Banashankari Amma Temple, Bengaluru

History

The present Dravidian-style complex expanded through twentieth-century patronage as Bengaluru grew, while continuing the Banashankari Amma tradition familiar across Karnataka.

The shrine is distinct from the Chalukyan Banashankari temple at Badami and is identified on official tourism pages by its Bengaluru location.

Stories

A forest goddess with many names

The name Banashankari is read as 'Vanashankari', the Shankari or Parvati of the forest. In the Kannada country the goddess is also known as Shakambhari, the one who nourishes with greens and food, and the older Banashankari shrine near Badami lies in a forest once called Tilakaranya. The Bengaluru temple follows this tradition. Devotees here honour the same goddess, and the shrine is a separate temple from the Chalukya-era one at Badami.

A neighbourhood named after its temple

Banashankari, a large locality of south and west Bengaluru, takes its name from the Banashankari Amma temple on Kanakapura Road. One account credits the building of this temple to a devotee named Subramanya Shetty in 1915, though other histories of the shrine may differ. The locality now has six numbered stages and its own metro station, a sign of how the temple's name grew into the identity of a whole part of the city.

Good to know

Major city Shakti shrine in Banashankari layout

Listed on Karnataka Department of Tourism destination material

Often combined with Bull Temple and Gavi Gangadhareshwara in a south Bengaluru temple day

Getting there

Nearest airport: Kempegowda International. BMTC buses and metro feeder routes serve Banashankari; auto-rickshaws from Banashankari bus stand.