Information of Gavi Gangadhareshwara Temple, Bangalore, Karnataka

Gavi Gangadhareshwara Temple is an ancient cave temple located at Bannerghatta Road, Hulimavu Town, Bangalore City of Karnataka State in India. This is an important Shiva temple for the Hindus and is familiarly known as the Gavipuram Cave Temple.

Gavi Gangadhareshwara Temple Religious Significance

Gavi Gangadhareshwara Temple has the idols of Lord Shiva's sect. Many pilgrims come here to witness the unique day of Winter Solicit, which is also known as the Makara Sankranthi in the Hindu calendar that falls on 14th January of every year. The divines of this day have a spectrum-beam of lights entering this cave, where the main deity of Linga is placed. This sun's ray passes under the main arch of this temples and flashes on a granite grill window of this main temple. From this window, the sun light slowly moves towards the Nandi statue and later flashes on the main deity. This is occurring on this Winter Solicit day only. To witness this holy event thousands of devotees gather here. Its main festival is the Shiva Rathri; it is celebrated here with lot of pujas and rituals in this temple. This is also a great place for the Banglorites on all Hindu auspicious days. Another rear significance of this temple is the sculpture of Agni Bhagavan, praying this deity will cure the sight propels is the Hindus belief. It is the only rear gods sculpture found in south India.

Gavi Gangadhareshwara Temple Mythology & History

Gavipuram Caves are known from the 9th century AD. This was a place for meditation by many Sages's, including the famous scholar Maharshi Gowthama. In the 16th century, few additions were made by the Kempegowda, who is known to be the builder of Bagalaru as a City. From then this temple became a great pilgrim center and pulled many devotees to see its architectural marvel with sun lights entering this caves on special occasion on Sankranthi day.

Gavi Gangadhareshwara Temple Architectural Significance

Gavi Gangadhareshwara Temple is built in the model of Rock-Cut architecture of the Dravidian Style. This is a cave temple with few structures on the upper parts of these caves. This temple is fenced with stone walls on all four sides. It is in rectangular shape, having two arched entrance on the front and the backside of this cave temple. There are 2 Gopura's (minarets) built on the upper parts of this cave where the main deity is places. On the outer surface area of this temple, there are 3 distinguished monolith art work found. These are a trident, a Damaru and Sun/Moon Disc, which are the possession materials of Lord Shiva. These 3 structures are well carved and look very unique. Inside the cave the main deity is in the form of Lingam (symbol of fertility) is a black stone sculptor and a small Nandhi (Shiva's Animal) is placed directly in front of this Linga. The specialty of this complex is built in such a way that the Winter Solicit day the Sun's ray directly focus on the Lingam from a stone carved window. This is an astronomical constant found in this temple architecture which was carved in the 16th century AD. Here the caves are circled over the main deity and consist of many gods sculptors on this caves. The Agni Dev sculptor is a rear one found in the Dravidian region. This is a splendid sculptor with 2 head and 3 legs. Another spectacular sculptor found here is the Lord Ganesha; this is having 6 arms on each side holding his well known possession. There are also two hidden passage to the north direction and a small passage to reach its nearby Shiva temple. This temple is listed as ancient monument in Karnataka State by the Archeological Survey of India.