A visit to Mavinakere Ranganatha temple

After a hectic work spread throughout week, we planned a long drive in week end. After a quick search on internet we decided to visit the village Mavinakere which is near Holenarasipur. Mavinakere is famous for its temples. It is popular among people living around Hassan as they worship the deities of these temples. This village is well connected by road.

We started at 6.30 am from Mysore and drove through Mysore Hassan high way .The road is simply fantastic.  The picturesque view of lush green fields, bullock carts, ladies carrying water pots and lovely birds will take anybody to a magical world.

We were in Mavinakere at 8.30 am. Here is a small introduction about this place. Mavinakere has two beautiful temples. Lakshmi venakataramana temple is in village and has a small approach road. Bettada Ranganatha temple is situated on a hill in the same village. Mavinkere was ruled by Palegara Laxmana Nayaka . He noticed the deity Ranganatha on hill and started worshiping it. 

It was not difficult for us to travel uphill through well constructed road. Cool breeze, awesome scenery from the hilltop refreshes mind.  We visited the temple and kneeled down before supreme lord. The temple is quite big and has huge open corridors where visitors can sit and view the bounty of nature. 

The hill has around 675 steps. Many devotees use steps to reach the top. We climbed the hill once again through these steps. It was a marvelous experience. People who are health savvy can add this hill to their picnic list. Climbing hill has its own health benefits.

After climbing down, we visited lakshmi venakataramanaswamy temple which is just few kilometers away from hill. The divine atmosphere of the temple makes devotees to forget the outside world. Idols of Lord venkateshvara and Lakshmidevi are very beautiful. Since this temple is on banks of river Hemavathi, Lord venkataramana is praised here as “Hemavathi thatavasa”. The calm and spiritual environment of temple prompts everybody to meditate. The sumptuous tasty prasadam tingled our taste buds and satiated hunger. The temple has a very old tree with a flat trunk.

Thus visit to Mavinakere was beneficial in many aspects. It rejuvenated both body and mind. We drove back to Mysore with sweet memories of this visit.

Place:  Mavinakere, Holenarasipura taluk, Hassan District, Karnataka state, India

Distance: 10 km from holenarsaipur, 20 km from Hassan , 95 km from Mysore,  180 kms from Bangalore

Driving directions:

From Mysore: Yelwala- Bilikere- Krishnarajanagar –  Gandhanahalli-  Holenarasipura- Mavinakere

From Bangalore: Nelamangala- kunigal- bellur-Chennarayapatna- Mavinakere