BENGALURU: Its brightly painted exteriors make it hard to recognise Gavi Gangadhareshwara temple for the cave shrine that has survived several centuries. This is one of the rare south-facing temples for Shiva.
“Rishis Gowthatma and Bharadwaja have offered worship here,” says head priest Somasundara Dixit, the fifth generation of his family to perform pooja here. “The linga and Nandi in front if it are swayambhu murtis.”
The period when these deities and the shrines to Durga and Parvati were established have eluded historians, so it is just as well to have a legend to fall back on.
Difficult to Trace Past
While Kempegowda II (1510-1569) is said to have got the outer pillared wall built after he was released from prison, the pillars in front of the Shakti shrines date further back. “The features of the pillars inside point to the Chola or Ganga dynasty,” says Kuili Suganya, a restoration architect who has been documenting the history of Hanumanthnagar and Gavipuram.
In the temple courtyard also stand four pillars – two with disks called the Surya Pana and Chandra Pana, and two others with trishul and damaru that Shiva, the main deity, holds in either hand. The period in which these were built also elude historians.
The entrance to the cave is flanked by Kalabhairava and Veerabhadreshwara, whose idols also stand inside, among several others. “Perhaps these and the ones along the prakara pata have been collected from across temples and centuries,” says Suganya.
The parapet outside the pillared wall, she speculates, was added between 1792, when British artist William Daniell painted it, and the 1900s. “The painting doesn’t show it, but we definitely know that it was there by the time plague hit Bengaluru.”
However, all these dates can be disputed. Indologist and folklorist Githa U Badikillaya quotes from T P Issar’s City Beautiful: “Daniell made a sketch in his journal of May 1st 1792. He states, ‘In the centre of view is a temple (probably a reference to Gavi Gangadhareshwara) but at present without an idol. The passage leading to the interior which is partly excavated is so completely choked up with large stones as to be inaccessible. This place having now no establishment for religious duty is accordingly deserted’.”
Mystery of the Tunnel
Two tunnel ways, one believed to lead to Kashi and another to Shivagange, are said to have been blocked up. “I haven’t seen them, but I heard from old Bengalureans that they had indeed seen the openings to these two tunnels,” says historian Suresh Moona.
Whether they actually led all the way to these towns, also sacred to Shiva, is doubtful, he adds. In another version he has come across, souls of those who offered worship here travelled to these destinations.
Githa says the passageways merely lead to the nearby Kempambudhi lake.
The temple is best known for its architectural feature that lets sun rays fall on the linga in the main shrine on Sankranti, the harvest festival. Sunlight passes through an arch in the compound wall and is channeled through two perpendicular windows between 4.45 and 5 pm on January 14.
While this was believed to be an annual phenomenon, a paper published recently in a science journal, co-authored by Jawaharlal Nehru Planetarium director B S Shylaja, states that it repeats itself on November 30/December 1.
Further, the paper says the two pillars with disks, ‘with (telescope) cross-hair-like engravings on both sides’, have been designed to indicate the June solstice. The shadow of the western disk falls closest to the eastern disk on a day close to the summer solstice. Gita calls it “Bengaluru’s Jantar Mantar.”
River’s Beginnings?
Back inside the cave, the humidity is palpable. “Water flows inside the garbha gudi throughout the year, giving the Shiva the name Gavi Gangadhareshwara,” says Dixit. “That’s the blessing of the rishis.” According to architect Naresh Narasimhan, well-versed in local history, this could be from the same spring the Vrishabhavaati originates from. “Bengaluru’s only river is said to originate under the statue of the bull, in the nearby Bull Temple. The river and Basavanagudi have been named after it,” he says.
Roach Infestation
Water, milk and other substances used for abhisheka are allowed to accumulate in the cave, says historian Suresh Moona. “This results in a stink and cockroaches,” he says. “So maintenance is a problem.”
Living Temple
The rock that serves as the roof of the cave has been painted over. “This is a living temple, but it is also a cave that has survived through the centuries. For natural materials to survive for a few hundred years more, they should be allowed to breathe,” says Kuili Suganya, a restoration architect who consults with INTACH.
She has noticed that the roof sometimes drips water. “So the rock is porous. It’s all right if the paint used doesn’t have any harmful chemicals. If not, it could contaminate water elsewhere.”
History in Brush Strokes
British painter William Daniell, in Bengaluru in the late 18th century, painted the rock-cut temple in 1792. According to T P Issar’s City Beautiful, Daniel made a sketch in his journal in May 1792. Accompanying it were the words, ‘The ...temple (probably a reference to Gavi Gangadhareshwara)... at present without an idol. (It is) choked up with large stones as to be inaccessible.’