About

Mandya owes the origin of it's name to Mandavya Rishi. He is said to have done his penance in the Vedaranya and the region was called as Mandavya region. Eventually, it has transformed to Mandya. In the ancient times, the Gangas ruled Bangalore, Mysore and Chamarajanagar regions while keeping Talakad as their capital. They ruled independently from 350 A.D to 550 A.D. Later they became subordinates to the Chalukyas and ruled till 1004 A.D.

Around 1001 A.D, Indravarma ruled the Mandya region. He did not have any children of his own and was keen to have a progeny. He approached Mandavya Rishi seeking help and he advised him to set up a temple for and worship Sri Janardhana Swamy with Sri Lakshmi. Indravarma was told that this would solve his problem and that by doing so, he would get to a progeny soon. As per Mandavya Rishi's suggestion, Indravarma instated Sri Lakshmi Janrdana Swamy and started praying to him. Soon after, he was blessed with a baby boy. In memory of this, he built a fort in Mandya city and gave alms to plenty. Althought the fort is not present today, the 'Veeragallu' near the main entrance can still be seen. There still is a practice of calling the four-lane festival (Chaturbeedhi Utsava) by the name Fort Festival (Kote Utsava).

Indravarma named his son Somavarma and he later went on to build the Sakaleshwara Swamy temple. Till date, many who don't have children, come here and pray. It is also true that almost all the time, they have been blessed with a child soon after. For this reason, Janardhana Swamy here is also called "Makkala Janrdhana", "Varadaraja" etc.

Mandavya Rishi taught Veda to even all the wild animals around him. Hence, the forest in which he did his penance is called Vedaranya (Forest of the Vedas) and the Goddess Mahalakshmi at the Sri Lakshmijanardhana Swamy Temple is referred to by the name Vedavalli.

The temple is located in the middle of a 2 acre area and a Rajagopura has been built for it. The temple has many sections like Vimanagopura, Garbhagruha (Sanctum Sanctorum), Sukhanasi, Navaranga etc. The Elephant, which was the royal emblem or insignia of the Gangas, can still be seen at the front of the temple.