MAHABALESHWAR TEMPLE

MAHABALESHWAR TEMPLE

Subject : Art & Architecture

Context: The Supreme Court Monday said the management of Gokarna Mahabaleshwar temple would be handed over to an oversight committee headed by former apex court judge Justice B.N. Srikrishna.

Concept :

• The Mahabaleshwar Temple, Gokarna is a 4th-century CE Hindu temple located in Gokarna, Uttara Kannada district, Karnataka state, India which is built in the classical Dravidian architectural style.
• It is a site of religious pilgrimage. The temple faces the Gokarna beach on the Arabian Sea in which Hindu pilgrims cleanse before visiting the temple for worship.
• The temple is considered as holy as the Shiva temple at Varanasi or Kāśi (Kashi) in North India on the banks of the Ganges River.
• Hence, the Mahabaleshwar temple, Gokarna is known as the DakshinKasi (“Kasi of the south”).
• The main attraction of this temple is the 6-foot long Shiva lingam of which only the tip is seen, representing the stone incarnation of Lord Shiva.
• There are amid mountainous terrain, this temple glorifies the Maratha Empire and its dominance in the 16th century.