Sri Anantheshwara

History

The crowd at Udupi has a direction, and it does not point here. People arrive for the Krishna Matha, join the line, see the deity through the window, and leave. Forty steps away stands a lower, darker, older building that most of them never register. By the reckoning of nearly every source that has looked at it, Anantheshwara is the oldest temple in the district.

The date usually given is the eighth century, and the usual attribution is to the Alupa dynasty, who ruled this coast for centuries before making Barkur their capital. Treat that figure as the one most often repeated rather than one confirmed against an inscription; the sources that give it do not cite where it comes from. What is less disputed is the relationship between the temple and its village: Shivalli is generally said to take its name from the temple, not the other way round.

The reason it matters to the shrine next door is Madhvacharya. Before the Krishna Matha existed, this is where he is said to have taught, and where parts of his Tattvavada writings took shape. The famous temple grew up beside the serious one. If you want to understand why Udupi became a centre of Dvaita philosophy rather than simply a place with a well-known idol, this unvisited building is the better place to stand.

Architecturally it is the coast in miniature: laterite walls, a low tiered roof, deep eaves, no tower. Nothing about it announces itself, which is precisely why it is worth the forty steps.