Dedicated to a form of the Hindu god Vishnu, the Venugopalaswamy Temple is located within the Devanahalli Fort in the town of Devanahalli in the rural district of Bangalore. The Venugopalaswamy temple is a built in the later Dravidian style of the Vijayanagara Empire. The small town within the strong walls of Devanahalli Fort has many temples among which this temple is special and ancient.
Venugopalaswamy Temple is 38 kilometers from Bangalore and just 800 meters from Devanahalli city
Venugopalaswamy temple is the oldest temple, it is facing the main town road. The courtyard with the garuda pillar is spacious and the walls of the temple depict various scenes from the Ramayana and Krishna’s childhood adventures and beautiful sculptures are carved on the pillars. The sculptures in this temple are similar to the Belur and Halebid temples.
On the pillars of the main entrance stand two horsemen holding swords. The sanctum sanctorum has a Vijayanagara style standing image of Venugopala. The temple has a Dravidian style spire. The navaranga has four black stone pillars carved with fine reliefs on all sides, such as Hayagriva, dancing female figures with attendant musicians, conch-blower, Kinnara with half body in bird form, hunter removing a thorn from his leg etc..
Theru is a large chariot in which the idol of Gopalaswamy is paraded around the town once a year. It was earlier known as Kashivishveshwara and is considered to be the oldest temple in the town. The temple is a protected monument under the Karnataka State Division of the Archaeological Survey of India.
