Mahimapura is an infrastructurally underdeveloped village, sited close to the heart of India’s silicon valley, Bangalore. The village is a culturally rich and has exotic heritage and is endowed with unparalleled natural beauty. Simply put Mahimapura is a must visit location for anyone even remotely interested in nature, history and culture & traditions of the state.
The most attractive feature of Mahimapura is its quaint wooded hillock crowned by a beautiful Vijayanagara style Garuda/ Ranganathaswamy temple. According to the temple priest, this is the only shrine in the state where Garuda, the vehicle of Lord Vishnu, is given the same importance as Ranganathaswamy, the main deity. Mahimaranganathaswamy the central deity appears like a mound of jaggery and is believed to be naturally originated, while the Vishnu image which is worshipped was installed much later during the Vijayanagar period. At the foot of the hill there is the temple in which a finely carved monolithic idol of Hanuman standing tall at about 12 ft is enshrined.
To visit the Mahimaranganathaswamy temple one has to negotiate the steep climb of around 350 ft via a flight of well-hewn stone steps. The top of the hill is a rounded plateau with a beautiful temple dedicated to Lord Ranganathaswamy, which houses fine statues of Garuda, Hanumantha and Ranganatha (installed). The temple is a small structure with a squarish garbhagriha (sanctum sanctorum) and has square Vijayanagara style pillars endowed with fine relief sculptures. The garbhagriha is crowned by a brick and mortar Shikhara which is visible from a long distance. The main idol of Ranganatha is in Vijayanagara style is actually a Venkataramana image with Shankha (conch), Chakra (discus), Abhaya and Varada attributes. There is also a beautiful and antique metallic image of Venkataramana which is used during festivals.
The temple is completely built of stone and each pillar is beautifully carved depicting the various forms of Lord Vishnu. But due to faulty maintenance the artistry has become almost invisible. The pillars have been whitewashed resulting in the finer aspects and intricate cuts and curves of the sculptures becoming invisible. The whitewashing has actually covered up most of the artistic images of the pillars. It looks rather odd that natural stone pillars have been whitewashed instead of being cleaned and washed with water.
Worship happens only in the morning in the temple; there is no worship during the nights, as it is believed that divine sages visit the place during the evenings. Many film sequences of local language films have been shot in this place. The rural locales have provided a scenic backdrop to the improbably song-n-dance sequences of many Kannada films.
Legend:
There is an interesting legend associated with the origin of the temple. Mahimapura is believed to be the place where Garuda the vehicle of Lord Vishnu performed penance to cleanse himself of the sin of eating the dead body of a Rakshasi (ogress). It is believed that several thousands of years ago, sage Kashyapa’s wife Aditi is given two eggs by the Sun god, who says that two sons will be born out of the eggs. Aditi waits for several years for the eggs to hatch. Getting impatient she breaks one of the eggs and a child without arms and legs comes out of the egg, curses her with a life of slavery and vanishes. She feels sad and worships the Sun god again seeking forgiveness. The Sun god appears and advises her to wait and that a powerful and strong son will emerge from the remaining egg. After some years Garuda comes out of the egg and immediately demands food from his mother, she directs him to Sage Kashyapa. Garuda who is impatient with hunger disturbs the penance of Sage Kashyapa and asks for food. The sage then gets angry and tells Garuda to go to a rocky place where the dead body of a ‘Rakshasi’ (ogress) is lying, eat it and satisfy his hunger. This place is called the ‘Rakshasi Bande’ and is situated adjacent to Mahimapura hill.
Garuda eats the dead body and later feels that he has committed a mistake by disturbing sage Kashyapa’s penance. He seeks forgiveness from sage Kashyapa, who in turn directs him to Mahimapura with an instruction to worship Lord Ranganatha. Garuda performs intensive penance and after several years Lord Ranganatha appears before him in the Nirakari form or as a mound of Jaggery. Garuda built a small temple in the memory of the lord here. Local chieftains renovated the temple and later during the Chola and Vijayanagara period a new stone temple was built and embellished with grants and renovations.
Festivals and fairs:
The annual jatra on the Magha Poornima day of Hindu calendar, the festivities go on for almost 15 days and a cattle fair is also organised. A Car Festival (Rathothsava) is also conducted. Several village level competitions are also held. Apart from this three important festivals are celebrated with great pomp here, i.e., Janmashtami, Dasara (Navratri) and Narasimha Jayanthi.
Getting there.
Start off on the National Highway 4 (Bangalore - Tumkur Road) and drive for around 45 kms. One can find a large sign on the left side, which reads ‘Mahimapura‘ and an arrow points towards a cross. Take left and proceed straight for around 1.5 kms. You will come across a small hillock with a steep flight of steps leading to the top. This is Mahimapura. KSRTC buses ply thrice a day from Bangalore to Mahimapura. Alternatively one can travel to Nelamangala by BMTC and travel by local transport to Mahimapura.
