The power of Lord Shiva is immense. No one is untouched by it. If we believe the Puranas, then Bholenath fulfills all the wishes of the Shiva devotees who visit the temples. The day of Mahashivratri is considered very good for the worship of Bholenath. On this day, people come to visit different Shiva temples of India, some in their city. Although every Shiva temple of India is unique, but today we are telling you about one such Shiva temple of India, where everyone wants to go. The unique thing about this temple is that it has not one or two but 1 crore Shivlingas of different types. So let’s know about this unique Shiva temple of India.
1 crore Shivlingas in Kotilingeshwar
About 100 km from Bengaluru, Kammasandra village in Kolar district of Karnataka has a famous temple of Lord Shiva. It is known as Kotilingeswara. The specialty of the temple is that there are about 1 crore Shivlingas of different sizes here. Koti in Kotilingeswara in Kannada means crore. The size of the lingas ranges from 1 foot to 3 feet. These lingas are spread over 15 acres of land and look extremely beautiful.
Asia’s biggest Shivling is here
Kotilingeswara Temple was built in the year 1980 by Swami Sambha Shiva Murthy. The Shivlinga installed here is 33 meters long and is the tallest in the world. The temple also has a 35 feet high statue of Nandi. Free mass marriages are also organized every year in this temple which has 1 crore Shivlingas.
This temple is included in the list of tourist places-
The government has declared this temple as a tourist destination. So that hundreds of tourists from all over the world can come and see the largest Linga in Asia. Two flowering trees named Nagalinga and Cannon Ball are located here. Many unmarried women pray here for a happy married life.
Worship at the Kotilingeswara Temple
Priests perform daily worship on all the installed Shivlings. The worship is done with music and drums. All the priests recite mantras and also pour water on the lingas. Not only this, devotees can also perform special worship by installing their own Shivling.
The good thing about this temple is that you can install your own Shivling here. People keep Shivling here who believe that their wish will be fulfilled by installing it.
There are about eleven other temples of different deities in the temple complex. The first of them includes the temple of Lord Vishnu, Lord Brahma and Lord Maheshwara. After this is the temple of Lord Kotilingeswara. Apart from this, temples of Lord Panduranga, Lord Panchamukh Ganapati, Lord Brahma, Lord Vishnu, Goddess Annapurnaeshwari, Lord Venkataramani Swamy, Lord Rama-Sita-Lakshmana, Goddess Kanika Parameshwari, Goddess Karumari Amma Devi are also built in the complex. A good number of devotees visit this temple every day and worship here. A large number of devotees reach here on the auspicious day of Mahashivratri.
Temple opening hours: 6:00 am to 9:00 pm
Entry fee: INR 20 per person
Camera fee: INR 100 per camera
Parking fee: INR 30
Linga installation fee: Starting from INR 6,000
If time permits, people visiting Bengaluru can include this temple in their travel list.
