Updated: 29 Dec 2009 after a subsequent visit.
It is stated that there are 87 Lakhs (8.7 million) Shivlings in this temple. They are looking at 13 Lakhs (1.3 million) more to reach one crore (10 million) shivlings at this temple. Devotees can sponsor installation of Lingas.
The Kotilingeswara Temple is situated at Kammasandra near Kolar Gold Fields in Karnataka. You can reach here by taking the Old Madras Road from Bangalore. Follow the OMR till BangaKolar when you have to take diversion just before Kolar towards Bangarapet. After crossing Bangarapet (around 6 kms) the road will split to Kolar Gold Fields (right) and Kotilinga Temple (straight). Follow this road and you will see the temple on the right side after 3-4 kms. There is also Karnataka Tourism direction boards along the way at many places. The distance is around 115Kms from Bangalore. On our second trip on Dec 29th, we saw the roads are getting widened and the traveling distance has reduced by an hour. It took us 3.5 hours to reach the temple with ample breaks in between. You can also reach here by train to Bangarapet station and then by taxi/bus.
This is a unique temple where you see Shivlings everywhere you turn. The main temple complex has two temples, the main Shiva temple houses the first Shivlinga installed here and the other has Shiva, Vishnu and Bhrama deities. You can see many shivlings all over the temple complex.
There is an outer complex which is bigger and houses the remaining shivlings. There is a huge 108ft high Shivling (suppose to be the biggest in the world) and a 40ft high Nandi within this complex (picture above). There is also a temple housing Ganesha and Hanuman.
Free meals are provided to the pilgrims everyday in the noon. More details can be found at http://kotilinga.org/index.htm
View Larger Map
I wanted the phone numbers of the office at Kotilinga to ask about performing a pooja.
ReplyDelete