Sri Kaleshwara Swamy Temple – Yathambadi

 

Sri Kaleshwara Swamy Temple is located at Yathambadi Village in Malvalli Taluk in the Mandya district of Karnataka State.

Sri Kaleshwara Swamy is an incarnation of Lord Shiva

This temple was built in the South Indian style of architecture.

Legend says that once upon a time a man named Kalappa came looking for livelihood to Yethambadi Village, Kempegowda a landlord of the Village employed him to look after his cattle. One afternoon while grazing his cattle Kalappa falls into a deep slumber and in the evening the cattle while returning home without Kalappa keeping watch on them enter into the field of a land lord from Nittoor Village and destroy all the crops. The landlord of Nittoor angered at the loss of his crops stands waiting for the caretaker of the cattle with a gun in hand. When Kalappa comes looking for his cattle the furious landlord fires at Kalappa. Kalappa is seriously wounded and starts bleeding profusely. He ties the wound with a piece of cloth to stop the bleeding and proceeds to Yathambadi Village and dies on reaching his master kempegowda's house. While Kalappas body was being burnt on his funeral pyre his wife Honnamma jumped into it and killed herself. Six months later two lingas grew in the same place and an anthill grew on top of them. One cow from the landlord Kempegowda's cattle visited this  (anthill) every day and milked on the anthill. Looking at the calf becoming weaker without milk the landlord followed the cow one day and was astonished to see the cow milking on the anthill. The same day Kalappa and Honnamma appeared in his dream, revealing that both of them had incarnated as two lingas under the anthill and that a temple be constructed at the same place. Kempegowda built a temple and it now stands as the Kaleshwara Temple.

Devotees in large numbers visit the Sri Kaleshwara Temple on Thursday and Sunday to receive the Darshan of God.

Timings

7.05 am to 11.05 am

3.30 pm to 5.30 pm

How to reach the Temple

38 km from Mandya

88 km from Bengaluru.