Melukote - Dear to Rāmānuja's Heart

This South Indian hill temple served as a refuge for many Vaiṣṅavas during the Mogul era, including one of the greatest saints of Indian history.

by Adbhuta Hari Dāsa

Melukote sits on a hill about thirty miles north of Mysore, in the South Indian state of Karnataka. It is one of the four most important holy sites for Śrī Vaiṣṅavas, the followers of the great spiritual master and reformer Śrī Rāmānuja (A.D. 1017-1137). Rāmānuja spent at least twelve years in Melukote (may-lu-ko-tay), setting up strict standards of deity worship still followed today.

The main temple in Melukote is that of Tiru Nārāyaṅa. ("Tiru" is the Tamil equivalent of "Śrī," an honorific meaning "opulent."). Resting prominently on a hill above the town is the temple of Yoga Narasimha, the Lord's half-man, half-lion incarnation seated in a yoga posture.

I visited Melukote with my spiritual master, His Holiness Śrīdhara Swami, accompanied by three other ISKCON members, including two from China.

In many South Indian temples, pilgrims who sponsor special worship of the deity are granted an exclusive viewing of the ceremony. Taking advantage of this custom, Rohiṅī Tanai Dāsa, a member of our group, arranged for Śrīdhara Swami to sponsor a bathing ceremony for Yoga Narasimha.

We arrived at the base of the hill at 11:00 A.M. and conquered countless steps to reach the entrance tower. After passing through several halls and corridors, we were greeted in the main temple hall by the chief priest, Nara-yan Bhatta. He had everything ready for the ceremony and began bathing the deity with water, milk, yogurt, honey, and sugarwater. Priests chanted prayers for purification from the Pavamana-sukta and prayers for glorification of the Lord from the Nārāyaṅa Upaniṣad and the Viṣṅu-suktas.

After the bathing, the doors to the deity's chamber were closed for five minutes. When they reopened, the deity in the dark room looked fearsome—He was covered with turmeric powder. A priest ended the ceremony by offering the deity some camphor, a ghee lamp, betel leaves, betel nuts, and a banana and then giving them to Śrīdhara Swami. This indicated that all the blessings were transferred to the person who sponsored the bathing of the deity.

At that point a priest allowed other people to have a glimpse of the Lord while we stayed in the inner sanctum of the deity room. Then the priest again closed the altar, humbly asking us to wait for some time until they finished dressing the Lord. They offered us caranamrta (water that had bathed the Lord) mixed with banana, jaggery (unrefined sugar), honey, coconut, and tulasi leaves.

While waiting for the deity to be dressed, we went to the roof of the temple, from where we could see Melukote spread out below. The most prominent places we noticed were the Tiru Nārāyaṅa temple, Kalyani ("Auspicious") Pond, the large entrance gate of a time-ravaged fort (Melukote means "upper fort"), and the Academy of Sanskrit Research, where computer scientists are working on, among other things, a program that can perform natural language processing with Sanskrit grammar. The Academy also has a well-stocked library of old manuscripts, a garden of purely Vedic plants, and livestock carefully bread to recapture the characteristics of early Vedic herds.

All the surrounding area was clearly visible from the hill. One of the priests told me that at night one can see the lights of Mysore.

Prahlāda's Cave

The priest also told me that according to the Nāradīya Purāṅa, Prahlāda Mahārāja installed the deity of Yoga Narasimha thousands of years ago while visiting Visnucitta, a celibate performing penance here. The priest invited us to see the cave under the temple where it's said that Prahlāda Mahārāja meditated. Some of us happily accepted the proposal and went down from the northern, back side of the temple. The entrance had narrow steps, and then we had to bend our heads and even crawl. The point where Prahlāda Mahārāja meditated is just below the deity. From there we crawled some more and then came out under the lower part of the temple.

By then the deity was dressed, so we went to see Him. One priest offered Him 108 tulasi leaves while others chanted 108 names of Lord Narasimha.

The temple was now open to all pilgrims, and they flooded in to see the Lord sitting in the yoga posture, dressed in red-and-white cloth, and wearing garlands of flowers and tulasi. On His head rested a beautiful crown, and He wore metal gloves. Two of His hands rested on His folded knees, and the other two held a disc and a conch shell.

Kalyani Pond

From the Yoga Narasimha temple we came down the hill to meet a resident priest, Sudarshan Acharya. On the way to his house, we offered our respects to Kalyani Pond, the chief of several sacred ponds in Melukote, by sprinkling some of its water on our heads. According to the Isvara-saṁhitā, when Lord Kṛṣṅa in His incarnation as Lord Varāha lifted the earth from the universal ocean, some drops of water clinging to His body fell on the hill at Melukote, creating Kalyani Pond. The Padma Purāṅa mentions Kalyani Pond, and according to the Matsya Purāṅa, Garuḍa, Lord Viṣṅu's eagle-carrier, brought white clay here from Svetadvipa, Lord Viṣṅu's planet within this universe.

