ABOUT

Kumaraswami Temple is located on south-west corner and is connected to Sandur by road. The complex houses temples of Parvati and Kumaraswami. The Ganesha idol in the temple is interestingly more popular, these days than the main deity Kartikeya. According to one account, the Parvati temple (which was originally called Kumaraswamy temple) was built by the Badami Chalukyas (7th -8th century) and has the image of Parvati as the main deity. The temple currently called the Kumaraswamy temple (originally had Shanmukha as the main deity) was constructed during the rule of the Rashtrakutas (8th-10th century).[1] Both monuments are now a protected monuments. It was discovered by the local rulers, the Ghorpades, in the thickly-wooded Swamimale hill in the 15th century. Women were earlier strictly not allowed to enter the shrine. Murarirao Yeshwantrao Ghorpade lifted the ban on women in October 1996. After the ban was lifted, nearly 3,000 women have worshipped at the temple. The Ghorpades, well loved and respected by the locals, had declared the temple open to Harijans as early as the 1930s. After learning of this on his visit to Sandur in 1934, Mahatma Gandhi said, "A small state in south India has opened the temple to the Harijans, the heavens have not fallen."