Anegudde Sri Varasidhi Vinayaka Temple

Anegudde Sri Varasidhi Vinayaka Temple is situated in Kumbasi, Udupi District, Kundapura Taluk. Anegudde means Ane = elephant Gudde = hill, it is called as elephant hill. It is one of the seven pilgrimage places of created by 'Parashurama'.

As per the legend, Gautam maharishi resided in this place and performed various religious rituals. But a demon named Kumbasura started interrupting and destroying the religious rituals. Tired of Kumbasura’s interruption Gautam Maharishi went to Dharmaraja head of Pandava’s to protect from the demon. Dharmaraja ordered to his younger brother Bheemasena to kill the demon. Even after a big war Bheemasena was not able to kill the demon. When Bheemasena was worried and stared thinking of ways to kill the demon, he heard a divine voice saying “Demon can be only killed by a sword from lord Vigneshwara”. Bheema prayed lord Ganesh and lord appeared before him in the form of elephant and gave him the sword. Kumbasura was killed with this sword by Bheem. Since the demon Kumbasur was killed here, this place was later was called as “Kumbasi”. Kumbasi was called as ‘Hari Hara Kshetra’ in Krita Yuga, ‘Madhu Kannana’ in Treta Yuga and ‘Gowtham Kshetra’ in Dwapara Yuga.

The place where lord Vigneshwara appeared before Bheemasena and gave the sword is known as Anegudde and lord Ganesh arose in that place in the form of elephant. Here, only the trunk portion of the lord Vinayaka is visible and worshiped with puja and abhishek, however the remaining portion of the body is bounded behind the wall and can’t be seen.

Temple is open from morning 6am to evening 9pm. Ganesh Chaturthi is celebrated grandly in Anegudde Mahaganapathi temple. Some of the sevas offered in this temple are Ganahoma, Ranga puja and Mudganapathi.

Kumbhasi is located at about 400 kms from Bengaluru, the nearest airport is in Mangalore which is located at a distance of 96 km and nearest railway station and major city is Kundapur which is located at around 9 Kms away from the temple. If you are travelling by road it is located on the NH 17 on the way to Kundapur from Mangalore and about 30 Kms from Udupi. Temple has 2 guesthouse for pilgrims ‘Amoda’ and ‘Pramoda’ and there are good accommodation facilities in Kundapur.

Other places to visit in Kumbashi are "Shree Harihara temple", " Shree Surynarayana temple" and "Shree Aiyappa swamy temple". All the three temples are located in the vicinity of "Anegudde temple".

[slideshow]