Chamundeshwari Temple

The Chamundeshwari Temple stands on the Chamundi Hills near Mysore in Karnataka, dedicated to Chamundeshwari, a form of Durga whom Mysore adopted as its tutelary goddess.

Hindu tradition holds that Durga slew the buffalo demon Mahishasura on this hill, and the demon's capital below came to be called Mahishuru, the name from which Mysore derives. The shrine is counted among the eighteen Maha Shakti Peethas, said to mark where a lock of Sati's hair fell.

The original sanctum was built in the twelfth century under the Hoysala dynasty, its tower was probably raised by Vijayanagara rulers in the seventeenth century, and in 1659 a staircase of a thousand steps was cut up the hillside. Dodda Devaraja Wodeyar of Mysore installed the colossal granite Nandi on the path in 1664, and the Wodeyar maharajas remained the temple's chief patrons.