Monday, November 10, 2008

Karnataka: Two places of worship


Srirangapatna (Srirangapattana) is about 13kms from Mysore City. In modern history the town is mostly known as the former capital of Hyder Ali and and his son Tippu Sultan. Tippu was killed there during the Forth Anglo-Mysore War in 1799.

Sriranganathaswamy Temple

The place is named after the Sriranganathaswamy (Lord Vishnu) temple which is believed to have been built by the Ganga Dynasty in the 9th century CE. Subsequently the Hoysala and Vijayanagara rulers made improvements to this famous Vaishnavite shrine.

Carvings on the temple rath.

Maharaja Mummadi Krishnaraja Wodeyar had built a church for his Catholic subjects in 1843. As the congregation grew with the passage of time the need for a larger building was felt. Therefore, it was decided to construct a new church at the same location.

The foundation stone for the present St. Philomena’s Church was laid by the then Maharaja of Mysore, Krishnaraja Wodeyar IV, on October 28th, 1933. The church was consecrated in 1936.

St. Philomena's Church

This shrine is believed to be the only one in the world which has the relic of St. Philomena. It was obtained for the church by Thambu Chetty, Secretary to the Maharaja of Mysore.

The photographs were taken by Binita Kuruvilla last month. Copyright reserved.

An addenda:
The image below is Temple near Bangalore (Mysore), with Savandrug in the distance. – a pencil, wash, and water-colour drawing by Thomas (1749-1840) and William (1769-1837) Daniell. Source: The British Library, Asia, Pacific and Africa Collections, reproduced from Wikimedia Commons. Public Domain.


All the pictures can be enlarged by clicking on them.

Also see:

Vedas, Syrian Christians




1 comment:

RAJI MUTHUKRISHNAN said...

It is wonderful that places of worship are always so beautiful. Both these places are joys to behold.