About

Malekal Thirupathi Shree Venkataramana Swamy temple is a famous pilgrimage center for the devotees at Malekal village, Arasikere taluk, Hassan District, Karnataka state. The temple is situated 2 Kms away from Arasikere town on the Bangalore-Honnavara highway.

The name Malekal and the installation of Lord Venkataramanaswamy here has got a legendary story. Devaguru Shri Vashishta lived here and went to penance worshiping Lord Venkataramanswamy for over 800 years, who in turn gave his darshan on the day of Ashada Shuddha Dwadashi. To mark this event Maharathothsava is being held every year even now. After getting Tapasiddhi with the darshan of Lord Venkateshwara left the place. As a result there was nobody to perform pooja to Lord Venkataramanaswamy installed by Devaguru Vashishta. As the days passed the ashrama built by him has perished and the statue (Vigraha) of Lord Venkataramana Swamy installed by him submerged in the earth. After lapse of thousands of year the palegar of Chithradurga who were ruling the area 800 years back. They were the devotees of Thirupathi Thimmappa i.e. Venkataramana Swamy. On one occasion Shri Thimmappa Nayaka one of the Palegar of Chithradurga had a dream of getting the darshan of Lord Venkataramana and had a direction of the lord to construct a temple for him and can have his darshan instead of Thirupathi. Thimmappa Nayaka was in fix to know the geneusness of his dream. Then lord Venkateshwara again appeared in his dream and told that he can be found on top of the hill. If the palegar follow the route along with Tulasi (Basil) male which can be found at the bottom of the hill.

Accordingly Thimmappa Nayaka found the Venkateshwara statue (Vigraha) on the top of the hill following The Thulasi male. As such the place has named after male as Malekallu and with a result the Palegaras can have the Darshan of Lord Venkataramana instead of at Thirupathi. Hence that has been named as Malekallu Thirupathi. The temple is on the top of the hill and it has got over 1200 steps.

At the down hill of the temple Lord Govindarajaswamy live. The utsava murthy's (festival deities) of main deity (Lord Vekataramana Swamy) is housed at Govindarajaswamy temple itself. In view of inconvenience on top of the hill for performing Rathothsava and other similar type of Uthsavas.The Govindaraja Swamy temple was built by Palegar Thimmappanayaka as he has found the Govindaraja Swamy statue (Vigraha) while constructing a lake to solve the drought problem.

As such the temple on top of the hill was called as Amaragiri Tirupathi and the temple at the down hill has been called as Govindaraja Pattana (town). Another important aspect of the place is that while at Thirupathi Lord Venkataramana is installed on the hill top and the Govindaraja Swamy at the down hill, Hence at Malekallu Lord venkataramana and goddess Padmavathi are installed together on top of the hill. There will be pooja performance in the temple every day from morning 7 AM to night 8 PM.

The newly wedded couple of the area are having the practice of visiting the temple as a ritual. The temple was renovated recently in the year 1990 by installing a new chariot for the uthsava. Performance of Kalyanothsava here is a ritual practice and devotees witness the temple in large numbers.