Gokarnanatheshwara Temple

Gokarnanatheshwara Temple
Kudroli Shree Gokarnatheshwara Temple
Geography
Country	India
State/province	Karnataka
District	Dakshina Kannada
Location	Kudroli, Mangalore
Culture
Primary deity	Gokarnanatha (Form of lord Shiva)
Important festivals	Maha Shivaratri, Navrathri, Deepavali, Dasara, Sri Narayana Jayanthi
History and governance
Website	http://www.kudroligokarnanatha.com/

The Gokarnanatheshwara Temple, otherwise known as Kudroli Sri Gokarnanatha Kshetra, is in the Kudroli area of Mangalore in Karnataka, India. It was consecrated by Narayana Guru. It is dedicated to Gokarnanatha, a form of Lord Shiva. This temple was built in 1912 by Adhyaksha Hoige Koragappa and compared to the other temples in the Mangalore area, this temple is of recent origin.

The temple is 2 km from the centre of Mangalore city. The temple has Gopuram (tower like structure) decorated with murals of various gods and goddesses. Murals depict scenes from Hindu epics and legends.

The Billava community was traditionally suppressed by the upper caste treating them as untouchables. It is in such a scenario that the community found a messiah in Narayana Guru. Narayana Guru has been regarded as the up lifter of the downtrodden and a visionary social servant.

Learning about the work undertaken by Narayana Guru in establishing social equality through his temples in Kerala, a prominent Billava leader Adhyaksha H. Koragappa visited Shri Narayana Guru in 1908. Adhyaksha Hoige Koragappa was a very well-known businessman in Mangalore, renowned for his integrity and philanthropy. He owned a large tile factory in Hoige Bazaar where he had his business offices. The tile factory was called King George Tiles. The Tile factory is defunct and the factory buildings long since demolished. Shri Koragappa also conducted extensive trade in the 1900s up to the Second World War, with business enterprises in the Middle East, Africa, Singapore, Malaysia, Sri Lanka and Myanmar, trading in Mangalore tiles, copra, spices and other natural products. He was a very wealthy businessman who was also honoured by King George V for his philanthropic work. An additional reason for Shri Koragappa to undertake the trip was that his son-in-law H. Somappa was very ill. Adhyaksha Koragappa went to Shri Narayana Guru for his blessings to cure his son-in-law. The Gokarnath temple pond in Kudroli had a marker in marble in memory of H. Somappa. In the "modernization" of the temple this plaque was thrown away and the history of the temple thereby suppressed by vested individuals. This desecration is not forgotten and people losing elections happened after this terrible act. The samadhi of both H. Koragappa and H. Somappa with appropriate markers lies in the family plot in Gori Gudde in Attavar, Mangalore. The plot and samadhi of Adhyaksha Koragappa is in terrible condition, the great builder of this magnificent temple lies in a forlorn, forgotten piece of land, and history is erased from memory. Adhyaksha Koragappa was also a great devotee of Bhagawan Nityananda of Ganeshpuri and Bhagawan performed several miracle at the home of Adhyaksha Koragappa on Goods-shed Road in Bunder. The first meeting of Bhagawan Nityananda and Adhyaksha Koragappa is described in the book Avadhoot Bhagawan Nityananda, on page 31. The book is authored by Swami Vijayananda of Nityananda Dhyana Mandira, Bevinakoppa. It is an astonishing fact, that given the close connection that the Supreme Dattatreya Avadhoot Bhagawan Nityananda had with Adhyaksha Koragappa, the authorities of the Gokarnath Temple never installed a statue of Bhagawan Nityananda in the temple premises. The eminent Indian-American mathematician Sagun Chanillo is a great grandson of Adhyaksha Koragappa and the grandson of H. Somappa.