Melkote: Frozen in time
Thursday, August 23, 2007

Although the darkness was momentarily blinding as I stepped into the shaded entrance of the Sri Cheluvanarayana Temple of Melkote, it was a pleasant respite from the scorching April sun. My eyes slowly opened to the dimly lit space and I could see the greasy granite walls of the temple that magically kept the air cooled for the grateful few hundred of Vaishnav devotees who came in late on that sunny morning. This idol of Lord Vishnu, affectionately referred to as ‘Cheluvaiah’ by the locals, takes the center stage at Melkote, one of the four most sacred places of Vaishnavism in South India.



The temple, built in the Vijayanagar style, houses some of the most intricately carved pillars that I have ever seen. Many huge granite pillars are slit into multiple thin ones with complicated carvings of deities and Hindu symbols. The niches and spaces fashioned out of the granite never fail to make one ponder about the immensely gifted ancient sculptors. The outer gopuram is comparatively quite modest though, painted in cream, another trade mark of the Vijayanagar style.


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