Nanjangud temple

Nanjangud is a town in Mysore district in the Indian state of Karnataka. It is a temple town and is on the banks of the river Kapila (Kabini), and lies at a distance of 23 km from the city of Mysore. Nanjangud is famous for Srikanteshwara Temple and also called as "Dakshina Kashi" (southern Kashi).

The town is famous because of the huge temple dedicated to Lord Nanjundeswara also referred to as Srikanteswara. It is believed that sage Gauthama stayed here for some time and installed a Lingam, the idol form of Shiva.

The Srikanteshwara Temple at Nanjangud is dedicated to the Hindu God Shiva, also called Sri Nanjundeshwara, "The God who drank poison" to save the earth.

The big story lies behind this, according to the Hindu mythology, the Gods and demons churned the ocean in search of the ambrosia. During this churning, poison emanated first, followed by ambrosia. To prevent the poison from spreading across the universe and to destroy it, Shiva came to the rescue and drank it up. His consort Parvati then held his throat tightly to prevent the poison from spreading to the rest of his body and killing him. Narada held his mouth so that he did not vomit it out. The poison remained in his throat, making it blue in colour. For this reason, Shiva is also called Neelakantha, or "the blue-throated one". Nanjanagud literally means "the place where Nanjundeshwara resides.