Have you ever heard about the 1000 pillared temple??

No, not the one in Warangal but the one near Udupi, Karnataka. I visited this place during my college days in Udupi. I had initially thought that it wouldn’t be so magnificent but after learning about the history and importance of this place, I felt like I had discovered another gem in India. So, come and join with me to know more about this place through this blog.

Karnataka is known for Jain Pilgrims as it has a rich history in Jainism. One of the places which I am going to tell you in this blog is about Moodbidri and everything you need to know before visiting this beautiful village which is famous for its 1000 Pillared temple called “Saavira Kambada Basadi”.

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Where is Moodabidri??

Moodabidri is a small village located in the coastal Karnataka and is around 53kms from Mangalore and 55 km from Udupi. It is accessible only via road and the nearest railway station is Mulki and nearest airport is Mangalore.

I went to this place via bike. One can get a lot of cab and bike rental options from Udupi and Mangalore.

Some of the options are

• Zoomcar
• Drivezy
• Royal Brothers

So, the next section is about the temple history and the place, so if you are not interested to know about its history, you can skip this section and go directly to the Photo Walk section.

History about Moodbidri

The Place Moodbidri has derived its name from 2 words that are “Mooda” means East and “Bidri” means Bamboo. Earlier, the village was famous for its bamboo cultivation but now everything has vanished.

The Deity worshipped here is Chandraprabha who is the 8^th Tirthankar of Jain. There are a total of 24 Tirthankar in Jainism. Tirthankar is the one who appears in the world to teach the way of liberation.

The Beautiful piece of architecture took around 30 years to complete starting from the year 1430.

Also, one interesting fact about this place is that the place Moodbidri has 18 Jain Basadis (Jain Temple) with 18 lakes and 18 roads connecting to these various temples. But the largest among them is this 1000 pillared temple.

Photo Walk to the Temple

After parking your vehicle outside, there is a small entrance to reach the main temple.

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Before you enter the main temple, there is a temple caretaker who sits outside the gate and charges a nominal fee of Rs.10/- for single entry and Rs.50/- if you want to click photos and shoot videos.

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At the Entry, the temple complex houses a large pillar which is the Manastambha (usually found at the entrance of temples).

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The Temple is built in a vast area of land and has 3 separate floors. We are only permitted till the ground level where the main deity is while the upper floor remains closed all the time with best-kept secrets.

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Then comes the Prayer hall which has pillars with intricate carvings. After the prayer hall, I entered the main sanctum having Dwarpal’s paintings at the entrance before seeing the deity. The main deity is made of Bronze with a height of 2.5m.

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After visiting the main sanctum, I walked around the temple and saw multiple pillars with different art starting from mythical animals to some flora and fauna. No two pillars are of the same design.

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The carvings on these pillars will take you to ancient times leaving you spellbound.

The green grass growing all around the temple increases the beauty of the place even more. I spent almost 3 to 4 hours here even though you would need around 1 to 2 hours to explore this place.

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Tips:

• Best time to visit – Winters i.e. October to February.
• Frequency of local buses arriving here is less so plan accordingly.
• Apart from the thousand pillar temple, rest all temple entries are free.
• You can visit other Basadi by walk if you have time in hand.
• Limited Food options are available in the village like the normal south Indian thali, idlis, etc.

Other Basadi/Temples in Moodbidri

Apart from Gowri Temple, I didn’t visit the others but if you have time you can visit them

• Guru Basadi
• Ammanavara Basadi
• Shettara Basadi
• Gowri Temple
• Mathada Basadi
• Pathshala basadi
• Vikram Setty Basadi
• Lepadda Basadi

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Expense Report

Title	Cost
Bike Petrol	200
Entry fee	60
Lunch	70
Misc	150
Total	480