Dharmasthala Temple

Dharmasthala Temple, or Shri Kshetra Dharmasthala, is an 800-year-old Hindu institution in the Dakshina Kannada town of Dharmasthala. Its deities are Shiva as Manjunatha, the goddess Ammanavaru, the Jain tirthankara Chandraprabha and four guardian spirits: Kalarahu, Kalarkayi, Kumaraswamy and Kanyakumari. Unusually, Vaishnava Madhva Brahmins serve as priests while a Jain Bunt family, the Pergades, runs the temple.

Legend says that when the place was the village of Kuduma, a Jain chief, Birmanna Pergade, and Ammu Ballalthi, his wife, hosted guardian spirits of Dharma who asked them to give up their house for worship. Brahmin priests later asked for a Shiva linga, which was brought from the Kadri Manjunath Temple near Mangalore, and the Manjunatha temple grew around it. The saint Vadiraja Tirtha reconsecrated it in the 16th century. The eldest male of the family serves as Dharma Adhikari with the title Heggade, a role that still includes settling disputes.