Kotilingeshwara Temple

Kotilingeshwara is a Shiva temple at Kammasandra, a small village in Kolar district. Koti is Kannada for a crore, and the name points to the goal of gathering ten million lingas here, though the real number has been put at about 6.5 lakh. Swami Sambha Shiva Murthy started the temple in 1980. A legend that the first lingas were set down by an atheist who became a devotee of Shiva was turned into the 2001 film Sri Manjunatha.

The centrepiece is a linga 108 feet (33 metres) high, claimed as the tallest in Asia, facing a Nandi 35 feet (11 metres) high on a platform 60 feet by 40. Around them, across 15 acres, stand lakhs of smaller lingas from one to three feet tall, and devotees may donate one bearing their name. Eleven small shrines on the grounds honour other deities, among them Vishnu, Brahma, Annapoorneshwari, Rama and Anjaneya, and a tank near the great linga is used for abhisheka. Maha Shivaratri brings millions of visitors.