Venugopalaswamy Temple, Devanahalli

Devanahalli is a small town located at a distance of 35 kms fro Bangalore. There is lot of history associated with this place and there exists a beautiful Fort. There are many temples in the fort dedicated to Venugopalaswamy, Nanjundeshwara, Chandramauleshwara, Veerabhadraswamy, Ranganathaswamy etc., which belong to various era.

The Venugopalaswamy temple is the oldest temple. It has a tall Rayagopura at the entrance and has a spacious inner Prakara with Garuda Stambha. At the entrance are placed two Vishnu statutes of Ganga times.

Rayagopura

the shikara on inner prakara and garuda stambha

On the pillars of the main entrance stand two horsemen with swords unsheathed. On these pillars on all other sides there are beautiful sculptures like dancing females, and warriors etc.,

Pillars at the entrance

The Garbhagriha has a standing Venugopala image of Vijayanagara style. The Navaranga in front of Garbhagriha has four black stoned pillars carved with fine relief sculptures on all sides.

One of the pillars in the Navarang

There are many sculptures on these pillars, such as Hayagriva, dancing female figures with attendant musicians, a conch blower, a Kinnara with the lower portion of his body in bird form, a huntress removing a thorn from her leg, etc.

dancing female

kinnara

The outer walls have a frieze of large images illustrating scenes mostly from the Ramayana and the feats of Lord Krishna as a child.

scene from Ramayana

How to Reach There

This place is located on Bangalore - Hyderabad National Highway 7. On this road do not take a deviation to the airport. But still proceed until you reach a junction with circle on the road.

To see the World visit other participants at: That's My World Tuesday.