Hosagunda..... A tale of immense passion, robust belief and ardent devotion
Hosagunda is situated amid a lush green forest on national highway 206 around 60 kms from Shimoga and around 16 Kms from Sagar in Karnataka. During 900 A.D. Hosagunda came under the rule of a Dynasty of Kings who called themselves as Kings of Hosagunda and flourished from here for more than 300 years. The magnificent Temples built under their stewardship and myriad stone inscriptions found here speak of a culturally rich and spiritually oriented society existed during their rule. Unfortunately after the fall of the Hosagunda Dynasty about 700 years ago, all these priceless Temples and legacies went into ruins because of local populace migrating away and entire capital township getting converted into a dense forest.
It was during the year 2001, couple of strange incidences were experienced in the farm of Sri. CMN Shastry, who, hailing from a far off place, had recently bought a piece of agricultural land in Hosagunda. When famous Vedic scholar Agama Pandit Sri Katte Parameshwara Bhat was consulted on this, he construed these strange incidents to the various Temples & Deities around in a dilapidated condition.
It was Divine design so far It now has Divine Blessings With the divine blessings and proficient guidance of... Jagadguru Shankaracharya SRI SRI BHARATHI THEERTHA MAHASWAMIJI Dakshinaamnaya Sri Sharada Peetam, Sringeri. Salutations to His Holiness, His Holy consent to be ‘Mahasamrakshak’ has boosted our efforts and morale in restoring of Hosagunda to its righteous glory
He also opined that Sri. CMN Shastry’s coming into Hosagunda fold is a Divine design and he is destined to restore this place towards its original glory. The Restoration saga started on 4th May 2001 when surroundings of monumental Sri Umamaheshwara shrine was cleaned and a Narmada Banalingam (Sacred Shiva stone brought in from Narmada River) was installed at the vacant sanctum sanctorum and daily worship was restored.
An enormous amount of effort has been put in by the Founder Trustees Sri CMN Shastry and Smt Shobha N Shastry, Trustees and committee members of Sri Umamaheshwara Seva Trust, to bring back the fame of this "Temple Town" by renovating and restoring these Temples, thereby, creating an approximation of "Heaven on Earth". It is our duty to applaud the noble and holy work done by them
. An “Ashtamangala Prashna” (a ritual under Indian astrology science) was conducted to know the presence various evil spirits that would have engulfed these ruins due to neglect of them all these years. As per the directions from Ashtamangala Prashna ruins & idols of seven more Temples and Deities were unearthed. A makeshift Temple (Balaalaya) was immediately constructed and all Deities found so far such as Sri Veerabhadra, Sri Mahisha Mardhini (Goddess Durga), Sri Kanchi Kalamma (Goddess Kali), Sri Prasanna Narayana (Vishnu) and Sri Lakshmi Ganapathy (Ganesh) including Sri Umamaheshwara were installed in Balaalaya and daily worship started. The reconstruction of temples for all these Deities in its original place where the foundation was unearthed is under progress and some of them being under completion stage.
As these Temples pertain to different periods of past, they are being rebuilt in the same architectural style prevailing at the time of its initial constructions resulting in Hosagunda emerging as a museum of different styles of architecture.
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