Budumuladoddi and Basaladoddi

The Palike Devaru Temple at Budumuladoddi

Every New Year starts for us at Mantralayam in the holy presence of Sri Raghavendra Swamy and while we are there, we try and visit other temples close by. This year, we decided, instead of visiting the same places again (which we normally do if there are a number of newcomers) we would go somewhere we have not seen before.

Thanks to Thamby Raghavendra, at the Mantralaya Temple, we got to see two beautiful Hanuman temples, both of them on the way to Adoni, and quite close to Mantralaya. The similarity does not stop there.

Sri Vyasaraja, the previous Avatara of Sri Raghavendra Swamy was the Raja Guru of Sri Krishnadevaraya.
During his time on earth, he has created 729 Hanumans (some say 732) and installed them at various places. Aalayam Kanden has, in the past covered some of these temples. Both the temples that we went to had Hanuman idols created by Sri Vyasaraja.

The first temple was Budumuladoddi Sri Palike Devaru Temple at Surikeri Village. This temple is about 40 km to the South of Mantralayam. We drove on the road towards Adoni and turned right at the road that leads to Kosigi and further to Urukunda Narasimha Swamy temple. This very old temple belonging to 16th Century has been renovated in the year 1995.

Dasavathara Entrance at the Budumuladoddi Temple

The temple has been renovated without disturbing the main shrine which really merits appreciation. The temple complex is small with a front vahana mandapa, a dwajasthamba, a small shrine for Lord Shiva and the main sanctum sanctorum for Palike Devaru, apart from a long dining hall to the right of the temple complete with stone tables and benches where Annadhana (distribution of food) is done every day.

Madhva, Bheema, Hanuman panel on Dwajasthamba

We talk about the previous avataras of Sri Raghavendra Swamy as being Sanku Karna - Prahalada - Pahlika Raja - Vyasaraja. Similarly, the avataras of Hanuman are said to be Hanuman - Bheema - Madhvacharya.  This has been depicted in the Dwajasthamba with a Koorma Peeta in front of it.

But what is really unique about this temple, is the Hanuman himself. Why is he called Palike Devaru? The photograph below is one given by the temple. I apologise for the poor quality. The temple does not allow the main deity to be photographed. 

To go back to our question of why is he called Palike Devaru, do you see the leaves on either side of the Hanuman? Near the shoulder and over the raised hand on the left and similarly, near the left shoulder and below the tail? These leaves are placed on the idol by the Poojari every morning. Those devotees who wish to seek Agnya (Direction) from the Lord about their prayers, come to the temple and inform the Pujari who then sits down and starts talking to the Lord.

He asks Hanuman to let the devotee know if his appeal will be granted or not. Within a couple of minutes, the leaves on the idol start falling. The ones on the right fall if the prayer would be granted and the ones of the left fall if there is no likelihood of it happening. If the issue is to be delayed for long, then the leaves do not fall despite the Pujari talking to the Lord many times over. We followed the ritual and found that it does indeed work that way.

The Pujari told us that on Saturdays several people come from far and near to pray to the Lord and find out if their prayers would be answered. If they got a positive signal, the prayer would be fulfilled in about 48 days after which they come back to offer thanks. This has given the Hanuman the title of Palike Devaru (The God who talks).

The other temple we went to next is the Pairaiah temple at Basaladoddi. This temple is even closer to Mantralaya and is only about 25 kms south of the temple town.

Sri Pairaiah Swamy Temple, Basaladoddi

The Hanuman at Pairaiah Swamy temple is also installed by Sri Vyasaraja. This temple has a very interesting story attached to it. The priest Shri Chandrasekhar was also a very enterprising person. He made us all sit around and started narrating the story which goes like this:

Basaladoddi was primarily a place where cows were grazed. The Villagers wanted to install a Hanuman in their area and so started making an idol on a rock in a nearby hillock. While they were doing so, one day, the cows grazed by one Govindaiah tripped on an anthill. As they stumbled, their horns broke the anthill and the idol of Hanuman which had been installed by Sri Vyasaraja was discovered. Now, the villagers were in a fix. They were not sure as to whether they must start worshipping this Hanuman, whose existence they had not been aware of, or the other Hanuman who was in the making.

Sri Pairaiah Swamy installed by Sri Vyasaraja

One of the villagers who was a staunch devotee of Hanuman, had a dream that night, wherein Hanuman told him that the villagers must worship the idol installed by Vyasaraja and build a temple around it and the other Hanuman could be installed on the hillock where it was being made. The villagers followed the instructions, and did as suggested. Govindaiah, who had been instrumental in identifying the idol and his family took the lead in building the temple and till date his descendants worship at the temple.

Some years after the temple was built, Hanuman again appeared in the dream of the devotee, and said that he did not like the people eating and sleeping in the temple or consuming meat close by and that he would show the villagers a place where they could build their settlements and he would stay outside the village, where people could visit and worship and then go back.

He is said to have then taken the devotees several hundred metres away from the temple and then appeared there is a miniature form as Mukya Prana Devaru, where by people knew that that was where they had to build their settlements. Even today, the miniature form of the Lord can be worshipped at the Basaladoddi Village while the Pairaiah Temple (meaning the Lord outside) is close to the hillocks and away from the Village.

The Priest comes to the temple early in the morning and stays there till dusk so this temple could be visited at any time of the day.

Contact Information of the priest : 96529 79836/ 96038 62211

If you happen to visit Mantralaya, you can very easily visit these two temples as well. For transport facilitation, you may contact Mr Srinivas at 98850 27919/98859 72488. He has a good fleet of jeeps and cars and charges nominally. He is a very reliable transport operator in and around Mantralayam. He also helps with accommodation and food.