Bayalu Anjaneyaswamy Temple, Hanumanthapura, Tumkur.

 Bayalu Anjaneyaswamy – A Hidden Treasure.

Vyasaraja, the spiritual guru of King Krishnadevaraya, is one of the ardent follower and preacher of Dvaita philosophy.  This temple is one of 732 hanuman temples installed by him.  There are two legendary stories revolving around the number of 732 temples, he had built.  One story is that as and when he had defeated a Jain scholar, he will install one temple with Lord Hanuman.  This does not hold good as, for his greatness as mentioned by the historians,  he would have never celebrated his triumphs.  He should have rather treated the defeated scholars with kindness and respect.  Another story is in his earlier avatar as Bahlika Raja, (second being Prahlada, third Vyasaraja and fourth Raghavendra Swamy) during the time of Pandavas and Kauravas fight of Mahabharata.  During the war with the mace, he hit Bheema, who is considered as an avatar of Hanuman himself, 732 time before he was defeated by Bhima.  So as a way of washing away the sin of raising weapons against the God, he installed 732 hanuman temples.  

Now let us see this temple’s unique features which is one of the 732 temples supposed to be built by Vyasaraja

The temple is in the outskirts of Tumkur, called Hanumanthapura.  If you are going to Tumkur from Bangalore via Highway, then after Tumkur you get an over bridge below which Tumkur-Devarayanadurga Road is running.  Here you take the service road to your left.  Once you reach the Devarayana Durga Road, take a left and right deviations.   Any one will tell the way to temple, even if you are stranded. 

This temple was situated amidst agricultural fields hence the name Bayalu Anjaneyaswamy.  Bayalu means agricultural field in “Kannada”. 

Normally Lord Hanuman is seen as one with folded hands and seeing straight or the one with side pose flying with the Sanjeevini hills.  Here Lord Hanuman is seeing straight and on his right shoulder, King Rama, an avatar of Vishnu, fighting with Ravana.  He is having the bow and arrow in his hands.  Very rarely we come across “Demons” getting equal respect with lord himself in the temples.  One such demon came to distract the aim of Rama and entered between the legs of Hanuman.  After entering, the demon realised the mistake and surrendered to Hanuman pleading him for forgiveness.  Hanuman accepted the request and said henceforth all the respect given to Lord will trickle down to him also. 

The hanuman’s palms are facing us in a blessing pose, called Abhaya Hastha pose.  It is also informed that another important feature of this idol is that the Hanuman himself represents three avatars of himself.  One Bheema, to identify the Mace in the left hand, the holy Thiruman (a U shaped mark wore by Madhwas, on the chest, fore head and shoulders etc) in the chest representing the Madhwa, the third one Hanuman himself with Shanka and Chakra.

The hanuman with decoration

The demon between the legs of the idol at the temple

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The temple is situated under a tree whose girth should be atleast a minimum 50 feet which shows the tree is centuries old.

Being in the outskirts without the hustles of city, it is more with the nature.  To prove this point, appended below is the carefree dance of Peacock just outside the temple.  A rare glimpse for the city dwellers, who normally see the peacock in zoo only.

The dancing peacok.

Normally rush will be there during Saturdays but not that unmanageable.  The temple is situated to the left side of the road which is leading further to town or highway.  As a respect to the Lord most of the local people go around the temple in their vehicle, while crossing it rather than going straight on the road. 

Those who are in Bangalore and are yet to hear about this temple, can utilize this information for going which is hardly an hour and half including toll waiting times.