Marikamba Temple, Sirsi, Karnataka

Contents

1 Architecture
2 Legend / Local stories
3 Photo Gallery
4 How to Reach:
5 Contact Details

Marikamba Temple, Sirsi, Karnataka

Date built:	1688
Deity:	–
Architectural style:	Kavi Art
Major festivals	–
Locale:	Sirsi, Karnataka, India
District::	Sirsi
Address:	Sirsi-Banavasi Rd, Sirsi, Karnataka 581402
Phone	08384226360

The Marikamba Temple in Sirsi, Karnataka, India, is a Hindu temple dedicated to a form of the goddess Durga. It is also known as Doddamma Temple, with “Doddamma” denoting the “elder sister” of all Mariammas in Karnataka. The central icon is an eight-armed image of Durga, also known by the names Renuka and Yellamma. It was built in 1688.^{[citation needed]} It is at a distance of 83 kilometres (52 mi) to the east of Gokarna

Architecture

The temple’s façade, a 19th-century addition, is painted blue. After one enters through the façade, there is courtyard in the middle, which has cloisters surrounding it. The cloisters are filled with images of deities from the Hindu epics. The changes made inside the temple have hidden any evidence of older structures. The sanctum sanctorum has the central image of a fierce form of the goddess Durga, multi-armed (eight shoulders), riding a tiger and killing a demon. It is believed that the 7-foot-tall (2.1 m) image was retrieved from a pond on the road to Hanagal. The temple has very special paintings of murals in Kaavi art, an art form which was popular in the coastal Konkan region of Karnataka. In this art form, now extinct, the top plastered layer of the mural was first dyed with a red pigment, which when removed revealed a lower white layer of plaster over which the murals were created