Mysuru: The Vontikoppal Eswara Temple has completed 75 years this year. As part of the Platinum Jubilee celebrations, every month from July 2016 a special puja is being performed at the temple.

The Platinum Jubilee celebrations will conclude tomorrow (June 4) with a Maha Kumbhabhishekam to the entire temple.

The Maha Kumbhabhishekam will be held between 10 am and 10.40 am in the presence of Sri Adi Shankaracharya Sharada Lakshmi Narasimha Peetam, Peetadhipathi Parama Poojya Srimad Jagadguru Shankaracharya Sri Swayamprakasha Sachidananda Saraswathi Mahaswamiji, Hariharapura.

The present site for the temple in VV Mohalla was granted by the then Dewan of Mysore, Sir Mirza Ismail on the request and co-ordination by Asthana Vidwan late Sadashiva Sastry. A group of like-minded devotees built a small temple which was consecrated in June 1942 on Jestha Shuddha Dasami.

The presiding deity Sri Chandramouliswara in the form of a Linga was by chance found by late Belawadi Narayana Rao while taking a dip in the Holy Ganges in Varanasi.

Thanks to the efforts of the elderly gentlemen augmented by the selfless service of succeeding Management Teams from the year 1983, headed by late Y. Venkataramaiah and K. Seetha Rama Rao, the temple was expanded from a Garbhagriha on an 8’x8’ site to the present centre including  Vidya Bharati Prayer Hall, Yagashala and staff quarters. The temple has over the years added shrines with the deities of Lord Ganesha, Lord Subramanya Swamy, Sri Prasanna Parvati Ammanavaru, The Navagrahas, Lord Dattatreya, Lord Dakshinamurthy and Lord Chandikeswara.

Models of the 12 Dwadasha Jyothirlingas which are spread all over the country has been installed in the temple for devotees to have darshan. The same was inaugurated by Sri Ganapathy Sachchidananda Swamiji in the year 2003.

On completion of 50 years of the consecration, a Mahadwaram was built to take a lofty Raja Gopuram 40 feet high. The Raja Gopuram was completed in 1997, in a record time of 17 months with artisans from Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Andhra and Rajasthan working with utmost devotion. The Kumbhabishekam was performed in the august presence of Sri Shivarathri Deshikendra Swamiji of Suttur Mutt and Sri Sureshanandaji, the then President of Sri Ramakrishna Ashrama, Mysuru. Swamijis from various other Mutts have also visited and blessed the temple over the years.

Mahashivarathri, Navarathri, Karthik Somavara and the annual Jayanthi Utsavas are some of the highlights of the Temple activities. Besides, every month Sathyanarayana Puja, Sankashta Hara Ganapathy Vrata, Pradosha, Masa Shivarathri are conducted in addition to the daily pujas.