by any devotee over here is never a paid one but done by his/her own budget. Some of them give funds for this temple and some of them give yearly donations. Some devotees also keep longtime funds.The temple also owns Gold, Silver articles which were given as gift to the Lord Almighties. The wooden, golden and silver Vahanas in the temple were also given as gifts to the temple for utsavas. Many people have given barren and agricultural lands to this temple for the daily serving of food to the Lords.
Other important religious sites in Karkala
- Gommateshwara Betta.
- Chathurmukha Basadi.
- Hiriyangadi Basadi.
- Padmavathi Kere Basadi.
- Shree Ananthashayana Temple.
- Shree Mariamma Mukhaprana Temple.
- Shree Mahalingeshwara Tenmple.
- Shree Umamaheshwara Temple.
- Shree Krishna Temple.
- Shree Siddhivinayaka Temple.
- Shree Raghavendra Swamy Temple.
- Attur Church.
- Jamma Masjid Salmar.
External links
- http://www.karkala.gsb.in
- http://www.padutirupathi.org
- http://www.padutirupathi.in
- http://www.mangaloremithr.com/NewsDisplay.aspx?News-ID=437&Title=SRI
- http://www.svwckarkala.com
- http://www.daijiworld.com/chan/exclusive_arch.asp?ex_id=1097
- http://www.daijiworld.com/news/news_disp.asp?n_id=56418&n_tit=Karkala%3A+Lord+Venkatramana+Temple+Gets+Golden+Door+
- http://www.radioidli.net/karkala-teru-chariot-festival-2008-2/
- http://www.daijiworld.com/news/news_disp.asp?n_id=73477&n_tit=Karkala:+Tataaka+Sangeeth+Mahotsav+Held