One of the proverbial temples of old that we can envision – located in a quaint corner of the world far away from civilization, surrounded by green forests, undulating hills and peace. This Jalari Narasimha temple near Adiyogi resembles such a picture. As you wait in the Adiyogi parking lot or peer into the hills from the kshetrapaal Naga Shrine, you can see a gopuram rising in the trees amidst the green foliage of the hills. Almost an ideal picture of serenity.

We need to walk up a short flight of stairs to come to the stambha followed by a bali peetham of this temple. Sacrificing our inner conflicts at this bali peetham and bathed in the surrounding natural vibes we can enter the gate into the temple hall.

The grilled gate to the temple is always kept closed, probably due to the monkeys. As I entered the gate, a monkey sat on the nearby railing and watched me intently….. “will you leave the door open, so I can sneak inside and rummage through the restricted temple area and goodies?”, he seemed to be asking.

The main garbha griha has the deity of Jalaari Narasimha. The pujari could only talk in kannada so I couldn’t find out too much. But there is also another shrine to the left of the main garbha griha… it’s Yoga Narasimha said the pujari. To be honest, I can’t really distinguish between various Narasimha looks and poses as yet. But I am sure there may be some art and method in them…

This temple shrine feels old. The temple hall seems newer, but the garbha griha and some area around it feels older. I sat and meditated for a while (I am always looking out for places like this to meditate 🙂 ).

Very interesting details of this temple given in this blog: https://www.tirthayatra.org/jalari-lakshmi-narasimha-temple/

I did see a hill route winding around the temple, but there was also a heap of trash in one corner of that path. Not sure whether it is worth exploring. But the above blog suggests that there is another Narasimha shrine above in the hills. Let’s see whether I can find out more from locals.

These hills have lots to explore and they seem very trekkable. Excited to explore more.