Temple IX: Kumbakshi (Anne Gudde)

The fourth day started with the holy bath in Souparnika river. Heavy rain was there out-side and all of us went to the river shore. We had to walk almost one kilometer from the lodge to reach the river where we saw that the river is flowing with a roaring sound. The river was in brown color because of the rain and water is very cold. We all took bath in that ice-cold water and came back. After having Darshan in the temple, we departured from Kollur towards Kundapura.

From Kundapura we had our break-fast and directed towards Kumbakshi. This is a small village situated on the way between Udupi and Kundapura on the National Highway. A very old Lord Ganesha temple is situated here. Other temples situated in the same area are Lord Ayyappa temple, Lord Harihara temple, and Lord Lakshmi Narayana temple.

We reached Annegudde by around 10 O'clock. The rush was less on that day and hence we got a very good darshan. After that we went to the Lord Ayyappa temple which is relatively newly formed. It is constructued in a similar way as Sabarimala is. There are 18 holy steps created which will be opened only when the steps are open in Sabarimala, Kadatta Swamy and Karuppa Swamy on both sides and the idol is also similar. There we have a small Devi temple and a place where all "Navagrahas" are installed separately. Each "Navagraha" along with the tree associated with It, is also maintained there.

Another peculiarity of this place is monkeys. You will be able to see a lot of monkeys over there. We were lucky enough to see a monkey family also. From there we stepped down a lot of steps to reach the bottom of the "Gudde" (means hill) where the Harihara temple and Lakshminarayana temple are situated. The Harihara temple is a unique temple that both Siva and Vishnu (as Mohini) in the same idol. Another charecteristic of this temple is that, this temple is surrounded by a pond.

After the darshan, we all hurried towards Kateel which we heard will be closed by 1.30 PM.......