Sri Krishna Matha
You do not see the deity from the main door. You see it through a small silver-plated window at the side, and there is a reason for that.
Speciality
Every other temple sends you in through the front. Here the deity faces west, and darshan happens through a window in the side wall.
- Founded
- 13th century
- Deity
- Bala Krishna
- Tradition
- Dvaita
Don’t miss
The window, and which one it is
Sources disagree about whether the nine-holed front window is the Kanakana Kindi. Wikipedia calls that one the Navagraha Kindi and says the two are commonly confused.
Anantheshwara, forty steps away
Older than this temple, and almost empty. Most visitors never look.
Paryaya, if your timing is lucky
The handover between the Ashta Mathas, held in even years.
The Madhva Sarovara
The temple tank beside the complex. The whole precinct reads differently from its edge.
Near this place
Sri ChandramouleshwaraTemple, under 1 km away
Sri AnantheshwaraTemple, under 1 km away
PanchalingeshwaraTemple, 14 km away
History
The Krishna Matha was founded in the thirteenth century by Madhvacharya, the philosopher who broke with Advaita to argue that the soul and the divine are permanently distinct: the position that became known as Dvaita. The temple is the institutional heart of that school, and it has been run on a rotation ever since.
The idol’s origin is told as a rescue. Accounts say Madhvacharya calmed a storm off Malpe and, offered a reward by the grateful ship, asked only for a heavy block of gopichandana clay it carried as ballast. Inside the clay was the image of Bala Krishna. Treat this as tradition rather than record; it is told consistently, which is not the same as being verified.
The rotation is the part that still shapes the town. Madhvacharya established eight monastic seats, the Ashta Mathas, and arranged that one pontiff at a time would hold the right to perform the worship and administer the temple. The term was originally two months; Vadiraja Tirtha extended it to two years. The handover, Paryaya, falls in even years, and it fills Udupi.
Then there is the window. The deity faces west, away from the main entrance, and darshan is taken through a small silver-plated opening in the side wall. Tradition holds that the image turned to face the poet-saint Kanakadasa, who had been kept outside. It is one of the few origin stories in Indian temple practice that is explicitly about exclusion, and it is worth knowing before you stand at the window rather than after.
Plan your visit
- Where
- Car Street, Udupi
- District
- Udupi
- From you
- Not shared
Good to know
- Anna Prasadam
- Served free to every visitor at midday, in the matha’s dining hall. Timings shift on festival days.Commonly reported, not yet verified by us
- 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
Paryaya falls in even years and transforms the town. It is worth planning around if the year is right. Otherwise October to January, when the evening lamps read properly against a dry sky.
Get directions in Google MapsSources
- Udupi Sri Krishna MathaWikipedia
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.