Matsyendra-nātha of Kadri Manjunath

Matsyendra-nātha of Kadri Manjunath

Two institutions, one name

Kadri, in Mangaluru, holds a Shiva temple dedicated to Mañjunātha and, beside it, a Nāth matha whose lineage honours Matsyendra-nāth. The two share a single appellation — Kadri-Mañjunāth — but not a priesthood. Bouillier records that the Manjunath temple is now in the charge of the Vishnuite Madhva Brahmins, and it is served by Shivalli Madhva Brahmins; the matha is a separate body. The Nāth association of the site is documented from the Kadli Manjunath Mahatmyam of 1730 CE, a sthala-mahatmya, rather than from the temple's earlier record.

Date, and how it is known

The temple is said to have arisen in the 10th–11th century, with the full stone structure belonging to the 14th century; the entry records this as attested devotional tradition, not as a construction date. The one firm date at Kadri belongs not to the building but to an image: the pedestal inscription of the Lokeshwara bronze, read as 968 CE or 1068 CE, which Jaini discusses in his collected papers. The ambiguity between the two readings is preserved rather than resolved.

The bronze that remembers a vihara

The temple's oldest and most discussed image is a five-foot pañcaloha bronze of Lokeshwara — three-faced, six-armed, crowned with a Dhyani Buddha — now worshipped as Brahma. Its pedestal inscription states that King Kundavarma of the Alupa dynasty set up the Lokeshwara image in Kadarika Vihara, and names Mangaluru as Mangalapura. Two further undated bronzes from the same workshop are venerated at Kadri as Narayana and Vedavyasa, but are identifiable as an Avalokiteshvara and a Buddha. The site therefore carries, inside a living Shiva temple, the epigraphic memory of a Buddhist monastery.

Parashurama and the coming of Manjunatha

Parashurama, having donated the lands he conquered to Kashyapa, did penance at Kadali Kshetra at Shiva's instruction and threw his axe into the sea to make ground for it. Pleased, Shiva appeared as Manjunatha with Parvati and agreed to remain at Kadri for the world's good; the seven crores of mantras became the seven tirthas. This is sanctifying legend and carries no date.

Worship and the festival year

Daily worship runs through nitya bali, utsava bali, maha pooja, ārati and abhiṣeka, with tīrtha snana at the Gomukha spring ponds before flowers and naivedya. The annual Jātrā Maholsava begins on Makara Sankranti in January and runs nine days: tīrtha snana, dwajasthambha arohana and bali on the first day, then the four-direction savari bali, the Seventh Deepolsava, mass feeding, the Maha Ratholsava and the silver-chariot Belli Ratholsava. During the jatra the bhandara is processed to the kadri hills for Malaraya Daiva and Bhuta Daiva in the Malarāya Daiva Nēmalsava — a Bhuta-colloquial presence inside a Madhva-served Shaiva temple. The daily mantra recorded here is Oṁ Manju-nāthāya Namaḥ.

What is not known

No construction date is recorded for the temple. The bronze inscription is read as either 968 or 1068 CE and the entry does not choose between them. The two companion bronzes are undated. The Nāth matha's connection is documented from 1730 CE, which is not the same as documenting its foundation.

Why this entry matters

Kadri is the corpus's strongest single piece of evidence for succession rather than replacement: an Alupa-era Buddhist vihara image still worshipped, under a different name, in a Shaiva temple served by Madhva Brahmins, next to a Nāth matha that shares its name.