Moodabidri – “Jainakashi of South”

Moodabidri is a small town located 37 km northeast of mangalore, Karnataka. The place got its name because of the widely grown bamboo in ancient days. Moodu means east and bidiru means bamboo. The Thousand pillars temple in Moodabidri is a famous shrine for jains. Moodabidri is also known as the “jainakashi of south”. There are several other jain temples in Moodabidri. There are around 11 churches here and among them The 16th century church Igreja da Santa Cruz Hospet or Hospet Church which was built by the Portuguese is famous. Moodabidri had a population of 25,710 as per the 2001 census, majority of the population practices Roman Catholicism.

The most famous festivals celebrated here are Guru basadi, Tribhuvana Tilaka Chudamani Basadi and Ammanavara Basadi. There are numerous other festivals which is celebrated in Moodabidri. Hulivesha is a unique form of folk dance in dakshina kannada. This dance is performed during the Dussehra festival. It is performed during festivals like Krishna Janmasthami, Ganesha Chathurthi.The. During navrathri The idol of Sharada Maathe is kept at Shri Lakshmi Venkateshwara Temple and celebrated for two days in a grand way. The Sharada Maathe idol is kept at the Venkataramana Temple and it is celebrated for three days. There are five maari gudi temples in Moodabidri. In most of the temples, during their annual festival, Bhuta kola or spirit worship is practised and is usually done at night. Snake worship is also practised. Kambala or Buffalo race is also conducted annually for two days. Korikatta or cock fight is another favorite sport for the village people here. The Muslims in Moodabidri celebrate uroos in the dargas every year. Santhmari is celebrated by the christians at alangar church and corpus christi church.

How to reach :

Express buses run every 5 to 10 minutes from Mangalore, Udupi, Karkala, Shimoga, Kudremukh, Sringeri, Dharmastala, Bantwal, Belthangady, Naravi. The roads are well connected to places like bangalore, Hubli, Dharwad, Subramanya, Chikkmagaluru etc. Private buses also ply through these routes.