Guardians of Udupi

हरि सर्वोत्तम । वायु जीवोत्तम । श्री गुरुभ्यो नमः ।

Udupi is an ancient temple town, popular for its delicious food (अन्न) and famous for the Krishna, the Almighty Lord of the Universe Who feeds us all (अन्न ब्रह्म). The Lord presides here in the form of a naughty little boy with three tufts of hair holding a butter-churning rod and rope.

This mesmerizing icon was installed by Jagadguru Shriman Madhvacharya, the reviver of pure Vaishnava Dharma, founder of the Bhakti and Daasa movements and social reformer extraordinaire. And above all, based on direct instruction from Lord Veda Vyasa, Shrimad Acharya left us Sarva Moola Granthas – his legacy of true knowledge of a real world of graded followers to Lord Narayana.

However, long before Shrimad Acharya consecrated the Udupi Krishna temple, the neighboring Anantheshwara temple existed. In fact, Shrimad Acharya, descended as the third अवतार of Vaayu in near-by Paajaka thus blessing his human parents who prayed at this very temple for 12 years!

This whole Western region is called Parashurama Kshetra since it was reclaimed from the sea by the Lord in His fifth अवतार after completing the mission of vanquishing evil Kings who stood in the way of Dharma.

Subsequently, more than a millenium ago, King Rama Bhoja, a great devotee of Parashurama ruled this region. While preparing a site for a यज्ञ, a serpent was killed by mistake. Although it was a demon in disguise, Lord Parashurama instructed the king to build a temple here as atonement. Accordingly, Rama Bhoja built the Anantheswara temple here for Vishnu in Linga form. Since the Lord is installed on silver platform here the older name for Udupi is रजत पीठ.

In later times, Lord Shiva also came to reside in the adjacent Chandramouleeshwara temple since he redeemed Chandra of a curse. Thus, from the Sanskrit for Moon – the Lord/Protector of (प) the stars (उडु) – we get the modern name of this temple town as Udupi.

Along with the ancient Anantheshwara temple, Rama Bhoja also built eight temples around as guardians of this region – four दुर्गालया-s (Durga Devi temples) in the cardinal directions and four स्कन्दालय-s or नागालया-s (Subrahmanya temples) in the inter-cardinal directions. This covered all the eight directions (अष्टदिक्) around the Anantheswara temple and in anticipation of the arrival of Udupi Krishna.

These are must-visit lovely temples with traditional architecture and beautiful surroundings pervaded by the energy of the powerful deities installed more than a millenium ago. All eight temples can be easily visited in one day followed by darshana of Chandramouleeshwara, Anantheshwara and Udupi Krishna.

Here is a zoomable map of all the temples to help plan the day, followed by links to sites with more information and clickable pictures of each temple: