Ranganathaswamy Temple, Nirthadi

I came to know about this temple recently from a tweet by Dheeraj. Situated in Nirthadi village between Chitradurga and Davanagere, the temple looked attractive. Incidentally, I had to drive to Dharwad to my cousin’s place (here, here and here), and it provided the opportunity to visit this temple.

The village was a short detour of 2 km from the highway between Chitradurga and Davanagere. It was 2 PM when we reached the temple. The temple gate was closed and locked. While we were thinking about our next course of action, the lady in the neighbouring house called up the priest. She told us that the priest would be coming in few minutes. The people in the countryside are generally helpful, and this was an example.

While waiting for the priest, I spent some time looking at the dhwaja stambha (Flagstaff) outside the temple gate. Shortly, the priest came and opened the gate. He said that he completes his pooja early morning and then locks the gate. Later, he comes when there are visitors.

He had a good knowledge of the history and architecture of the temple. It was surprising as priests generally are only interested in rituals and not in the historical aspects. He understood that we were interested in the architecture, and he started explaining about the temple. The inner hall had beautifully carved stone pillars with dasavataras (10 Incarnations) of Vishnu.

The architecture of the temple is Vijayanagar style, but there are traces of Hoysala art. The Mughal army led by Aurangzeb had destroyed the original temple. The local chief Baramappa Nayaka reconstructed this temple in 1698 AD. The inscription present in the temple mentions these events. (Wikipedia reference here)

Do I read those inscriptions? No, I can read Kannada in books and newspapers, but I cannot digest the inscriptions written in old Kannada. Some experts read such inscriptions. So, who deciphered this inscription? It was the British historian Benjamin Lewis Rice (BL Rice). He deciphered thousands of Kannada, Sanskrit and Tamil inscriptions in Mysore state. Great job.

The temple has three entrances with arch gates on each side. Part of the outer walls of the temple contains bands of sculptures inspired by Hoysala Architecture. The sanctum tower contains few beautiful sculptures.