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During
the heday of its glory, it was deemed the foremost centre of
pilgrimage. With the bounteous, patronage by the renowned kings, it
flourished as a centre of Vedantic philosophy and produced many
philosophical works. This archamurti of Anantheswar was variously
called as Anantapadmanabha and Anantasayana, and they refer to Lord
Vishnu since Anantha is one of the attributes of Lord Vishnu. It was
called by the name of Anantheeswara due to the fact of Lord Vishnu's
taking the form of Sivalinga. This too has an interesting back
ground. According to the belief current, the venerable father of
Madvacharya worshipped the Sivalinga, seeing in it Lord Vishnu and
addressed it as Bhujangasayana. He did penance and availed the
darsan of Lord Vishnu, seated on the sesha in his dream. Soon after
the birth of son, he installed the idol of Ananthapadmanabha here to
commemorate the vision of Lord Vishnu he was blessed with in his
dream. It can be adduced that worshipping of Siva and Vishnu in one
and the same image was in practice here, since ancient times. This
ancient temple contains all the worshipful Saivate deities installed
in individual minishrines. And Saivagama puja is conducted regularly
with due ardour.
It
lies in Udipi, a few yards off Krishna mandir accessible by bus and
train.
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