Place · cross-tradition Shiva temple · India
Manjunatha shrine (Jain-managed)
Also known as Belthangady, Dharmasthala Manjunatha, Manjunatha with Jain administrators, Manjunatha (Shiva) with Jain administrators, Manjunatha with Jain administrators
The Manjunatha Shiva temple at Dharmasthala in Dakshina Kannada district, Karnataka, 75 kilometres from Mangaluru — a cross-tradition shrine where the Shaiva Shiva deity is administered by a Jain family (the Heggade family) with Vaishnava Madhva priests performing the rituals. The 800-year tradition dates to the 13-century when the local Jain chieftain Birmanna Pergade sheltered a Shiva deity from Portuguese destruction. The current Heggade head of the temple is Veerendra Heggade (since 1968, the longest-serving temple trust head in India), who was awarded the Padma Vibhushan in 2015. The temple's distinctive feature is its daily arya chavala (annadanam) free meal for 50,000+ pilgrims per day — one of the largest free-food operations in any Indian temple. The temple's annual Lakshadeepotsavam (lamp festival) each November-December draws over 1 million pilgrims. The temple runs 450+ educational and healthcare institutions.
- Function
- Sacred site & pilgrimage
- Confidence
- Established / referenced
- Location
- 12.950, 75.383
Connections (2)
- Companion in the same setMoodabidri 1000-pillar basadi
The Tulu coast is where Jain kings ruled Hindu subjects for centuries, and the arrangements that came out of it outlived the kingdoms — a Jain family still administering the Śiva temple at Belur, with Hindu priests and one endowment. Mūdabidri is the Jain centre those same families endowed. Jain political power lasted longer on the Tulu coast than anywhere else in India, into the seventeenth century, which is why its institutional arrangements are unlike the rest of the country's.
- Dakshina KannadaKukke Subrahmanya
Kukke Subrahmanya and Dharmasthala are the two great pilgrimages of Dakshina Kannada, and both show the coast's habit of shared administration: a Jain family running a Śiva shrine at one, and at the other a serpent cult that Brahmin, Jain and Tulu Bunt families all take part in. Kukke Subrahmanya's Āshlesha Bali rite for serpent affliction draws people from across south India, and the temple's priests, patrons and pilgrims come from several religions at once.
On these journeys
Sources
Wikipedia, “Belthangady”. Jain tīrtha guides and the Digambara and Śvetāmbara temple trusts’ own records.
Open Manjunatha shrine (Jain-managed) in the repository →