Mavinakere Sri Bettada Ranganatha Swamy Temple

Bettada Ranganathaswamy Temple is a sacred Hindu temple located at Halekote village in the Hassan district of Karnataka. Situated atop the Mavinakere Hill, it is one of the popular temples in Karnataka.

Bettada Ranganathaswamy Temple is dedicated to Lord Ranganatha. It is a cave temple with star-shaped architecture and also has a statue of Hanuman. Sri Ramanujacharya, who introduced Vishishtadwaitha, is said to have rested for a while here on this hill and sought the darshan of Sri Ranganatha, offering his devotional bhajans. There is a 3 feet standing idol of the lord behind the Ranganatha stone in the sanctum sanctorum of the temple. On the other side of the cave is a Hanuman sculpted on a rock.

The pratishtapana of the presiding deity is said to have been done by the great Vasishta Muni. As per the history, Mavinakere was the residence of Palegar Lakshmana Nayaka and a ruined fort belonging to the Palegar is situated here. When he ruled this region, he noticed that one of his cows was emptying it’s milk on top of the Mavinakere hill. Out of curiosity, he followed the cow, and indeed it was emptying on a stone in the cave. From that day onwards, the stone is worshiped as Lord Ranganatha, though at that time there was a dispute that the stone was Shiva linga.The inscriptions call the deity
Thiruvengalanatha, who is none other than Lord Vishnu.

A special procedure called Vaikhanasa Agama is observed to clean the temple and different poojas are done. The grand Rathotsava on Pushya Nakshatra Trayodashi-Chaturdashi, i.e the previous day of Full Moon during Magha Masa, marks the start of a 15 days long grand jatra that takes place at Ranganathswamy temple. Thousands of devotees from all corners of the state gather here during this Jatra.