Goravanahalli Sri Mahalakshmi Temple

Goravanahalli Sri Mahalakshmi Temple

Goravanahalli Sri Mahalakshmi Temple is located in Goravanahalli, a village in Tumkur district in the state of Karnataka.
Goravanahalli Mahalakshmi Temple is also known as Karnataka’s Kolhapur Mahalakshmi.
As the name suggests, this temple is dedicated to Goddess Mahalakshmi, the wife of Lord Vishnu and the Goddess of prosperity and wealth.

The Temple also has deities of Goddess Marikamba and Manchala Nagappa, the snake god in Goravanahalli.The main idol of Sri Mahalakshmi is believed to be self manifested and the temple is a beautiful example of the typical South Indian architecture having a large, multicoloured Gopuram with smaller arches on both sides.

Temple History

According to local historians, in the early 1900s, a villager named Abbayya came into possession of this idol. He worshipped the idol at home and was blessed with wealth and prosperity. His home soon came to be known as Lakshmi Nivas in honour of his charity work. Abbayya brother’s Thotadappa also worked alongside Abbayya and worshipped the Goddess Mahalakshmi. One night the Goddess visited him in his dreams and asked him to build her a temple. Thus Thotadappa built a temple for the Goddess and began worshipping the idol in this shrine. After Thotadappa’s death, Chowdayya began performing the poojas for Goddess Mahalakshmi.

Little is known about what happened next but for fifteen years between 1910 and 1925, the temple was abandoned.

In 1925, a pious devotee, Kamalamma arrived in Goravanahalli and found the temple in a deserted state. She brought the temple back to life and started performing poojas once again for the Goddess but for some reason, left the place after a year. It was around 26 years before she came back to the Temple and re-established it in 1952. From then on, the temple became a pilgrimage spot for Goddess Mahalakshmi’s devotees.

The devotees who visited this temple seem to find changes in health, wealth, social status which resulted in increase of devotees in Goravanahalli Mahalakshmi temple.

The festivals celebrated in Goravanahalli Mahalakshmi Temple are Laksha deepotsava, Varamahalakshmi festival, Amavasya Vaibhava Lakshmi Pooja & Pournima Sathya Narayana Swamy Pooja.