Banashankari En route to Badami is a quaint hamlet that takes its name from the goddess Banashankari. Built in the Dravidian style, the temple is dedicated to Banashankari, a form of Parvati highly revered by the weaver community. The idol depicts the powerful eight-armed goddess seated on a snarling lion. There is a large pond in front of the temple called Harida Theertha, which is enclosed on three sides by stone mantapas with inner colonnades. The annual temple festival in Banashankari is more than a religious event. During this time, the streets around the temple are taken over by a huge fair, marked by colour and gaiety, and attended by thousands of devotees.


Annual Events

An important time to visit the temple is in the month of January during Pushya maasa , where a navrathri is held. This is also the time when the temple gets extremely crowded by people who worship Shakambhari as their household Deity. This is called Banashankari Jathre, which lasts for a month during January and February. In this event a chariot is pulled from the temple gate to another sculpture called padhkatte.

Situated close to Badami in a place called Cholachagudda or cholachagudd , in Bagalkot District of Karnataka . In front of the temple one finds a tank and ruins of the old temple.

All the priests in the temple are from Cholachagudd. During the Jathre event there will be nearly 30 touring cinema theaters and 10-15 drama companies and sometimes even famous circus company. The pilgrims can have north Indian dishes like Kadak Jawari Roti, Hesarukalu Pallya (subji), curd, gurellu-chatni gun-powder etc.,for their food. The surrounding village farmers every year during this jatra come to the jatra in their bullock carts and camp at the jatra for 10-15 days and purchase the required household & agricultural articles and enjoy by going to cinema & drama in the night-hours. There is a belief that the pond infront of the temple will never dry and it has never dried in the history when all the neighbouring ponds had dried during a drought. one more belief about this pond is that a new born baby will have a good luck in his future if he is taken in a boat made from banana stem across this pond.

Address of the temple: Salakari Poojar Shri Kshetra Banashankari Devasthan, Cholachagudda, Tq: Badami, Dist: Bagalkot, Karnataka-587208 INDIA.