Topic started by Dr.Shrikaanth K.Murthy (@ cache-loh-ab04.proxy.aol.com) on Mon Jun 21 00:19:34 EDT 2004.
All times in EST +10:30 for IST.

hi all
am keen on getting more info about the jaganmohana ranganatha temple in talakadu/sivanasamudra which is famous as madhya ranga. Any and all info about temple, he mUla vigraha[is the Lord reclining on a snake], sthalapurAna, history festivals etc. Am composing a song and hence this request
Thanks a ton in advance
Dr.Shrikaanth K.Murthy

Responses:

• From: Dr. Shrikaanth K,murthy (@ cache-loh-ac06.proxy.aol.com) on: Mon Jun 21 12:58:27 EDT 2004
  
  Hey guys is there no one out there who has any info I requested
  Dr.shrikaanth K.Murthy
  
  
• From: natasha (@ ) on: Wed Sep 22 03:13:55
  
  can't answer your specific questions but this is the info i got on the talakadu temples.
  
  The Kaveri is joined by a tributary, the Kabini or Kapila, about 12 km south of Somanathapura. The town of Tirumakudlu Narasipura stands at the confluence. The name is a corruption of Thiruma(three) and Kudulu(confluence). The third is the Sphatika Sarovara, which is believed to be a subterranean lake. T. Narasipura is a major pilgrimage centre, with a medieval temple dedicated to the sage Agastya.
  Some distance away from T. Narasipura, on the left bank of the Kaveri, is the desolate, sand-blown town of Talakadu. Once it was the thriving capital of the Ganga dynasty. Then came the Cholas, who named it Rajarajapuram, and then the Hoysalas under Vishnuvardhana. But now, Talakadu lies buried under huge moving sand dunes, that are as high as 15m in places. According to a semi-historical story, Talakadu's fate is due to a curse pronounced on the city by Alamelamma, the widow of Tirumalaraya, the last viceroy of the Vijayanagara king in Srirangapatna. Raja Wodeyar, the ruler of Mysore, coveted the fabulous jewels owned by Alamelamma and sent his soldiers to obtain them by force, taking advantage of her husband's death. Alamelamma fled to Malangi, on the opposite bank of the Kaveri from Talakadu but when her pursuers closed in on her, jumped into the river with her jewels. Before the waters swallowed her, she is said to have cried out aloud: "May Talakadu be always covered with sand; may there always be a whirlpool in the Kaveri at Malangi and may the kings of Mysore always remain without heirs!"
  The locals fearfully point out that the curse has come true: Talakadu has mysteriously been covered by sand, there is a whirlpool at Malangi and the family tree of the Mysore rulers shows a large number of adopted heirs.
  
  It is believed that at Talakadu there are thirty temples submerged in the sea of sand. The temples which are still visible above ground are the Pataleshwara and Maruleshwara(built by the Gangas), the Keertinarayana (Hoysalas) and the Vaidyeshwara (Cholas). Puja is still conducted in these temples, especially during the Panchalingadarshana festival which takes place every 12 years in November-December. This is the only time that Talakadu is visited by thousands of people.
  The Pataleshwara and Maruleshwara temples are the oldest. The shivalingam installed in the former is said to change colour — from red in the morning to black in the afternoon to white in the evening.
  The Keertinarayana temple has a 3-m-tall idol of Vishnu, which is still in worship.
  The largest and most ornate temple in Talakadu is dedicated to Shiva as Vaidyeshwara or the Lord of Healing. Though the temple seems to have been built in the 14th century, a puranic legend suggests an earlier date. According to the story, a sage named Somadatta and his disciples, while doing penance on the banks of the Kaveri to propitiate Shiva, were killed by wild elephants before they could complete their spiritual quest. They were reborn as elephants in the same forest. To help them, Shiva took the form of a lingam buried beneath a silk cotton tree. The elephants would bathe in the Kaveri and offer lotuses at the foot of the tree every morning.
  This ritual was observed by two hunters named Tala and Kada. Curious, they tried to cut the tree down, but at the first blow of the axe, the tree began to bleed. A voice instructed them to dress the wound with the leaves and fruits of the same tree. When the hunters obeyed, the blood turned to milk, which they and the elephants drank and became immortal. Later, a temple was built around the shivalingam and the place came to be called Talakadu after the hunters!
  Though the forest department has planted trees to prevent the desert from advancing, it is still encroaching at the rate of 3 m a year. The source of the sand is the Kaveri itself. All the silt and sand deposited in the river bed and on the banks during the dry summer months are blown on to the city by the winds of the south-west monsoon. The river may also have changed its course many times in the past, leaving the sand behind. Whatever may be the reason, the curse or nature's course, Talakadu is today a rarely-visited, almost forgotten city.
  
  

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