Kadri Manjunatha
A Shiva temple widely held to have Buddhist origins, with a Nath yogi matha on the hill above it.
Speciality
Three traditions have occupied the same hill in sequence, and all three are still visible if you know what you are looking at.
- Founded
- 10th–11th c.
- Deity
- Manjunatha (Shiva)
- Tradition
- Shaiva, with Nath and Buddhist links
Don’t miss
The bronze Lokeshwara
The single strongest piece of evidence for the site’s Buddhist past, standing inside an active Shaiva temple.
The Yogiraj Matha above
A Nath institution on the same hill. The temple below is only part of the site.
Lakshadeepotsava
Kartika, usually November or December. A hundred thousand lamps is the claim and the name.
Near this place
Kudroli GokarnanathaTemple, 3 km away
Bappanadu DurgaparameshwariTemple, 24 km away
Saavira Kambada BasadiBasadi, 25 km away
History
Kadri sits on a hill inside Mangalore and is usually dated to the tenth or eleventh century, with one account describing an expansion in the fourteenth. The temple is dedicated to Manjunatha, a form of Shiva, and it is one of the busiest in the city.
The more interesting claim is about what was here before. Sources connect the site to a Kadrika Vihara, a Buddhist monastery, and the strongest evidence cited is the bronze Lokeshwara image the temple holds, a figure belonging to Buddhist iconography rather than Shaiva. The nearby Pandava Caves belong to the same complex of associations.
Above the temple sits the Kadri Yogiraj Matha, a Nath institution. The connection to the city’s other great shrine is still enacted: the Kadri hermits visit Mangaladevi at the start of the Kadri festival, which keeps two temples on opposite sides of Mangalore in a formal relationship.
A Parashurama legend attaches here too, as it does across much of this coast. The temple’s major annual event is the Lakshadeepotsava, the festival of a hundred thousand lamps, held in the month of Kartika, usually November or December.
Plan your visit
- Where
- Kadri, Mangalore
- District
- Dakshina Kannada
- From you
- Not shared
Good to know
- Anna Prasadam
- Not yet verified. Please ask locally.
- Dress code
- Not yet verified. Please ask locally.
- Photography
- Not yet verified. Please ask locally.
Poojas and timings
Not yet verified. We publish a schedule only after confirming it with the temple office. Schedules on this coast change on festival days, and a wrong one can cost a family a long drive, so please check locally before you travel.
Best time to visit
Lakshadeepotsava in Kartika is the reason to time a visit to November or December. Mangalore’s monsoon, June to September, is among the heaviest in India.
Get directions in Google MapsSources
- Kadri Manjunath TempleWikipedia
- Kadri Manjunatha TempleKarnataka Tourism
Most English-language writing on these places is travel and devotional material that repeats itself. Where sources disagree we say so, and where something is tradition rather than record we say that too.