The holy town of Udupi lies on the Arabian Sea in the South Indian state of Karnataka. The town is famous as a place of pilgrimage because of the temple Sri Krishna Matha. Udupi acquired nation-wide fame, when it was turned into a unique seat of Vedantic learning in the 13th century under the leadership of Sri Madhvacharya. Udupi is said to have attained the status of Vaikuntha, the kingdom of God, because the Supreme Personality of Godhead came and stayed there in response to the desire of His pure devotee Srila Madhvacharya.
Even before Madhva’s time Udupi was renowned as a holy place. People throughout South India frequently went there on pilgrimage because it was a center of Vedic scholarship and the site of two ancient temples, Sri Ananteshvara and Sri Candramauleshvara. In the Sri Ananteshvara temple, the more famous of the two, Lord Vishnu and His personal expansion Lord Ananta-shesha are said to reside within the Siva-linga, the deity form of Lord Siva, who is the most powerful demigod and the greatest devotee of Lord Vishnu, or Krishna. Sri Candramauleshvara is a temple of Lord Siva, so named because he carries the crescent moon (candra) on his head. Not much else is known about Udupi prior to Madhva’s advent, except that the town is named after Lord Siva, “Udupi” being derived from “Udupa,” another name of Lord Siva meaning “he who carries the moon on his head.”
Sri Madhvacharya, in the years before he founded the Sri Krishna Matha, was affiliated with the Sri Ananteshvara temple. Here he used to hold audiences spellbound with his learned discourses on the science of Krishna consciousness. Within the temple compound he would regularly hold debates with scholars opposed to pure devotion to Lord Krishna as the ultimate end of Vedic knowledge. Madhva never lost a debate. After founding Sri Krishna Matha, Madhva made it the center for all his activities. Tradition still has it, however, that pilgrims go first to Candramauleshvara and offer their respects to Lord Siva, then to Ananteshvara to offer respects to Lord Vishnu, and finally go across the street to Sri Krishna Matha to worship Srila Madhvacharya’s original Deity of Lord Bala Krishna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead as a young child.
Distances from Udupi:
- Mangalore:86 Kms
- Hassan: 170 Kms
- Chikmagalur : 125 Kms
- Mysore: 266 kms