temples of bangalore

Bangalore is a place of worship with more than 1000 temples, 400 mosques, 100 churches, three Gurudwaras, two Buddhist viharas and even a fire temple. It is great to see all these religions coexist.

We were lucky enough to borrow Mark’s driver Victor and he drove us around the city and therefore I had a chance to visit a few of the temples while I was in Bangalore.

The Bull Temple
On the way to The Bull Temple, we spotted bats hanging from the tress. I mean large bats. And some squirrels as well.

At the entrance of temple, we were smeared with Kumkum in between our eyes. I thought it made it a real temple experience because Hindus wear Kumkum during auspicious occasions as well as completing their daily prayers.

The Bull Temple, a nearly 500-year-old temple in Bangalore with one of the biggest Nandi idols in the world. Nandi, the sacred bull is revered as a Hindu Demi-God and the vehicle of Lord Shiva. It is also called Dodda Basavana Gudi.

The entire sculpture of the bull is carved out of one single granite rock. It is huge—4.5m high and 6.5m long. Coconut oil, butter and ‘benne’ are regularly applied to this statue which caused a change in colour from grey to black.

Shree Dodda Ganapathi Temple
Dodda Ganesha Temple is located right next to The Bull temple, and it is one of the oldest temples of Lord Ganesha. The name ‘dodda’ means big in the Kannada language and it basically translates as “Big Ganesha” and it is big—18ft tall in height and 16ft wide.

Apparently, the temple attracts many visitors during Ganesha festival, and they decorate the giant Ganesha idol in many ways and smear it with 100kg of butter. Despite the hot temperature inside the temple, the butter does not melt. Another interesting fact about this Ganesha Temple is that the giant idol inside is believed to be growing on its right side!

This is what you can see outside. Unfortunately, I didn’t get to see the big Ganesha idol because it was closed as you can see in the photo below.

Sri Circle Maramma Temple
A famous temple in North Bangalore dedicated to Goddess Maramma, a form of Goddess Durga. This temple started as a small shrine and grew into a bigger complex over the years. The ‘circle’ in its name actually comes from the circle/roundabout near the temple.

Every Tuesday and Friday is considered as an auspicious day and the crowd gets bigger. The Priests, here, also offer special pooja and prayer for vehicles which is called Ayodha Pooja. So, when someone gets a new car, they bring it in here for a blessing by the patron deity for cars. It is believed when the city was a rural area, everything had a patron god and this temple became one for the vehicles.

This is me, taking photos. Unfortunately, after Bangalore we went to Singapore and my handbag was stolen with my camera in it. So, I don’t have my own photos for Bangalore trip at all!