Panchalingeshwara Temple is an ancient Hindu temple located in Govindanahalli village in Mandya district of Karnataka. During the reign of Hoysala king Vira Someshwar, the Panchalingeshwar temple was built in AD. Built around 1238. The temple is built in the Pancha-kuta style and is the only temple of its kind built during the Hoysala period. Temple of famous sculptor Ruwari Mallitamma of Hoysala period.
Panchalingeshwar Temple is about 19 km from Krishna Rajapet town. It is about 165 km from Bangalore and 83 km from Mandya Nagar. Channaraya Pattanna is the nearest rail and road route and is about 21 km from both.
Panchalingeshwar literally means five lingas. Visiting time of this temple is from 9.00 AM – 6.00 PM.
The entire structure faces east and has two north-facing entrances through two porches and with nandimantapas. The inner walls of each mandapa have seventeen niches. Each entrance is guarded by its own gatekeeper. The temple consists of five sanctum sanctorums connected with a common navaranga.
All the garbhagrihas are provided with their own shikhara and are connected to the navaranga through sukanasi. These five Shiv Lingams are named after five different names of Shiva namely Sadyojateshwar, Tatpurusheshwar, Vamadeveshwar, Aghoreshwar and Ishanyeshwar and have been compared to the Pandavas of the Mahabharata. The spire of the temples is richly decorated in Dravidian style.
An interesting feature of this temple is that although the temple is mainly dedicated to Shiva, the outer walls of the temple have images of various forms of Vishnu. This may be due to the fact that the temple was built in two different phases of Hoysala rule.
Inside the temple are beautiful sculptures with images of Ganesha, Shanmukha, Bhairava and Mahishasuramardini, Brahma, Indra and Arjuna. Vishnu can be seen on Garuda, Venugopala, Vitthala, Matsya and Kurma on Shehasa, Vamana, Trivikrama, Narasimha, Varaha, Lakshmi-Narayana. If the temple is kept clean and tidy.
