Badavilinga
Hampi's tallest Shiva linga — a 3 m monolith standing in a chamber perpetually filled with water.
Open
6:00 am – 6:00 pm
Entry
Free entry
Best time to go
Morning
Time to spend here
About 20 minutes
Crowds
Can get busy
Shares a compound wall with the Lakshmi Narasimha statue; both take only a few minutes to see.
Listen to the story
About this place
Immediately beside the Narasimha colossus stands the Badavilinga, the largest monolithic Shiva linga in Hampi at about 3 metres tall. It sits in a small unroofed stone chamber whose floor is always covered by a shallow film of water, fed by a channel from a nearby canal — a striking effect as light from the single doorway plays across the wet, polished stone. 'Badava' means poor: local legend says the linga was commissioned by a poor peasant woman. Three eyes are incised on its face, symbolising the all-seeing gaze of Shiva.
Where it is
Close by
Photo credits
- Badavilinga: Badavilinga · Himalayan7914 · CC BY-SA 4.0
- Badavilinga: Hampi, Lakshmi Narasimha Temple, Badavilinga Temple · Ingo Mehling · CC BY-SA 4.0
- Badavilinga: Badavilinga temple (Shiva Linga), Hampi · Rohit14400 · CC BY-SA 4.0
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