Jnanakshi Rajarajeshwari Temple, Bengaluru (claimed Karnat Shakti Peetha)

01Where is Karnat?

The Peetha Nirnaya Tantra names Karnat among the 51: here the two ears of Sati fell, the Devi is Jayadurga and the Bhairava Abhiru. The name points to the Kannada country, but no ancient shrine there has ever been agreed on, and many lists simply write that the place is not known. Shakti Peetha lists differ. The Kailash Ashrama at Bengaluru holds that its Rajarajeshwari temple stands on the Karnat peetha and names Abhiru as its Bhairava. One other account places Karnat far to the north in the Kangra hills. Read the Bengaluru claim as the ashrama’s own tradition: devout, and open to the reader’s judgement.

02The ashrama at Kenchenahalli

Sivaratnapuri Swami, remembered as Tiruchi Swamigal, founded the Kailash Ashrama Mahasamsthana at Kenchenahalli, then a village west of Bengaluru between the Vrishabhavathi and the road to Mysuru. The temple to Rajarajeshwari, the Devi as Tripura Sundari, was raised there in Dravida style, and the suburb that grew around it took her name. She is worshipped as Jnanakshi, she whose eyes are knowledge. A separate shrine holds a Maha Meru, the Shri Chakra in three dimensions, worshipped in the Shri Vidya way. Navratri is the great festival, with the Devi decorated in a different form each night.