Tiptur

Tiptur is a town in Tumkur district in the Indian state of Karnataka. It is well known for copra.

The place is a leading trading and educational centre and is about 73 km west of Tumkur on the Bangalore-Honavar road and on the Bangalore-Miraj railway line and about 141 km north-west of Bangalore city. There are about a dozen temples and dozen choultries here. The most important temples of the place are the Shankara matta (Sharada Temple), Kalleshvara, Kempamma, Anjaneya, Mallikarjuna, Kashi Vishveshvara and the Kannika Parameshvari. It is a centre of coconut trade and abounds in coconut plantations.

Other important places in the taluk are as follows:

Keregodi

is about 5 km south-west of Tiptur town. The place has a beautiful Shankareshvara temple. There are two lions, well carved in black stone with an open mouth at the entrance of the temple. There are also shrines of Buddha, Vigneshvara and Nandi in the temple. It has also a Veerashaiva Matha called the Keregodi Samsthana Matha.

NONAVINAKERE: The place originally called Nonabanakere of the Nolamba times, is situated 10 km south-east of Tiptur town. The place was one of the panchagramas (five settlements) of the Hebbar Srivaishnavas.

The Byatarayaswami temple here, said to have been built by one Koneri Iyangar, is a large structure of Dravidian style of architecture and has a figure of Shrinivasa. The Gopalakrishna temple is said to be older than the Byatarayaswami and is of the Hoysala period. It has three cells which have the images of Keshava, Venugopala and Yoganarasimha. The Shanteshvara, Nonabeshvara, Chandeshvara, Kalleshvara and the Gaurishvara are the other Shiva temples here.

VIGHNASANTHE: The place called Igganasanthe in inscriptions, about 3 km south-west of Nonavinakere and about 14 km south-east of Tiptur has a temple of Lakshminarasimha which is trikutachala in shape, a Hoysala structure. According to an inscription dated 1286 A.D. this was built during the time of the Hoysala king Narasimha III by his generals. The main cell has a fine image of Chennakeshava. The Balalingeshvara temple here is a plain Hoysala building with a stone tower adorned with four figures one over the other in the four directions and a Hoysala crest in the front. The Banashankari is another shrine here.

ARALAGUPPE: The place is a village in Kibbanahalli hobli is situated at a distance of about 6 km from Banasandra railway station on Bangalore –Miraj railway line and about 18 km from Tiptur. The Chennakeshava temple at this place is a fine specimen of the Hoysala style belonging to about the middle of the 13th century A.D. It has a garbhagriha, a shukanasi and a navaranga. Attached to the southern wall of this temple is a temple of Narasimha. The Kalleshvara temple here which is assigned to about 9th century A.D. and a work of the Nolambas has a remarkable workmanship of Ashtadikplakas and dancing Nataraja. There are four other temples here belonging to the Ganga period.

(Source: Karnataka State Gazetteer 1983)