Sri Chandramouleshwara
The third temple in a precinct most people think has one. The Madhwa Vijaya calls it the eastern shrine.
Speciality
Udupi’s centre is not one temple but three, in a line. This is the one that gets counted last and written about least.
- Founded
- Not established
- Deity
- Chandramouleshwara (Shiva)
- Tradition
- Shaiva
Don’t miss
The three-temple line
Krishna Matha, Anantheshwara, Chandramouleshwara. Walk all three in one visit; almost nobody does.
The name in the Madhwa Vijaya
Moodu Devalaya, the eastern temple: a place named by its position relative to an older one.
Near this place
Sri Krishna MathaMatha, under 1 km away
Sri AnantheshwaraTemple, under 1 km away
PanchalingeshwaraTemple, 14 km away
History
Chandramouleshwara stands beside Anantheshwara, and both stand beside the Krishna Matha. The three together are the historic core of Udupi, though a visitor following the crowd will experience only the middle one.
The Madhwa Vijaya, the biographical poem about Madhvacharya, refers to it as the Moodu Devalaya, the eastern temple, because it lies east of Anantheshwara. That reference gives it a terminus: it existed by the time the poem was composed.
Beyond that, we could not find a date for it. Sources that confidently assign the eighth century to Anantheshwara go quiet when asked about this one, and we would rather say so than borrow its neighbour’s figure. It is a small, dark, laterite building that has been standing in the middle of a busy town for a very long time, and that is the honest extent of what the available English sources establish.
Plan your visit
- Where
- Car Street, Udupi
- District
- Udupi
- 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
Same season as the rest of coastal Udupi: dry from October, heavy rain June to September.
Get directions in Google MapsSources
- Ancient Shiva Temples of UdupiInditales
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.