Sri Renuka Yellamma Temple - Saundatti

Sri Renuka Yellamma Temple is located near Saundatti town in Belgaum district in the state of Karnataka.

Goddess Renuka is the wife of Sage Jamadagni and the mother of Lord Parasuram.

She is revered as one of the Saptamatrika.

This temple has no Rajagopuram

There is a sacred well called the Jogal Bhavi.

There are three water tanks in the temple known as Kumkum Kundam, Yoni Kundam, and Arihan Kundam. They are considered holy people to bathe and worship.

Here the water will cure Skin diseases.

There is a custom observed here called Nimmana which involves the circumambulation of Sathyamma Temple with neem leaves in their mouth.

This temple was built in the year 1514.

The other temples on the premises are Lord Parasuram, Lord Ganesh, Mallikarjuna Swamy, and others.

Renuka Devi (Yellamma), daughter of Renuka Raja married Sage Jamadagni (son of Ruchik Muni and Satyavath) and lived in the 'ramshrung' Mountains. Jamadagni, well known sage for his anger had obtained the blessings of the anger gods by performing severe penance. Renuka Devi was helping her husband Jamdagni Muni in all his tasks of performing various rituals and Pooja. She gave birth to five sons Vasu, Viswa Vasu, Brihudyanu, Brutwakanwa, and Ram Bhadra. Ram Bhadra got the mercy of lord shiva and Parvathi he was also blessed with "Ambikashtra" from Lord Shiva and Parvathi and hence he was called Parashurama. Renuka Devi used to go to the River Malapahari (Malaprabha) daily to have a bath and after having her bath in the holy river, with total attentiveness and devotion she used to fill the pot with river water which she used to make out of the sand which is available on the bank of the river. Then she would catch the snake that was around there turn it into a convolution and place it on her head as support for the pot. This shows her devotion and concentration towards the Pativrata. She used to bring water daily like this to Jamdagni for the performance of rituals. Once Renuka Devi went to River Malapahari to take her bath and get the river water for her husband. She saw the Gandharvas playing in the river. At that instance, she lost her concentration as well as devotion and imagined herself playing with her husband in the river. After some time came out of her imagination took her bath in the river and started making the pot using the sand but she was not able to do it. Even the Snake was disappearing. If she tried to catch the Snake. Renuka Devi returned to the ashram with great disappointment. Sage Jamadagni came to know about this and got angry and cursed her. He ordered her to get away. Jamadagni ordered his sons to punish their mother. No one agreed except Parashurama. Jamadagni cursed his sons who did not agree to punish their mother. Parashurama using his axe, cut his mother's head. Renuka Devis's head multiplied by tens and hundreds and moved to different regions. This miracle made her four eunuch sons and others become her followers, and worship her head.

Major Festivals are held from October to April.

Temple Timings

6.30 am to 4.30 pm 

6.30 pm to 10.00 pm

How to reach the Temple

7 km from Saundatti

89 km from Belgaum

470 km from Bengaluru