Sri Prasanna Veeranjeneya Swami Temple

The Sri Prasanna Veernanjeneya Swami Temple is at Mahalakshmi Layout, Bangalore. It is one of the temples dedicated to Lord Hanuman which is quite famous in Karnataka as Lord Hanuman’s birthplace is Karnataka. There are more than 100 temples dedicated to Lord Hanuman in Bangalore City. People in Karnataka have special attachment and reverence to Lord Hanuman. There are plenty of monkeys in all tourist spots in India, especially at pilgrimage points. The monkey creates a psychological feeling in man that not only it is man’s ancestor but also a replica of Lord Hanuman.

While entering first there is a huge Vigraha of Mahalakshmi and before entering the main Anjaneya area, on the left in separate sannidhis are marble Vighrahas of Lord Ganapathy, Rama, Sita Lakshmana Anjaneya and Lakshmi. The Anjaneya Vigraha is sculpted. It is 22 ft high and 16 ft wide. Mahalakshmi Vighraha is 12 ft in height and seated on a lotus of 5ft height. Every Saturday the temple does the Benne Alankara which requires around 600 kgs of butter.

History

Mahalakshmi Layout was a mostly barren land with small hills and rocks. After independence, the place was called “No Man’s Land” as it was outside the Bangalore region. The deity was carved by a sculptor named Shanmugananda. He felt that the place had a spiritual aura and thus spent months sculpting Lord Hanuman, beginning with a sketch. Eventually devotees began visiting the sculpture and engaged in doing Puja to the god. During the 1960s, Mahalakshmi Layout showed signs of developing. In the early 1970s, as the city expanded, and the hill was registered within the city limits, the local residents hired professional artists to enhance the earlier outlined sketch, into a grand painting of Lord Hanuman. By the mid-1970s, the authorities decided to turn the painting into a sculpture and formed a high-level committee (involving local residents) for this purpose. In 1976, the sculpture was ready and inaugurated by the Hindu tradition with their priests. PV Narasimha Rao was invited as the Chief Guest for the ceremony. By 1980, a 40×40 ft temple was ready, which went on to expand into a 13-acre temple complex with the help of generous donations by devotees over the next few years, and it became part of the “Must-Visit” list of sightseeing in the city. Over the years, the Temple was developed by the devotees and by the local people and made it a full fletched place of worship.

Festivals

Hindu Temples are usually filled with festivals and celebration and this temple, in particular, celebrates important festivals like Hanuma Jayanthi, Sri Rama Navami, Annual Day Function, Sri Rama Pattabhisheka, Sri Rama Kalyanotsava and Lord Sathyanarayanan Pooja on Full Moon days, Lakshmi Pooja and other festivals in Shravana month. One of the most important events that take place is called the "Benne Alankara" in the month of August during which the deity is decorated with more than 500 kg of butter which is later given to the devotees as Prasadham

Place

Sri Prasanna Veernanjeneya Swami Temple is in 12th Cross Road, Mahalakshmi Layout, Mahalakshmi Puram, Bangalore. It is 320m from the Mahalakshmi layout metro station. The entrance to the temple can be made from the main road through the park or from the side road , where people park their vehicles. The temple is opened on all days of the week from 6:00 am to 12:30 pm and 4:30 pm to 8:30 pm.

Localities

As the temple is on the main road and is in a residential area, there are a few fast foods, ice cream shops, juice centers right outside the temple. The temple is attached to a park that can be used as an early morning and evening recreation. There is Mahalakshmi Bus Stop a few steps from the temple. Mahalakshmi Layout has a surrounding of other busy areas like Basweshwara Nagar, Malleshwaram, Yeshwanthpur. Iskon Temple is one stop away from Mahalakshmi Layout and Orion Mall that is within 1km distance from Iskon Temple.