JOIN USJagadodharana…aadisidalu Yashoda…Saint-composer Purandara Dasa composed this song in the Aprameya temple at Malur, a village on the Bangalore-Mysore Highway, a few kilometres from Channapatna. You can easily spot the village because of its yellow gopura that towers over the landscape.
It is situated on the banks of a river called Kanva, named after sage Kanva, said to have lived and worshipped here. The main deity is Vishnu, worshipped here as Aprameya. According to mythology, a local ruler whose limbs were chopped by his enemies and thrown into the river, landed at this place and prayed to Aprameya, who gave him back his limbs.
The name Malur is the corrupted form of Molacha Ooru (place where the limbs grew). The temple also houses the idol of Ambegalu Krishna i.e. Krishna depicted as a crawling infant. Purandara Dasa is said to have composed Jagadodharana in front of this idol!
It is said that the Maharaja of Mysore was so mesmerised by the idol that he moved it to his palace. That night he had a dream in which he was asked to return the idol to Malur but he did not do so and hence his palace got burnt. He immediately returned the idol after that. Though one doesn’t know how true this tale is, it is true that the wooden palace at Mysore did burn down.