01Sun on the linga
Gavi means cave. The shrine is a hollow in a granite outcrop, enlarged and given a pillared front by Kempe Gowda I, the 16th-century founder of Bengaluru. In the forecourt stand four monolithic pillars, two of them carrying huge stone discs, the sun and the moon, and two carrying a trident and a damaru. Once a year, on the evening of Makara Sankranti in mid-January, the setting sun shines through a window, between the horns of the Nandi, and lights the linga deep in the cave for a few minutes. Thousands gather to see it; television crews come too.
02Painted in 1792
The English artists Thomas and William Daniell sketched the cave temple in 1792, and their aquatint shows the discs and pillars much as they are today. Inside, besides the linga, are shrines of Parvati and of Agni, a rare deity to find with a temple of his own, and two tunnels said to lead far away. The temple is protected by the state.
The life of this place
- 16th centuryKempe Gowda I enlarges the cave shrine.
- 1792Thomas and William Daniell sketch the temple.
In Gavipuram, near Basavanagudi; on Makara Sankranti go by mid-afternoon to get a place.
