About

At a distance of an approximate 2km from the Virupaksha temple, inside a cave; on top of the hill is the amazing Yantrodharaka Hanuman temple which is about 500 years old. Dedicated to Lord Hanuman and the idol here is installed by Sri Vyasaraja, the Rajaguru of the Vijayanagara kingdom and one of the Dwaita philosophers. the Yantrodharaka Hanuman Temple gets its name from the image of Hanuman placed inside an amulet. The position of Hanuman is different from any other image of Lord Hanuman that can be found in Hampi. Just behind the temples of Kodanda Rama are the temples for Sudarshana in the shape of a human figure with sixteen hands and Yantrodharaka Anjaneya or Hanuman.  The inner sanctum contains an image of Lord Hanuman enclosed within a hexagonal amulet. Hanuman has been pictured in a meditative state. This is a marked deviation from other depictions of Lord Hanuman. 12 monkeys have been carved around this amulet. They represent the 12 days Sri Vyasaraja prayed to Lord Hanuman. Seed syllables have also been carved around the amulet. The unique feature about this idol is that it is in a meditative state or “DHYAN MUDRA”. Nowhere else in India will you find an idol in this state, usually all Hanuman idols are standing and mostly with a mountain in its left hand & a weapon in the right hand or both hands joined. On the right-hand side prior to the Hanuman idol, There is a temple dedicated to Lord Rama within the Hanuman temple which stands as an evidence of Rama's and Hanuman's union in this place

Legend of Yantrodharaka Hanuman temple

It is believed that Sri Vyasaraja used to meditate every day on the banks of River Tungabhadra. One day, while he was meditating He visualized an Image of Lord Hanuman. This happened only at that particular place and nowhere else. So next time, he drew that image of Hanumaan on a rock. To his surprise, a monkey came to life from the rock and jumped out of the rock and his drawing disappeared. This happened 12 times. Every time a monkey would come alive, jump out and his drawing would disappear. Finally, he drew a Yantra around the picture so that the monkey will not go out of the rock.  He bound the Lord Hanumaan inside the Yantra. Here the Lord Hanumaan is in a sitting position inside the Yantra. This is the place where he wrote the famous Yanthroddharaka Hanuman Stotra. Legend also says that this was the place where Lord Rama and Lord Hanuman met for the first time.

Tips

• Just about 5 minutes of the climb from the Yantrodharaka temple, there is a small temple dedicated to Lord Srinivasa an idol that has been carved by Sri Vyasaraja himself.

Timings