Melukote’s Stones: Unveiling a bloody history during Deepawali

Melukote, in Karnataka’s Mandya district, has a past so tragic that even festive occasions serve as reminders of dark deeds. (Source: Arjun Kumar)

It is a place that has long attracted location hunters for films. An action flick from the '90s saw Sanjay Dutt and Feroz Khan strutting around a magnificent, stepped tank here, while a biopic from the 2000s featured Aishwarya Rai dancing with an ornate gateway in the background. One might imagine that a place with such spectacular architecture has a happy history. But Melukote, in Karnataka’s Mandya district, has a past so tragic that even festive occasions serve as reminders of dark deeds.

The massacre of the Iyengars

Even today, while the rest of the country prepares for the cheer and gaiety of Deepawali, a community of Mandyam Iyengars who reside in and around Melukote mark this day as one of mourning. To understand why, one needs to go back to the early 1780s, when Melukote was part of the Kingdom of Mysore. The kingdom’s most powerful ruler, Haidar Ali, had died a short while earlier, and his successor, Tipu Sultan, was still finding his feet. Tipu faced a trio of major challenges: the Marathas, the East India Company, and the state of Hyderabad. Another set of challenges lay within the kingdom, as intrigues were often being hatched by the wife of the Mysore ruler who had been supplanted by Haidar as the key decision-maker.

A painting in Srirangapatna depicting Tipu Sultan on the march. (Source: Arjun Kumar)

In 1783, while Tipu was away on a campaign, a group of dissidents attempted to seize power. The attempt failed, and the conspirators met a brutal end. Among the conspiracy leaders were several Pradhans—minor officials in the kingdom—who happened to be Vaishnavite Brahmins of the Bharadwaja gotra. But in true Tipu style, the repercussions of the failed power grab were felt by many far removed from the attempt. To teach the Pradhans a lesson they would remember, Tipu ordered 700 families of Vaishnavite Brahmins—Iyengars of the same gotra—to be thrown into prison in Srirangapatna.

Historian Vikram Sampath’s biography of Tipu captures what happened next. When Tipu returned from his campaign, it was Deepawali time. Mysore was agog with celebratory fervor. Tipu orchestrated a form of torture only a perverted mind could imagine. The imprisoned Iyengar families were given a false sense of freedom, allowed out and given a feast around the precincts of a Srirangapatna shrine. On the night of Naraka Chaturdashi, just before the new moon of Deepawali, when they gathered for their festival meal, they were locked in, and a group of soldiers and elephants entered. Chaos, stampedes, and a massacre followed. Those who weren’t trampled or suffocated were hacked to death. Many of the dead came from Melukote.

Ramanujacharya and the spiritual heart of Melukote

The place, also known as Thirunarayanapura, is an ancient temple town associated with the 11th–12th century CE Vaishnavite philosopher and reformer Ramanujacharya. He was also Rajguru of the Hoysala dynasty that then controlled the area. The Vaishnavite settlement that the philosopher laid the seeds of was nurtured by successive dynasties, including the Vijayanagara empire and the Wodeyars. As a result, Melukote’s hilly topography became home to shrines, temple tanks, mandapas, and even incomplete temples.

Legend has it that Vishnu appeared in a dream to Ramanujacharya and asked him to go to Melukote. His objective was to find holy clay with which the ‘Urdhva Pundra’ – the ceremonial tilak for Vaishnavites – was to be made. Once the clay was found, a temple was constructed at the site, and the acharya installed a Vishnu idol as the deity Tirunarayana. Alternate versions hold that the deity was already worshiped there, and the acharya either rebuilt or restored the temple during his visit. Regardless of the origin, today, the shrine—the Cheluvanarayana Swamy Temple—is the beating heart of Melukote. Dating to the Hoysala period and added to over time, it is filled with carved pillars. It also has three crowns, two of which were gifted by Mysore’s Wodeyar rulers. These are kept in safe custody by the government and brought to the shrine during festive occasions.

Pillared corridors within the iconic Cheluvanarayana Swamy Temple in Melukote. (Source: Arjun Kumar)

The other great shrine of the place is the even more impressive hilltop Yoga Narasimha Temple. A long climb, punctuated by smaller shrines and pavilions, takes a visitor up. Views from the hilltop sweep across the countryside, showing the town dotted with shrines, mathas, and more.

The hilltop Yoga Narasimha Temple. (Source: Arjun Kumar)

Tipu Sultan’s paradoxical relationship with Melukote’s temples and the Maratha attack

Tipu’s attitude towards the temples of Melukote was strangely contradictory. On one hand, he massacred the Iyengars and reduced the land granted for the upkeep of the shrines. On the other, he donated elephants and other endowments to the Cheluvanarayana Swamy Temple and gave a huge drum to the Yoga Narasimha Temple. Also, around the time of the massacre, Tipu was called upon to decide on a dispute between two sects of Vaishnavites, and he gave an equitable ruling. He also allowed temple festivities to be conducted. His charitable behavior in his declining years is sometimes attributed to his growing superstitious beliefs.

Tipu wasn’t the sole trespasser in Melukote’s spiritual realms. In the early 1770s, a Maratha force laid waste to the region, and the temple town was not spared. To get at the metalwork on temple chariots, they set the chariots on fire. The uncontrolled fire ended up consuming some religious buildings too. During another Maratha attack on Mysore, Haidar Ali took shelter in the hills around Melukote to launch guerilla-style counterattacks.

Haunting silence of Melukote during Deepawali

In those hills lies the ancient site of Dhanushkoti. Built on a ledge, it has a perennial seep of water, whose origin is linked to stories from the Ramayana. Legends around the water body saw a cave shrine come up, possibly dated to the Chola period. Later centuries saw a pavilion added outside, then a battlemented wall. On another hill is the ornate Rayagopura gateway, captured vividly in an Aishwarya Rai number. It is believed to be part of another temple project that was never completed. Closer to the town and next to yet another temple are twin tanks named Akka-Tangiyara, as if they were sisters. An even more striking site is the immense Panchakuta Kalyani, lying close to the base of the Yoga Narasimha hill. Pillared corridors run around this water body, carved with depictions of divine beings.

Inner view of Dhanushkoti near Melukote. (Source: Arjun Kumar)

Each stone in Melukote speaks of a great past. But concealed within them is a bloody history—one that becomes apparent during the Deepawali season. The town remains relatively silent, as if the ghosts of the Iyengars are watching for more interlopers.

(Arjun Kumar is a heritage explorer by inclination with a penchant for seeking obscure sites. A brand consultant by profession, he tweets @HiddenHeritage.)

Views are personal, and do not represent the stand of this publication.