This post is part of the series: “I have been going to places” which is a series of travel tales about the places I have been exploring in India and outside.
“Murudeshwara is a town in the Bhatkal Taluk of Uttara Kannada district in the state of Karnataka, India. “Murudeshwara” is another name of the Hindu god Shiva. Famous for the world’s tallest Shiva statue, this beach town lies on the coast of the Arabian Sea and is also famous for the Murudeshwara Temple.”
Reading this on Wikipedia I started my journey on 06-Feb, heard about the place from many people, saw some photographs in a friend’s Facebook account last month and so I was traveling with my friends. I always had a wish to travel and see south India as soon as I arrived here in NITK Surathkal for my Post Graduation course.
We did some research to know more about the place and I found out the place’s history goes way back to the time of Ramayana, so here is what I found out:
“The origin of the name “Murudeshwara” dates to the time of Ramayana. The Hindu gods attained immortality and invincibility by worshiping a divine Lingam called the AtmaLinga. The Lanka king ‘Ravana’ wanted to attain immortality by obtaining the AtmaLinga. Since the AtmaLinga belonged to Lord Shiva, Ravana worshiped Shiva with devotion (So Selfish people can be 😉 ). Pleased by his prayers (it means Lord Shiva was buttered enough;) ), Lord Shiva appeared before him and asked him what he wanted. By this time Narada had asked Lord Vishnu to change Ravana’s mind. As a result of this plot, Ravana asks for Goddess Parvathi, and Lord Shiva offers her to him.
On his way back to Lanka Narada tells Ravana that Lord had not given him the real Parvathi and that the real Parvathi was in Pathala (playing games as always!). So Ravana free his companion goes to Pathala and marries a king’s daughter, assuming her to be the real Parvathi. He then returns to Lanka, where his mother asks him for the Linga. Ravana then comes to know of the tricks played on him by Lord Vishnu. He, therefore, prays to Lord Shiva again, begging for his forgiveness. Lord Shiva appears and this time, Ravana requests the AtmaLinga as his boon. Lord Shiva agrees to give him the boon with the condition (There are always some *Conditions apply ;)) that it should never be placed on the ground. If the AtmaLinga was ever placed on the ground, all the powers would return to Lord Shiva again. Having obtained his boon, Ravana started back on his journey to Lanka.
Sage Narada, who came to know of this incident, realized that with the AtmaLinga, Ravana may obtain immortality and create havoc on earth (haha then why did Lord Shiva make the AtmaLinga as Open Sourced in the first place ?? ). He approached Lord Ganesh and requested him to prevent the AtmaLinga from reaching Lanka. Lord Ganesh knew that Ravana was a very devoted person who used to perform the prayer ritual in the evening every day without fail. He decided to make use of this fact and came up with a plan to confiscate the AtmaLinga from Ravana.
As Ravana was nearing Gokarna (this may be my next stop, again a good place ), Lord Vishnu blotted out the sun to give the appearance of dusk. Ravana now had to perform his evening rituals but was worried because, with the AtmaLinga in his hands, he would not be able to do his rituals. At this time, Lord Ganesh in the disguise of a Brahmin boy accosted him. Ravana requested him to hold the AtmaLinga until he performed his rituals, and asked him not to place it on the ground. Ganesh struck a deal with him saying that he would call Ravana thrice, and if Ravana did not return within that time, he would place the AtmaLinga on the ground.
As predicted, before Ravana could return after completing his rituals, Ganesh had already placed the AtmaLinga on the ground (and BOOOM!!!). Vishnu then removed his illusion and it was daylight again. Ravana, realizing that he had been tricked, tried to uproot and destroy it; Due to the force exerted by Ravana (now I know how Egyptians made the pyramids.. so much of muscle power haha), some pieces were scattered. One such piece from the head of the linga is said to have fallen in present day ‘Surathkal'(this is where I am right now). The famous Sadashiva temple is said to be built around that piece of linga. Then he decided to destroy the covering of the AtmaLinga and threw the case covering it to a place called Sajjeshwara, 23 miles away. Then he threw the lid of the case to a placed called Guneshwara (now Gunavanthe)and Dhareshwara, 10-12 miles away. Finally, he threw the cloth covering the AtmaLinga to a placed called Mrideshwara in Kanduka-Giri (Kanduka Hill). Mrideshwara has been renamed to Murudeshwara.”
So after reading this hilarious story, we left Surathkal at 7 AM in the morning by a passenger train. It was a nice journey with nice landscapes around. I must say the train route between Maharashtra and Karnataka on the west coast is a thing to see, really mesmerizing greenery, especially in the rainy season. It took two and a half hours to reach there. The railway station itself is placed at a very nice location, mountains on the sides, an amazing sight for any photographer.
How to reach the temple:
We took a public transport outside the train station to reach the temple, apart from the temple, the city looks like a barren desert and nothing else. The first sight of the place is so fascinating in itself, just imagine yourself seeing clear water of a beach, the great idol of Lord Shiv and the 20 stories high Gopura all in one place. You see a temple when you pass the gates of gopura, all painted with gold spray paint which actually looks good from inside.
Places to see / Things to do:
The two life-size elephants in concrete stand guard at the steps leading to the temple. As you go ahead inside you have to pay Rs 20 per person to up via lift in the gopura, there is no terrace kind of thing upstairs but still, the view is quite photographic through the large windows they have placed there.
Then the next best thing that you can do is go for the ferry ride in the sea. Take precautions and don’t go for ferry rides when its still noon, wear a hat or cover your head otherwise you may get sunburned.
There were many private boats available for like Rs 1000 for a family, JetSki for a single person. We took the cheapest of them all, the ferry which was just Rs 40. It was a different kind of feeling when you know there is just water below you and nothing else. The ferry ride took approximately 20 minutes and it was fun.
The third attraction is the Great Idol of Shivji for which you have to climb up some small number of stairs 🙂 but once you are there the view is perfect, Gopura on one side , the idol on the other , the sea on the third side and the big residency with a big lawn on the forth side. For the facts: It is the tallest statue of Shiva in the world. The statue is 123 feet (37 m) in height and took about 2 years to build. The statue was built by Shivamogga’s Kashinath and several other sculptors, financed by businessman and philanthropist Mr. R.N. Shetty, at a cost of approximately 50 million Rs. The idol is designed such that it gets direct sunlight and thus appears sparkling. Originally, the statue had four arms and was adorned in gold paint. However, large wind gusts blew the arm off (the one that held a small drum, later it was restored), and rains dissolved the paint.
We had food in one of the sea-side restaurants, the service was horrible and the food was just fine but not great.
The trip ended around 5 pm with another passenger train back to Surathkal. On the whole, it was a good day, took some 347 photographs and most of them were just awesome.
I will be writing more about my other trips, keep reading, keep smiling!
Explore Murudeshwar in one day – NITK Surathkal
Almost Curious 