Anantasayana Temple
A huge vaulted Vishnu temple near Hospet, built to house a giant reclining image of Ananthasayana.
Open
6:00 am – 6:00 pm
Entry
Free entry
Best time to go
Morning
Time to spend here
About 30 minutes
Crowds
Usually quiet
In Anantashayanagudi village near Hospet, about 10 km from Hampi Bazaar on the way to/from Hospet. Off the usual circuit and usually deserted.
Listen to the story
About this place
About ten kilometres from Hampi, near the village of Anantashayanagudi on the Hospet road, stands this unusually large temple built by Krishnadevaraya in 1524 to mark the birth of his son. It once enshrined a colossal reclining image of Vishnu as Ananthasayana — the god asleep on the coils of the serpent Ananta on the cosmic ocean — from which both the temple and village take their name. The sanctum is covered by an enormous elongated barrel-vaulted roof, one of the few of its kind in Vijayanagara architecture, designed to shelter the giant recumbent figure. The idol is long gone, but the vast empty hall and soaring vault remain profoundly atmospheric, and the site sees very few visitors.
Where it is
Photo credits
- Anantasayana Temple: Ananthasayana temple at Ananthasayanagudi · Drmmgir · CC BY-SA 3.0
- Anantasayana Temple: Entrance to Ananthasayana temple at Ananthasayanagudi · Dineshkannambadi · CC BY-SA 3.0
- Anantasayana Temple: Kannada inscription of Krishnadeva Raya (1524 AD) at Ananthasayana temple in Ananthasayanagudi · Dineshkannambadi · CC BY-SA 3.0
- Anantasayana Temple: View of Ananthasayana temple at Ananthasayanagudi · Dineshkannambadi · CC BY-SA 3.0
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