Our activities

Vedic Education

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

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

What this work involves

Sri Vijayalakshmi Vedagama Jyothishya Samskrita Gurukulam is the heart of the foundation's work. Twenty-eight students live here, most of them sent by temples across Karnataka.

What a student is given

Accommodation, meals, robes, books, and the teaching itself. A family pays nothing towards any of it, and is never asked what it could pay.

What a student learns

Veda and Agama, Jyothishya and Sanskrit. The curriculum pairs the traditional oral method of Vedic recitation with a structured, child-centred way of teaching.

The aim is that a student leaves able both to serve in a temple and to hold their own in the wider world — the second being the thing a gurukulam is usually assumed to give up.

At a glance

28 resident students
Students come from temples across Karnataka
Boarding, meals, robes and books all provided
Veda, Agama, Jyothishya and Sanskrit

In pictures

What it looks like

Select any photograph to see it full size.

Keep reading

Our other work

Gurupeeta — the Pooja Mandira

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

Annadana — Daily Free Meals

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

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.

Temple Pratishtha — Vastu and Consecration

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

Workshop — Training Priests

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

Samashrayanam — Dasappa Deekshe

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

Jyothishya — Astrology

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

Cultural Preservation

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

Environmental Care

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

Would you like to help?

The gurukulam teaches free of cost and the kitchen serves whoever arrives — both carried entirely by what devotees give.

Give now by UPI or bank transfer, with an 80G certificate if you need one. Or write to the office to sponsor a particular day of annadana, offer time during a festival, or ask what is needed most — those take a date and a person rather than a payment.

Give to the kshetra Write to the office