Gavi Ganagadareshwara temple in Karnataka
Gavi Gangadhareswara cave temple in Karnataka enshrines Lord Shiva located in the caves of the hillock in the Gavin-Guttural, about 3 km from the City Market near Bangalore. Many thousands of devotees visit Gavi Gangadhareswara Temple of Bangalore every year. There is a unique image of Agni, the God of Fire in this Gavi Gangadhareswara temple which is the only one temple in south India.
This cave temple has an ancient monolith carvings built by Kempe Gowda in the 9th century. The temple has two paths inside the cave which leads to the temple town Shivaganga in Tumkur and to Kashi. On to the left of the main entrance, there is an image of goddess Shakti, lord Ganapathi and lord Agnimurthi. Lord Agnimurthi the God of fire has two heads with seven hands and three legs. And it is believed that by worshipping this deity it will cure all eye defects one who have. There are four monolith pillars in the courtyard that represent Damaru and Thrishul.
There is a unique architect found in this Gavi Gangadhareswara Temple is that during the day festival of Makar Sankranti the sun’s rays passes through Nandi’s horns to Shiva Lingam which can be witnessed at least for an hour.