Sri Kshetra Melukote, Karnataka

A tradition kept alive at Melukotefor more than ten centuries

Entrusted with the service of Sri Cheluvanarayana Swamy Temple since 1080 C.E., the Melukote Guruji Foundation runs a free residential gurukulam, feeds everyone who comes to the kshetra, and cares for the villages around it.

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Under the guidance of Sri Srinivasanarasimhan Guruji

The utsava murti of Sri Cheluvanarayana Swamy adorned in gold ornaments and blue lotus garlands

1080

Serving since

Appointed sthanacharya of the temple by Sri Ramanuja, c. 1080 C.E.

800+

Children reached

Across the villages surrounding the kshetra

1,000+

Meals served daily

Rising past 5,000 on festival days

70+

Animals cared for

Temple cattle sheltered, fed and treated

Gurukulam students seated on the temple terrace during Upakarma, with the gopuram behind them

Who we are

A family's duty, kept without interruption

When Acharya Sri Ramanuja restored the temple at Melukote, he entrusted the sthanikas for the temple and Sri Yatirajadasar sthanacharya house of Melukote as its sthanacharya. That responsibility has passed from one generation to the next ever since, and rests today with Sri Srinivasanarasimhan Guruji.

The foundation exists to carry that duty into the present: teaching the Vedas to students who could not otherwise afford to learn them, keeping the festivals and poojas of the kshetra alive, and looking after the people, animals and land around it.

“Learning that is kept to oneself is not learning. What is received here is meant to be given away.”

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What we do

Ten streams of seva

Education, the pooja mandira, food, the goshala, temple pratishtha, the priests' workshop, deekshe, Jyothishya, culture and the land — carried out every day at the kshetra and in the villages around it.

Every student of the gurukulam standing together in white dhotis before the Garuda stambha and the carved gopuram behind it, under a peach sunset sky

Vedic Education

A residential gurukulam where students study the Vedas, Agama, Jyothishya and Sanskrit.

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The full altar of the Gurupeeta pooja mandira — a gilded prabhavali above, a silver naga hood below it, and lit brass lamps standing at each corner, everything wound about with peach blossom and jasmine

Gurupeeta — the Pooja Mandira

The Gurupeeta's own shrine, where the Sri Varadaraja Swami that Sri Ramanuja worshipped in person receives his daily aradhana.

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The annadana hall at the meal — families and children seated in long rows down both sides of the floor with steel plates of rice in front of them, the servers working the aisle between

Annadana — Daily Free Meals

A hot, freshly cooked meal served every single day to pilgrims, students and villagers, with no questions asked.

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Guruji seated in the mandira with his hand resting on the head of a calf, its mother standing beside it

Goshala — Care of the Cows

Twenty and more desi cows — Malenadu Gidda, Punganur and Hallikar — kept at the kshetra, cared for through old age, their milk offered in the temple's own worship.

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The village standing before a small stone shrine hung head to foot in marigold garlands on the morning of its consecration, Guruji at the centre in a red shawl with a child beside him

Temple Pratishtha — Vastu and Consecration

Vastu guidance for a temple being built, and the pratishtha that puts it into worship — both to the Agama.

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Students seated in a circle around baskets of coconuts, flowers and offerings while a priest conducts a homa before a decorated altar

Workshop — Training Priests

A residential apprenticeship where priests learn to conduct poojas by standing at real ones, in the tradition kept here.

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The acharya in saffron leaning across the fire to draw the urdhva pundra on the forehead of a disciple seated bare-shouldered in a yellow dhoti, the homa burning on the brick kunda between them

Samashrayanam — Dasappa Deekshe

The formal initiation in which the acharya transmits grace, transcendental knowledge and the energy behind them to a disciple.

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A vaidika standing at the shrine explaining a reading to the family who have come for it, the lamp lit before the deity and flowers held in their joined hands

Jyothishya — Astrology

Jyothishya as this family has read it across generations, and a sitting any devotee can ask for.

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Young Bharatanatyam dancers in full costume standing with palms joined in the temple street at dusk, the adults of the programme behind them

Cultural Preservation

Festivals, poojas, classical dance and music, and guided heritage tours that keep Melukote's traditions in daily practice.

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A row of tall wooden cartwheels standing along a bank of red earth at Srisha Farms, thick green ground cover in front of them and coconut palms and a compound wall behind, under a grey monsoon sky

Environmental Care

Tree planting, upkeep of the groves and water bodies, and agri-tourism that brings visitors onto the land itself.

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All activities in detail

Gallery

Moments from the kshetra

The temple, the gurukulam, the kitchen and the festivals — as they are on an ordinary day.

The Rajagopuram of Sri Cheluvanarayana Swamy Temple floodlit in violet and pink after dark, with the temple's name board and strings of lights along the entrance beneath it

The Rajagopuram at night

Gurukulam students standing in two rows with their arms folded in front of the temple's Garuda stambha at dusk

Before the gopuram

A vaidika seated at the brick homa kunda holding a lit torch of grass down to the fire, the flame rising between him and the camera

Lighting the fire

A vaidika seated cross-legged reading aloud from a bound text before a newly dressed sanctum, two students seated opposite him, the deity garlanded in its lit niche and the offering vessels set out across the floor between them

Recitation before the sanctum

A disciple in a yellow dhoti and heavy garlands sitting with palms joined while the acharya bends to the vessels in front of him, the offerings and the lamp laid out on the stone floor of the shrine

Palms joined, before the acharya

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Come to Melukote

The doors are open, and so is the kitchen

Visit for darshana, attend a festival, sponsor a day of annadana, or simply call and ask how you can help. We answer every message.

Write to us Get directions

Call: +91 94480 42853 +91 63633 42853
Email: melukotegurujifoundation@gmail.com
Visit: #3, Raja Street, Opposite Sri Cheluvanarayana Swamy Temple, Sri Kshetra Melukote, Mandya District, Karnataka 571431

Through the year

Daily visitors

Families, villagers and officials come to the mandira every day of the year to see Guruji. Each party is photographed before it leaves, and these are some of them.