Murudeshwar

Murudeshwar sits on a headland with sea on three sides, and a temple has stood here long enough to feature in the Ramayana story of Ravana and the atma linga. What draws visitors now is scale: a seated Shiva statue of about thirty-seven metres, among the tallest of its kind, built in the 2000s and visible far along the coast, and beside it a raja gopura of twenty storeys with a lift to the top giving a view over the statue, the temple and the sea. The beach below is broad, and boats run to Netrani island, a diving site about twenty kilometres offshore.

History

The name goes back to the Ramayana story of the Atma-Linga: Ravana won the linga from Shiva, but Vishnu and Ganesha tricked him into setting it down at Gokarna, and when he tried to tear it up pieces were scattered along the coast, one of them falling at Murudeshwar. The town now has the world's third tallest statue of Shiva beside the Murudeshwara Temple (Wikipedia, Murdeshwar).

What to look for

• The Shiva statue - a thirty-seven metre seated figure on the headland.
• The twenty-storey gopura - a tower with a lift to a viewing level.
• The headland temple - the shrine with sea on three sides.
• Netrani island - a diving site reached by boat offshore.

When to go

October to February for dry weather and calm seas; the monsoon is very heavy on this coast and boats stop. Diving at Netrani runs roughly November to May.

Things to know

The statue and gopura are recent construction, not historic. The site is heavily commercialised. Netrani trips depend on sea conditions and operators vary in standards.

Nearby

Gokarna lies north; Udupi is south.