01Ramanuja’s refuge
The Vaishnava guruparampara tells that Ramanujacharya left Srirangam to escape a Chola king hostile to the Vaishnavas and came into the Hoysala country. Here, guided in a dream, he found the murti of Tirunarayana buried in an anthill on Yadavagiri, the hill of Melukote, and restored its worship. The festival murti was missing. He learned it had been carried to Delhi, went there, and found it with a princess who had grown so devoted to it that she followed it south; she is worshipped here as Bibi Nachiyar. He called the murti Ramapriya, and the people call it Cheluvanarayana, the handsome Narayana.
02Vairamudi
The great festival is Vairamudi in Phalguna–Chaitra (March–April), when Cheluvanarayana is crowned with a diamond-studded crown kept in the government treasury and brought up under guard, and the procession goes on through the night. The Wodeyar kings, devotees of the temple, gave it further crowns and jewels. On the hilltop above the town, reached by a long flight of steps, is the shrine of Yoga Narasimha. Melukote also has the Kalyani tank and a Sanskrit research academy, and many Sri Vaishnava families still live in its agraharas.
The life of this place
- early 12th century (tradition)Ramanujacharya restores the worship of Tirunarayana and stays about twelve years.
About 50 km north of Mysuru. Vairamudi night in March–April draws lakhs; on other days it is quiet.
