Karkala Jain Basadi

Karkala is a wonderful place, and can be easily reached from Udupi or Hebri. You can either come from Agumbe via Hebri or from Udupi via Manipal. I had been to this place many times on the way from my native to Bangalore. In college once we had a dedicated trip to this place. Karkala is famous for its Jain temples; there are lot of temples built by Jain kings. This is one of the holy pilgrimage centres for Jains. Bahubali at Karkala is the second largest in the state and it’s about 42 ft height and is a monolithic statue installed in 1432 AD, on the instructions of the pontiff of Karkala, Lalitakeerti. The other statues of Bahubali in the state are at Shravanabelagola installed by Chamundaraya, which is 57 feet tall, at Venur installed by Timmaraja, which is 35 feet (11 m) tall, and at Dharmasthala installed by D. Veerendra Heggade, which is 39 feet (12 m) tall.

Mahamastakabisheka happen here every twelve years and the statue is bathed with milk and saffron paste, lot of Jain pilgrims come here at that time, next Mahamastakabhisheka to be held on year of 2014. This place is ruled by Jain kings in 14th century but even then they have treated all religions equally and they even have built Hindu temples such as Venkataramana temple. The first name of this town was Pandya Nagari during the Jain regime but afterwards it was changed to Karikallu because of black stones. Slowly as the time passed by it was called Karkal and then to Karkala.

The other important attraction of Karkala is the Chaturmukha Basadi, which has four identical entrances on all sides with three human size statues of three thirthankaras. There is another temple Padutirupathi Venkataramana temple, this temple's architecture being an ancient and one of the finest is built in a traditional style. Every year, a large number of devotees pay a visit to Lord Venkatramana temple in Karkala with the firm belief in the deity’s power to grant peoples wishes, it stands majestically in the heart of the city.