Venugopala Swamy Temple – Kannambadi, Karnataka

Venugopala Swamy Temple is a Hindu temple dedicated to Lord Krishna, incarnation of Lord Vishnu. This Temple is located near Krishna Raja Sagara, Mandya (district), Karnataka. This temple is an example of Hoysala architecture in Karnataka. Venugopala Swamy Temple was built in the 12^th century AD.

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History – Original Location

Initially, before the Krishna Raja Dam (KRD) project was conceived by Sir M. Visvesvaraya in 1909 the temple was located in the village of Kannambadi. When the KRD project was conceived, it meant that Kannambadi and the surrounding would get submerged. The King of Mysore at that time, Krishna Raja Wadiyar 4 ordered for the construction of new village for the residents of Kannambadi and named the new village as Hosa Kannambadi (new Kannambadi). First phase of the dam was completed by the year 1930 and the Venugopala Swamy Temple (original) got submerged along with two other temples namely Kenneshwara (Ishwara) Temple and Kalamma Temple (local deity temple). The main idol of Venugopala Swamy (Lord Krishna) was shifted to the new temple in the rehabilitated village before the submersion of the original temple.

Submersion and Relocation

After the KRD dam project took place, by the year 1930 the village of Kannambadi was completely buried underwater. Tough the village and the temple was buried underwater but the temple would resurface whenever, the water level in the reservoir dropped. It has been more than 70 years that the temple lay underground. The Khoday Foundation took up the task of relocating and restoring the temple under the guidance of liquor baron and philanthropist Mr. Sri Hari Khoday. It is said that, initially the restoration of the entire complex was planned to take place at Madhuvana Park, Mysore. There were protests against the plan, from the villagers of Hosa Kannambadi and the people convinced the foundation to shift the temple to a place near the rehabilitated village.

The new site of the temple is just a kilometre, towards the north of the original site. If the water level of KRD reaches around 124 ft then the water touches the back wall of the temple. The restoration of the temple was completed in the year 2011.

Architecture

The deities and murtis which were installed from the original temple reside in 46 constituent shrines – on the southern and northern side there are 17 shrines each and and 12 on the western side. The temple sides are embellished with 24 murtis depicting the Dasavatara, along with images of Lord Brahma, , Harihara Saraswathi, Jalasayana and Hairgrip. Jalasayana Narayana is the image of Lord Vishnu, in a reclining posture on the water.

The shikhara temple, is one of the exceptional architectural features of the Venugopala Swamy temple. The fluted design was executed by placing finely carved blocks, one over the other, without the use of a mortar. This refined building style, makes it difficult to spot the joints, giving the appearance that the entire shikhara was executed in a single block.