Sampige Siddeshwara Temple in Chitradurga Fort

Chitradurga Fort is dotted with several temples. It may be difficult to cover all temples inside the Chitradurga Fort especially if you have just around two or three hours to tour the fort.

The prominent among them is the Sampige Siddeshwara Temple. The temple of Siddeshwara is a cave temple associated with a hillock named Mukthi Shivalaya Shikhara (liberation-abode of Shiva-pinnacle). Located on the southern side, the temple gets its name Sampige Siddeshwara because of the Michelia Champaca, the magnolia flowers, called Sampige in Kannada language.

The guide said, there were plenty of magnolia flowers growing around this cave temple and the place smelled heavenly with its fragrance.

The Mahadwara (grand entrance) at Sampige Siddeshwara Temple, inside Chitradurga Fort, near Bangalore.

Sampige Siddeshwara Temple Chitradurga Fort

Sampige Siddeshwara Temple Chitradurga Fort

Walk around to see the sanctum, vestibule and hall of the temple. Inside the sanctum there is Shiva Linga that is worshiped on a daily basis as Sidhanta, thus the name Siddheshwar for the temple. The worship of this deity is associated with Veerashaiva Saints like Revannasiddha (Sri Revana Siddeshwara Swamy is thought to be one in every of the best Saints of the Shaiva Sect within the Hindu faith).

The hall has sculptures of Allama Prabhu, Ganesha, Shula, Brahma, Nandi, Bhairava and several Naga stones. At one corner there is an impressive statue of Veerabhadra.

temples inside the Chitradurga Fort

Coronation in Sampige Siddeshwara Temple

In the courtyard there is a huge squarish platform where the palegars and chiefs of Chitradurga Fort were crowned once. In its heyday this place must have seen a lot of ceremonial activities, now it is bare and mute. Amazes me how time can rip off the importance and grandeur. Nothing is permanent!

An inscription of 1355 AD there records the construction of the stone mahadwara pavilion at the entrance.

Read more – 20 Rock Cut Cave Temples of India

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Temples inside chitradurga Fort

(updated post of Aug2, 2012)

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