After passing through the main street, we arrived at the house of Sudarshan Acharya, where we stayed for two hours. He told us that the following great personalities had all visited Melukote: Lord Kṛṣṅa, Lord Balarāma, Lord Rāmacandra, Lord Datta-treya, the Pāṅḍavas, Nārada Muni, Sanat-kumāra, Prahlāda Mahārāja, Ambarīṣa Mahārāja, Parāśara Muni, and Śrī Rāmānujācārya.

Sudarshan Acharya showed us his deities of Sudarśana (the Lord's disc) and Lakṣmī-Narasimha, given to his ancestors by Rāmānujācārya, who had also authorized his ancestors to give mantras of Lord Narasimha and Sudarśana for health and for protection in spiritual life.

After lunch at Sudarshan Acharya's home, we left for the daily 4:00-P.M. opening of the Tiru Nārāyaṅa temple.

History

It is said that Lord Nārāyaṅa came to Melukote hill in response to a penance performed by Lord Brahmā by which he assumed the form of a divine temple. Today the Tiru Nārāyaṅa temple is not architecturally identical to the original one described in the Pañca-ratragama, but it is still honored as a self-manifested sacred place.

As we entered the temple, the deity Tiru Nārāyaṅa was directly in front of us. He is five to six feet tall. Priests chanted 1,008 names of the Lord, who gave blessings with one hand and held a club, a disc, and a conch shell in His other three hands. Rāmānujācārya discovered the deity in an ant hill after the Lord directed him to the spot in a dream.

On the right side of the entrance, in a separate shrine, is a small Nārāyaṅa deity, the processional deity, known as Cheluva Nārāyaṅa, Cheluva Pillai, Sampad-kumāra, and Ramapriya"one who is dear to Lord Rāma." [See sidebar "The Devotion of a Princess."] Lord Rāma worshiped this deity with great love. In the Nāradīya Purāṅa, sages ask Nārada Muni how Lord Nārāyaṅa came to this place. He tells them that the deity was first presented to Brahmā to worship, and Brahmā gave the deity to Sanat- kumāra, one of his sons. Lord Viṣṅu then ordered Ananta Sesa, the lord of the serpents, to assume the form of a mountain at Melukote and wait for His arrival. Sanat-kumāra transported the deity with His entire temple complex to Melukote. Later he presented the deity to Lord Rāma. Rāma's son Kusa gave the deity as a dowry for his daughter, who married a prince of the Yadu dynasty.

Lord Kṛṣṅa appeared in the Yadu dynasty and worshiped the deity. During that time, the diamond crown of the Lord Aniruddha (Viṣṅu), residing in the milk ocean, was stolen by Virocana, the son of Prahlāda. Garuḍa killed Virocana and retrieved the crown. But on the way back he found Kṛṣṅa playing in Vṛndāvana with His friends and cows. So Garuḍa gave the crown, known as Vajramukti, to Lord Kṛṣṅa, and Kṛṣṅa offered it to the deity Ramapriya. (Today, Vairamudi—"The Festival of the Diamond Crown"is one of the temple's main festivals.)

When Lord Balarāma returned to Dwarka after one of His pilgrimages, He told Lord Kṛṣṅa that the deity in Melukote (discovered by Rāmānujācārya) was identical to their deity.

So they took Ramapriya to Melukote and placed Him before Tiru Nārāyaṅa. They found no difference between them. Ramapriya stayed in Melukote, and thereafter the Yadus frequently visited there to worship the Lord, who became their family deity.

Hall of Pillars

We offered prayers to the deity Ramapriya and then walked around the temple, stopping at the small shrines of Hanumān, Śrī Lakṣmī, and the twelve Alvars, saints of the South Indian tradition. Śrī Lakṣmī, the consort of Lord Nārāyaṅa, is known here as Yadugiri Nachiyar. Her grace is considered even more important than the Lord's. In front of her shrine is a hall of pillars carved with great dexterity. Each one is unique, filled with ornaments, dancing figures, and scenes from the Rāmāyaṅa.

While examining the pillars, we arrived in front of the deity of Rāmānujācārya, which was made during his lifetime and approved by him. When he had decided to leave Melukote, his disciples asked his permission to make the deity. Overwhelmed by their love and devotion, he consented.

During Rāmānuja's twelve years in Melukote, a tyrant named Kullotunga Chola ruled southern India. He could not tolerate any worship of Lord Viṣṅu. Many Vaiṣṅavas fled to Melukote, where they were given refuge by the local people. Moved by the benevolence of the people of Melukote, Rāmānuja called them Tirukulattar, "the kind people."

At that time in Karnataka, a Jain named Bittideva was ruler of Belur. He became a disciple of Rāmānuja and received the Vaiṣṅava name Vishnuvar-dhana. As a service to his guru, he renovated the temple of Tiru Nārāyaṅa.

In the late evening we left for Bangalore. I was inspired by the spirit of service to Vaiṣṅavas shown in Melukote, and by the residents' surrender in devotion to the Lord, the same principles accepted and emphasized by Caitanya Mahāprabhu.

Adbhuta Hari Dāsa joined ISKCON in 1994 in Croatia. He serves as personal assistant to his spiritual master, Śrīdhara Swami.

For more information, consult Holy Places and Temples of India, by Jaḍa Bharata Dāsa, available from the Krishna.com Store.

See more photos of Melukote at www.krishna.com/melukote.