01The cloth that fell on Kanduka
When Ravana failed to lift the Atmalinga at Gokarna, he tore at it and flung away the wrappings. The cloth that had covered it fell on Kanduka hill by the sea, and Shiva is worshipped here as Mrideshwara, which local speech made Murudeshwara. The original linga sits low in the sanctum, and its pitha is said to hold the fragment. Pilgrims usually come here as part of the circuit of the five kshetras, starting at Gokarna and ending at Murudeshwar. The hill is almost an island, with the sea on three sides.
02The new temple
In the early 2000s the businessman R. N. Shetty, a native of the town, rebuilt the temple in granite and raised a raja gopuram of twenty storeys at its entrance, with a lift to the top for the view. Behind the temple, on the hill, he set up a seated Shiva about 37 m high, among the tallest Shiva murtis in the world. Below it a cave tells the Atmalinga katha in sculpture. The old shrine remains at the centre, and the daily puja follows the old order.
The life of this place
- 2000sThe temple is rebuilt with the twenty-storey gopuram and the great Shiva murti.
On the Konkan railway between Bhatkal and Honnavar. Go up the gopuram lift at sunset.
