The sacred geography of the Indic world — every site mapped, dated, storied, and cited.
ಚೆಲುವನಾರಾಯಣ ಸ್ವಾಮಿ ದೇವಾಲಯ
Melkote, Karnataka · 12.6602°, 76.6475°
Established by Ramanujacharya after he became preceptor at the Hoysala court, with the image installed in 1099 and the temple completed in 1104 on a grant of 5,000 gadyanas from Vishnuvardhana; later Mysore rulers endowed it with jewelled crowns.
What follows is the temple’s own traditional account, transmitted through liturgy and local memory. It is recorded here as tradition, not as attested history.
Ramanuja is said to have recovered the stolen processional image from the Delhi sultan's court, where the sultan's daughter had grown so attached to it that she merged with the deity and is honoured as Bibi Nachiyar.
coordinates: wikipedia-2026-08-27 · sources retrieved 2026-08-26 · dynasty page: Hoysala
Answers only from cited records
Opening the line…