Polali Rajarajeshwari Temple

The Polali Rajarajeshwari Temple is a goddess shrine at Polali on the Tulu-speaking coast of Karnataka, where the river bends sharply beside the town. Local inscriptions date the temple around its clay icon to the 700s; tradition names King Suratha as its builder, said to have offered his jewelled crown to the goddess, known in early records as Porala Devi.

The Persian envoy Abdul Razzak, visiting in 1448, described a temple of molten brass on four platforms with a five-to-six-foot image whose eyes were red rubies. The principal image is a ten-foot stucco Rajarajeshwari modelled from clay mixed with herbal compounds.

Every twelve years the idols are freshly coated with medicinal earth in the Lepashta Gandha rite. The wooden roof of the entrance hall is carved with figures of the gods, while the other roofs are sheeted in copper.