History

Shree Kudroli Gokarnanatheshwara Kshetra

Sri Narayana Guru (A social reformer and a saint) consecrated the Shivalinga in this temple in 1912. This temple is situated at Kudroli, which is about 3 Km away from the main city area of Hampankatta in Mangalore. The original temple structure was in Kerala style, which was replaced, by Chola style during recent renovation in 1991. The main deity of the temple is Lord Shree Gokarnanatha ( Lord Shiva). Navarathri Utsava (Dasara festival) is very famous and is one of the main tourist events in this temple. A grand procession of Goddess Durga along with the Nava Durgas takes place during this festival now popularly known as “Mangalore Dasara”, which attracts many tourists and devotees from distant corners of the state, Nation and all over the world and is very popular like Mysore Dasara.

The Billawa Community was being traditionally suppressed by the upper caste treating them as ‘untouchables’. It is in such a scenario that the community found a messiah in Sri Narayana Guru. Sri Narayana Guru who hailed from Kerala has been regarded as the uplifter of the downtrodden and a visionary social servant. Learning about the work undertaken by Sri Narayana Guru in establishing social equality through his temple in Shivagiri, Kerala, a prominent Billawa leader from Mangalore, Sahukar Koragappa visited the Guru along with the leaders of the community in 1908. The delegation appraised Sri Narayana Guru about the problems faced by the Billawas in admission of the community into the temple at Mangalore. Sri Narayana Guru visited Mangalore on invitation from this delegation and ascertained for himself, the exactness of the then prevailing situation. After visiting the place, Sri Narayana Guru himself selected the place in Kudroli and advised the community elders about a suitable location to build a temple and the work began under his direction in the year 1908. Elders such as Sahukar Koragappa took the initiative in ensuring smooth progress in the temple’s construction.

Sri Narayana Guru himself formally consecrated the temple in February 1912 by installing the Sacred Shiva Linga, which was brought by him. He also named this place as Shree Gokarnanatha Kshethra. Sri Narayana Guru advocated that all of God’s creation had the right to worship the Almighty and preached that people irrespective of the caste, creed or religion must worship one divine force, known by different names.

As per the Guru’s advice, idols of Lord Ganapathy, Lord Subramanya, Goddess Annapoorneshwari, Lord Bhairava, the Nava Grahas (Lords of Nine Planets), Lord Shanishwara and Lord Shri Krishna has been installed at the Kshethra. This has helped devotees to worship at all these sannidanams (abode) and seek blessings and solace for their varied problems at one place.