Sri Mookambika Temple, Kollur

Deity

Mookambika, the jyotirlinga with the golden line dividing Siva and Shakti

Where

Udupi, Karnataka · 13.86N 74.81E

Usual hours

5 am – 1.30 pm, 3 pm – 9 pm — hours change with festivals and the season; check before travelling. Were these right when you went?

Grahas

Budhan Rahu

Visited for

The Saraswathi of the west coast, where children are given Vidyarambham and artists ask for their art. Navaratri and the Rathotsava in Meena are its days.

The sthala purana has it that an asura doing penance here for a boon was struck dumb by the Devi before he could ask for it, and was killed. She is called Mookambika from that — mooka, the mute.

Adi Sankara is said to have worshipped the Devi at Kollur and to have wished to take her south with him. She is said to have agreed on the condition that he not look back on the way; he did, at this place, and she stayed. The image he installed is the one in the sanctum.

In front of the Devi is a linga divided by a golden line into two unequal parts, the smaller taken for Sivan and the larger for Shakti. It is worshipped before the Devi herself.

Kollur is counted among the seven mukti sthalas of the Parasurama kshetra, the old grouping of coastal Karnataka temples.

It is the principal Saraswathi kshetram of the west coast in practice: Vidyarambham is performed here on a very large scale, and musicians, dancers and writers come to make their first offering of a work. That is a present-day custom that can be watched rather than a claim about the past.

The Souparnika river runs below the temple and the bath there comes before darshan for most people.

The Devi is seated with the Sri Chakra before her and the divided linga in front of that. The sanctum is small and dark and the queue is close.

Kodachadri hill rises behind, with the Sarvajna Peetha at the top and the Chitramoola cave on the way; the climb is a separate day’s work and is done by jeep or on foot.

Navaratri is the season, and Vijayadashami, when children are given their first letters, is the fullest day.

The Rathotsava in Meena and Saraswathi puja are the other festivals. Fridays and the Kannada new year bring their own crowds.

Also called

Kollur Mookambika Temple, Souparnika kshetra

Reaching it

Kollur is about 80 km north-east of Udupi at the foot of Kodachadri. Byndoor and Kundapura are the nearest railway stations, and buses run from Udupi and Mangaluru.

• Anegudde Vinayaka Temple 42.5 km · Ganapathi
• Murudeshwar Temple 43.8 km · Saiva
• Sri Vinayaka Temple, Idagunji 56.1 km · Ganapathi
• Sri Krishna Matha, Udupi 58.2 km · Vaishnava
• Sringeri Sharadamba Temple 68.2 km · Sakta (Amman)
• Marikamba Temple, Sirsi 83.5 km · Sakta (Amman)

Been to this temple? The things that change — whether the hours on this page were right, whether the sannidhi was open, how long the queue was on a Saturday — are exactly what no printed source keeps current, and what the next person travelling here needs.

• Were the hours right when you went?
• Is anything on this page wrong or out of date?
• A photograph of the gopuram, the tank, or the notice board

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