Information of Dodda Ganeshana Gudi (Sri Big Bull Temple), Bangalore, Karnataka

Sri Big Bull Temple at Dodda Ganeshana Gudi is 477 year old unique temple built for the animal guard of Lord Shiva. The animal guard or the transporter bull of Lord Shiva is familiarly called as the Nandhi. This is a sacred bull for the Hindus in India. It's found in all most all of the Hindu temples in small miniatures and in sculptures. This bull statue may be the welcome stone found in many of the entrance of Hindu temples. Its bigger statues are always associated with Shiva temple, were its size is little bit large and high compared to what seen in other temples. In Shiva temples this Nandhi is placed behind the Shiva sculptors. It can be seen on the entrance or just looking opposite to the main ditty. The Hindus considered it as a holly and sacred animal of worship. This is the only temple to have a separate worship place for this sacred animal and it makes a difference by carving a biggest and largest Nandhi here by the Vijayanagara Kings in 1537 AD. This record is still counted in India. This is a great pilgrim place located near the Narasimha Raja Colony, Bangalore City, Karnataka State in India.

Dodda Ganeshana Gudi Religious Significance

Sri Big Bull Temple is a great worship place for the Hindus. It has a Ganesha temple on its adjacent side. Nandhi is believed to be an animal of prosperity. Touching this statue and get blessing from it is the main pooja ceremony done here. Pilgrims bring mainly the animal fodder as the offering material. This statue is mostly touched by the small children's to get a prosperous life. In the end of December month the Kadalekaayi Parishe festival is grandly celebrated here. This pulls many ground nut vendors here. Since peoples give this ground net as offering to this Nandhi Demi -God. This is an all season temple and its local peoples come to worship here daily. This temple also attracts many tourists too.

Dodda Ganeshana Gudi Mythology & History

Nandhi is the Shiva's vahana as mentioned in the puranas. There are many depictions in art and print form from the ancient times like Shiva and Parvathi seated on this Bulls back. This bull is also considered as the favorite animal for Lord Shiva. It is believed that this animal used to guard lord Shiva, when he go for long meditations in the Himalayas. Since from the ancient times, the real small bulls were worshiped by house holders in their cattle areas. They used to bath this animal with water and decorate with floors and put a bell necklace on it. This was worshiped by taking arthis or by rounding the animal more than three times. The small bulls are also taken inside a house to get rid of bad omens present inside a house.

Dodda Ganeshana Gudi Architectural Significance

The Bull temple has the monolith granite stone carved Nandhi statue. This is a life size statue I a sitting position with dimension of 4.6 meter in height and 6.1 meter in length. A beautiful stone art is found on this bull as it's ornate with bell garlands and a few jewels. The Nandhi is the main ditty and is placed in the centre of this temple in a stone roofed mandapa (Porch). The entrance tower and its walls are found to be built in the recent times. It mandapa has many single stone pillars. The entrance of this temple has a minerate and a small pillared mandap. The Nandhi statue is looking ebony black is color. This is actually a granite stone and the dark black color is formed by polishing with charcoal mixing with oil.