About

Bettada Ranganathaswami Temple is located on top of a 500-600 feet hill in Halekote, Holenarasipur Taluk of Hassan district. This temple represents the beauty in the art of sculpting, combined with a rich heritage. This temple is a holy place that offers salvation to mankind.

This hill is located on the other side of the railway track and is at a small distance from the village. At the tip of this hill is the Ranganathaswami Temple which has been constructed inside the cave adjoining the tree. This temple is a star shaped structure. One look at the surrounding environment of this temple will give us considerable knowledge about the adjoining village. This village is called Bettada Satenahalli. Surrounded by lush green crop fields, this temple offers a very picturesque landscape. There are two main entrances to this temple - one directly leads to the Sanctum Sanctorum and the other leads to the Hanumantha idol and the corridor.

A special procedure called Vaikhanasa Aagama is observed to clean the temple and different poojas are done. The grand Rathotsava on Pushya Nakshatra Trayodashi-Chaturdashi, i.e the previous day of Full Moon during Megha Masa, marks the start of a 15 days long grand jatra that takes place here. Thousands of devotees from all corners of the state gather here during this Jatra.

This temple also represents the Hoysala style of architecture. This temple is recognized as the identity of Hari Hara in Karnataka and poojas have been offered here since 13th-14th century A.D. Many Vijayanagar and Hoysala kings tried to eliminate the caste differences existing among people of their states. Thus they tried to introduce the feeling of harmony in the pooja procedures. Accordingly, Bukka, one of the founders of the Vijayanagar empire, successfully established harmony between the Jain and Vaishnava people in his state by eliminating their differences. Sri Ramanujacharya, who introduced Vishishtadwaitha, is said to have rested for a while here on this hill and sought the darshan of Sri Ranganatha, offering his devotional bhajans.

Another interesting story about a Palegara from this place, goes like this : This Palegara had bought 12 pots of Panchamrutha for Sri Ranganatha Swami's Abhisheka. As notified earlier, almost everything he had brought was used up by the abhisheka, with only a spoonful of Panchamrutha left, which was consumed as Theertha. The Palegara was a little disappointed by this. Also, a sense of ego also crept in him because of the reason that he was the first person who had arranged for the Abhisheka in such a grand scale. That night, in his dream, Sri Ranganathaswami appeared and is said to have told him to take back his 12 pots of Panchamrutha. It is believed that he went to the temple the next morning itself and prayed for forgiveness, resenting his ego.