By Nagaiah Lalanakere
One of the most prominent and emerging tourist spots near Mysuru is the Venugopalaswamy Temple at Hosa Kannambadi, near Krishna Raja Sagara (KRS) Dam. Sadly, the surroundings of the beautifully constructed temple that is an architectural marvel is in a bad shape with crater-filled roads and lacks any sort of basic facilities. The original temple is said to be built at the same time when Channakeshava Temple was constructed at Somanathapura by Hoysala rulers during 12th Century. Earlier, the temple was located at Kannambadi village. But with the construction of KRS Dam, the entire village of Kannambadi submerged, including the temple structure. At this time, the then King Nalwadi Krishnaraja Wadiyar ordered for the construction of the new village which was named Hosa Kannambadi. There were a couple of temples at Kannambadi village when Sir M. Visvesvaraya planned the KRS reservoir, as the Chief Engineer of Nalwadi Krishnaraja Wadiyar in 1909. When the project was completed across a lake there by 1930, three major temples of Kannambadi village submerged in the reservoir waters. While one was an Eshwara Temple, the other major one was the Venugopalaswamy Temple. The third one was a small one dedicated to Kalamma, a local deity.
