Villagers construct Anjaneya temple of Hoysala-style by spending Rs 6 cr

Davanagere: The villagers of Kulagatte in Honnali taluk of Davanagere district have constructed an Anjaneya temple in Hoysala architecture at an estimated cost of Rs 6 crores. Interestingly, the villagers did not seek any help from state government and from others. The villagers themselves contributed money for the construction.

The historic ancient Anjaneya temple of the Kulagatte village dilapidated in 2017. The idol of Anjaneya Swamy also got dilapidated some years ago. The villagers visited other villages to find a suitable Anjaneya idol. Then god came in dream of a villager and instructed him to construct a temple and an idol is there in village itself.

The villagers held a meeting under the chairmanship of Vishweshwara Halaswamy of Rampur to rebuild the temple and the whole villagers irrespective of caste and creed united to build temple.

The people of Kulagatte village who did not reach out to the politicians of any party or anywhere else for the construction of the temple decided to donate themselves and build the temple. Accordingly, the villagers raised money and built a wonderful Hoysala-style stone temple at a cost of 6 crores and dedicated it to the people.

Ramappa, a villager, said: "We decided to build this temple together with the village leaders. Accordingly, the temple was built with a donation of Rs. 6 crore collected from the villagers. Not even a single paisa was received from the devotees for the construction of the temple."

The Kulagatte village has 1500 houses and every household has given this amount in the form of charity. Each family has donated from Rs 30 thousand to Rs 5 lakhs. Villagers visited many districts of the state to see the model of the temple. It took 5 years to prepare the model. Now the entire work of the temple has been completed.

Special feature of this Anjaneya Swamy's temple is that there are 19 big pits behind the idol. Hence the villagers call it 'Olakallu Hanumanthappa'. Bhairappa, a villager said: "This temple was built from the charity of all villagers. Many temples including Thimmappa temple, Durgadevi, Bhairaveshwar, Navagraha, Vigneshwar temple were built with the donations of Kulagatte villagers."

The effort of villagers were appreciated by all as many make it a habit of collecting money from general public by issuing receipts. The villagers set an example on how to build temple without donations from others.