South India · Karnataka
Sringeri, Karnataka
Sources: wikimedia
Before you go
The first of Adi Shankaracharya's four peethams, on the Tunga in the Chikmagalur hills.
About Sringeri
- Riverside
- Hills
Where it is
Sringeri is a temple town on the Tunga river in Chikkamagaluru district of Karnataka, in the rainy, forested hill country of the Malnad in the Western Ghats.
History
Tradition says Adi Shankaracharya chose Sringeri for the first of his four monastic seats after seeing a cobra shelter a frog in labour from the sun, a sign of a place free of enmity. In the 14th century the matha's pontiff Vidyaranya was closely linked with the founders of the Vijayanagara empire, and the Vidyashankara temple was built here in that century.
People
Sringeri's people speak Kannada and grow areca nut, coffee and pepper in the heavy rains of the Malnad, and the town is a centre of Vedic learning. Navaratri, the great festival of the goddess Sharada, brings pilgrims and scholars to the matha.
Known for
- The Sri Sharadamba Temple
- The Vidyashankara Temple
- The Sringeri Sharada Peetham
- Fish fed by pilgrims at the Tunga ghat
- The forested Malnad hills
Did you know?
The 14th-century Vidyashankara temple has twelve pillars carved with the signs of the zodiac, placed so that the sun's rays fall on the pillar of each month in turn.
Shrines and sites
- Sri Sharadamba Temple
- Vidyashankara Temple
- Sringeri Sharada Peetham
- Tunga river ghat
Traditions
- Hindu
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