Place · Shakta pitha · India
Chamundeshvari, Mysuru
Also known as Chāmundeśvarī, Mysuru, Chamundeshwari, Chamundi Hills, Chamundeshwari, Chamundeshwari — Chamundi Hills, Chamundi Hills, Chamundi Hills, Mysuru, Mysuru
The Mahashakti Pitha at Chamundi hill above Mysuru, Karnataka, counted among the eighteen Maha Shakta Pithas as the site where Sati's hair fell. The goddess Chamundeshwari is said to have slain the buffalo demon Mahishasura — the demon from whom Mysore (Mahishasura-ooru, 'town of Mahishasura') takes its name. The Wodeyar royal house of Mysore made Chamundeshwari their tutelary goddess from 1399 onward, and the ten-day Mysore Dasara that still runs each September-October — the state-sponsored royal procession from the Mysore Palace to Banni Mantapa — is the most elaborate Dasara in India. The 12th-century temple on the 1,062-metre hill is reached by 1,008 steps.
- Function
- Sacred site & pilgrimage
- Confidence
- Established / referenced
- Location
- 12.273, 76.674
Connections (3)
- Site adjacencyMysore Palace
The Wadiyar palace stands below Chamundi hill, and Chamundeshwari on top of it is the family's tutelary goddess — the Dasara procession that the Mysore court made famous runs between them. The dynasty took its legitimacy from the goddess after the fall of Vijayanagara, whose Dasara they were continuing, and the present palace of 1912 was built in Indo-Saracenic style by an English architect for a court that had been a British protectorate for over a century.
- Site withinMysuru
Chāmundeśvarī, Mysuru sits inside Mysuru and forms one piece of its layered sacred, royal or civic landscape. The city carries this entry as one of the sites that make its urban fabric legible — a shrine, monument, institution or craft tradition specifically anchored at this location — and the city's broader history reads better when the stop is seen in its context rather than in isolation. The surrounding streets, markets and other heritage ensembles around it belong to the same single city.
- Associated withMysore Dasara
Mysore Dasara celebrates the goddess Chamundeshwari, a form of Durga, whose slaying of the demon Mahishasura is held to have given Mysuru its name, and whose temple crowns Chamundi Hill above the city. On Vijayadashami her image, placed on a golden mantapa of about 750 kilograms, is worshipped by the royal couple and carried through the city on a decorated elephant. The festival honours her in her warrior form, alongside the state sword, weapons, elephants and horses.
Sources
Hindu pilgrimage sites in India — Wikipedia
Open Chamundeshvari, Mysuru in the repository →