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Tonnnur -
Lakshminarayana Devalaya
This
holy Vaishnava kshetra, the capital of Hoyasalas enjoys the honour of converting
Hoyasala Bittideva into that illustrious Vishnu Vardhana, who perpetuated the
glory of the builders of the Channakesavaswamy temple into peerless and timeless
sculptors, whom the Mother Earth has not produced so far. They have no peers nor
superiors. Vishnu Vardhan s contribution to sculptural art and Vaishnavism
excelled the unexcelled glories, all but due to the abundant compassion of this
temple's archamurti - Lakshmi Narayanaswamy. The sthalapurana narrates that when
Sri Ramanuja was dwelling here and worshipping this Lord, Bittideva, the
celebrated Hoyasala Jain ruler sought Itamanuja's guidance. The invisible power
of the Lord entered the mind of the ruler through Ramanuja and metamorphosed him
into a Vaishnava non-pareil, who thence onwards began construction of temples
deemed the sweet poems in black stone by critics. This temple was built in the
twelfth century. There was existing then Sri Krishna's temple which was luring
devotees steadily. The priest extols the soul force of Ramanuja with the
well-known episode of materializing a pond at the entreaty of the locals, when
drinking water was not available. The piteous wails of the people so moved him
that he summoned his soul power to help them. Since then the tank has never gone
dry. And lo! its purity and sweetness so seduced Tippu Sultan that he was
getting drinking water from this tank only. Another Subedhar, who was enchanted
by the tank's glory called it Moti Talab, which has stuck to it so firmly that
even today people are calling Moti Talab. The temple built on a hillock is
exceedingly grand and is possessing all the component parts. Morethan this, the
archamurti is a byword for compassion and has been a
source of hope and solace. Ramanuja's stay left indelible marks on the temple
and the Lord made him immortal by his compassion.
It is 6 km off Pandavapura, and 27 km off Melkote, one of the famous pilgrim
towns of Karnataka, accessible by bus.
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