A temple to a dog

A dog is man’s best friend and this is best exemplified by the fact that a temple is dedicated to this animal near Bangalore.

The temple to the dog has been built in a small village in Chennapatna taluk of Ramanagar district. It is 60 kilometres from Bangalore and perhaps this is the only temple built in modern times dedicated to a canine.

The temple was built n 2009 and is next to the temple of a village deity. Villagers believe that the dog can stop any wrong doing. They say that the dog is always with the village deity and works alongside the goddess.

This is not the only temple to a dog in Karnataka.

There is a second temple dedicated to a pet dog in Ranebennur in north Karnataka.

Ranebennur is a  town in Havari district. It has a sanctuary for black bucks and several beautiful temples. It is popularly called the gateway to north  Karnataka.

A resident of Ranebennur, Chandrashekara Kulkarni, has built a temple for his pet dog there.

The pet dog called Raja  died in 2008 and Mr.Kulkarni built a small temple in its memory the next year. Since then he has been organising fairs. The first fair was held during Vijayadashami and it was a big success.

Locals and Mr. Patil’s family believe that the dog has miraculous powers and they throng the temple.  There are plans to construct a primary school named after Raja Narayanaswamy, which is the full name of the dog.

There is another temple that boasts of a peculiar connection between man, animal and god. There is temple dedicated to Kali in Buxar in Bihar.

Buxar or Baksar was the place where the Battle of  Buxar took place between the British and the Mughals on October 1764..

The Indian Army led by Mir Kasim attempted to regain the province of Bengal from the British. Kasim was helped by the Mughal Emperor Shah Alam 2 and Siraj-ud-Doula of Oudh. The Indians lost and the British gained a foothold into India. The rest, as they say, is history.

(Today, the battleground is located atKatkauli, a small village 5 kms from Baksar. There is a stone memorial built by the British in memory of the victory.)

Coming back to the topic, dogs come to this temple every time a pooja is performed. They do not bark or attack anybody who come to the temple.

The dogs wag their tails when aarti is conducted during the evening and bark in unison when the temple bells are rung. The priest and visitors feed the dogs Prasad. This has been going on for the last 40 years.

For those who look down on these temples, I have only one fact to state. Alexander the Great was so fond of  his Tibetan hound that he built a temple for it when it died. The entire account of  Alexander and his dog is written by Pliny.

Every dog has its day, right.