Mysore City Guide
Chamundi hills offers a panoramic view of the place. Encompassing one of the revered destination - the Chamudi temple, this place is a retreat for pilgrimage travellers.
Chamundi Hill is named after the Goddess of Mysore "Goddess Chamundi". It is believed that through her meditation the Goddess protects the well being of the town below. She is an incarnation of Parvati (consort of Shiva), who killed the demon Mahishasura. Thus bringing peace to the country (Mysore is named after her). One thousand steps or a taxi takes one to the top of the hill. From the top one can get a bird's eye view of the Mysore City below, which looks very enchanting and beautiful. More than halfway up a 5 Mt high granite stone "Nandi" (Shiva's holy bull) guards over the city of Mysore. Sri Chamundeswari Temple on the summit is dedicated to the royal Wodeyar family's presiding deity, the "Goddess Chamundi."
Standing as the crown jewel of Mysore, Chamundi Hills is the abode of all powerful Goddess, Chamundi or Chamundeswari. A motorable road, besides a flight of 1,000 steps, take the visitors to its top, where stands the beautiful tall Gopuram of the temple, one of the best examples of the Dravidian school of architecture. The hill rises to a height of 3,489 feet. Half-way to it, near the steps and the road, there is a beautiful 16-foot monolith statue of Nandi, carved in granite, black because of regular anointing with oil and other sacred waters. The beautiful carved statue was a gift by the Maharaja, Dodda Devaraja Wodeyar, in 1659.
Nearby the Chamundi Temple is the Lalithadri Palace, used by the former Mysore Maharajas, whenever they visited the Hills, for worshipping the Goddess, their home deity, in the temple.
By the side of the famous Chamundi Temple, there is another temple, the temple of Mahabaleswara. In fact, Mahabaleswara, Ishwara in the form of Linga, is the oldest temple on the hill. The hill was earlier called Mahabaladri, after Mahabaleswara. This temple was a gift by the Vijayanagar King Vishnuvardhana in 1128 A.D. As one approaches the road towards the temple, there is a huge statue of monster Mahishasura. There is a small township on the hill. State Government buses (KSRTC) ply regularly to the temple from Mysore City
