Visit to Kukke Subrahmanya Temple, One Of The Famous Temples Of Karnataka.

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Kukke Subrahmanya Temple, Karnataka.

We had been visiting this temple often for the past 20 years or so.  I have mentioned about this in a couple of my earlier post too.

This is a famous Hindu temple, situated in the village of Subrahmanya, Karnataka. Here, the Hindu God Karthikeya (son of Lord Shiva and Parvathi) is worshipped as Subrahmanya, lord of all serpents. The epics relate that the divine serpent Vasuki and other serpents found refuge under Subrahmanya when threatened by the Garuda, Vishnu's Vahana/vehicle... a Kite-like bird which catches snakes.

We stayed in a hotel (Vasantha Mahal) in Mangalore which was quite good. Subrahmanya was around 105 Kms. from Mangalore, around 2 hours' journey by taxi.  We left at about 8 am, had breakfast at Hotel Uthsav which was nearby (all Udupi specials like Moode kadubu and other delicacies are available here) and left for Subrahmanya.  It was drizzling throughout the way.  Since the temple is situated in Western Ghats, the route was covered by trees on both sides.  The road used to be very narrow 20 years back and dark because of the trees, but now, it has become a quite busy road. But the old feel is still there.  Since we were there on a Wednesday, middle of the week, crowd was not there.  We could go to the sanctum sanctorum without standing in the queue. Schools had started after the summer vacation, so this was the right time to go there.  If too much crowd is there, they let the senior citizens in a separate queue. 


Our family members have got sarpa dosha (somebody in our family must have harmed snakes) and we were asked to do Ashlesha bali, i.e. pinda pradhana ceremony like we do for humans when they die, for the serpents.  We have to go on the previous day itself, register for the pooja.  Stay in some hotel (many are there now), come back in the morning after taking bath.  Do sankalpa (give your name, nakshatra/star, gothra etc.) with the priest and wait at the place of the pooja.  Snake shaped rangolis are drawn and pinda pradhanam (rice balls) was placed on them during the pooja. Actually, it is interesting to watch.  It takes around an hour or so.  Then prasadam is given.  It is not very expensive too. We did this pooja long back.

Some people do sarpa prathishte (placing serpent shaped stones at a particular place there at the temple). 

A close-up picture of the Gopuram.  Normally Karnataka temples do not have this type of gopuram.  They will be very simple.  This one resembles Tamilnadu temple gopurams as per my view.  Looks beautiful!

This is the temple for Subrahmanya (Lord Shiva and Parvati's son). More details from Wiki:

According to one Mythology, after killing the demon rulers, Tharaka, Shurapadmasura and their followers in a war, Lord Shanmukha reached Kumara parvatha with his brother Ganesha and others. He was received by Indra and his followers. Indra being very happy prayed Lord Kumara swamy, i.e.Subrahmanya, to accept and marry his daughter Devasena for which the Lord readily agreed. The divine marriage took place on Margashira shudha shashti at Kumara parvatha. Gods like Brahma, Vishnu, Rudra and many other deities assembled for the marriage and coronation ceremony of Shanmukha/Subrahmanya, for which waters of several holy rivers were brought. With these waters of Mahabhisheka fell down to form a river which was later known by the popular name Kumaradhara.The great Shiva Bhakta and Serpent king Vasuki was performing tapas for years in the Biladwara caves of Kukke Subrahmanya to avoid the attack of Garuda. Following Lord Shiva`s assurance Shanmuka gave darshan to Vasuki and blessed him that he would stay with his parama bhakta in this place forever. Hence the pooja offered to Vasuki or Nagaraja are nothing but the poojas to Lord Subrahmanya.

Kukke means makri/cane basket.  In olden days, people were bringing serpent shaped stones in baskets and keep them near the river Kumaradhara, it seems.  So, the temple is called Kukke Subrahmanya.

Lord Subrahmanya and Vasuki. Courtesy: Here

Bhairava and Umamaheshwara Sannidhis can be seen during the pradakshina.  I don't know how old this temple is, but the Gopuram looks recently built.  Earlier Adi Subrahmanaya temple only was here which can be seen two streets away.  The prasada given here is Snake nest's mud.

And we met this beautiful, young elephant in the temple.  He was a happy animal.  No chain marks on his legs/ankles could be seen, which made us very happy!  He was blessing everyone for a coin! Well, both I and my husband stood in front of him, watching him for sometime, happily!

We can have lunch at the temple.  We were in a hurry, so we didn't have it.  Local people always have it here without fail, as prasada. We visited the Adi Subrahmanya temple which was nearby and then had lunch outside the temple, which was just OK and returned to Mangalore. We saw this near the Adi Subrahmanya temple, which was interesting!

We can pay for annual poojas at the seva counter outside the counter.  It was drizzling throughout the day.

It was quite clean everywhere and the toilets also were clean!

This video shows the inside of the temple.  Got it in 'you tube'!


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