Our activities

Environmental Care

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

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

What this work involves

The hills around Melukote are as much a part of the kshetra as its stone. The foundation plants and maintains native trees along temple pathways and in the surrounding villages, and organises clean-up drives around the kalyanis and the approach roads.

Care of the land has grown into agri-tourism. Visitors are taken onto the fields and groves the foundation works, shown how the crop is actually grown, and fed from it — the argument for looking after land being far easier to make standing in it than in a leaflet.

Become a farmer for a day — that is the shape most visitors want it in: a day in the fields growing vegetables and fruit, alongside the people who do it every day. Locally made handicrafts are sold at the end of it, so a day spent here pays the households around the kshetra rather than a tour operator.

At a glance

Native trees along the temple pathways and in the villages
Clean-up drives at the kalyanis and approach roads
Agri-tourism on the foundation's own fields and groves
A day in the fields, growing and eating what is grown
Handicrafts sold direct — the money stays in the households

Where this happens

Srisha

The agri-tourism is on farmland a short drive out of the town — a working farm rather than a demonstration plot, which is the whole reason a day there argues for looking after land better than a leaflet does.

Find it on the map of what is around Melukote

In pictures

What it looks like

Select any photograph to see it full size.

Keep reading

Our other work

Vedic Education

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

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.

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