Mookambika Temple, Kollur

01Mookasura and the golden line

The kshetra’s katha tells of the asura Kaumasura, who did tapas for a boon of invincibility. The Devi made him dumb before he could ask for it, so he became Mookasura, and then she slew him here; she is Mookambika, the mother who made him mute. The main object of worship is a small swayambhu linga with a golden line, the swarna rekha, running across it; the larger part is Shakti, holding Mahakali, Mahalakshmi and Mahasaraswati, the smaller part Shiva. Behind it stands the four-armed panchaloha murti of the Devi, which tradition says Adi Shankaracharya installed after seeing her in a vision on the Kodachadri peak above.

02Vidyarambham and the Souparnika

The Souparnika river runs past the temple, and pilgrims bathe in it first. At Navaratri, and on Vijayadashami above all, families bring small children to write their first letters in rice before the Devi, and musicians and writers come to begin new work. Many from Kerala count Mookambika as their own. On Kodachadri, a long climb above Kollur, is the Sarvajna Peetha, the seat where Shankaracharya is said to have meditated. The Keladi Nayakas were great patrons of the temple in the 16th and 17th centuries.