Yellamma Temple, Saundatti
— — a goddess the hill keeps for her own.
Not only on a wall.
“A hilltop shrine to Renuka, called Yellamma here, above the small town of Saundatti in Karnataka's Belagavi district. The temple stands on Yellamma Gudda, a granite rise of red earth and scrub about five kilometres from the town centre, with a sacred tank, Jogul Bhavi, at its foot. Pilgrims come year-round, and twice a year, on the full moons of Bharata Hunnime in winter and Banada Hunnime in autumn, the path up the hill fills for the jatra. The faith here is old, the iconography unmistakable, the hill itself part of the deity.
Yellamma Temple, Saundatti, on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
The place, in three passes.
The Yellamma Temple stands on Yellamma Gudda, a granite hill about five kilometres south of the town of Saundatti in Belagavi district, in the northern part of Karnataka state. The site sits roughly 80 kilometres east of Belagavi city and around 500 kilometres northwest of Bengaluru. The deity, Renuka, is worshipped here under the Kannada name Yellamma, mother of all. The present temple complex was rebuilt in the eighteenth century during the rule of the Marathas, though pilgrimage to the hill is recorded much earlier. A sacred tank, Jogul Bhavi, lies near the base of the climb.
The temple draws pilgrims year-round, but the calendar turns on two great jatras. Bharata Hunnime, on the full moon of the Hindu month of Magha in January or February, is the larger of the two and gathers hundreds of thousands on the hill over several days. Banada Hunnime, on the full moon of Ashwin in October or November, gathers a second wave. The town and the climb to the temple fill with stalls of vermilion, turmeric, bangles, and offerings of jowar bread. Devotees often complete the ascent barefoot.
Saundatti is reached most often by road from Belagavi, about a two-hour drive, or from Dharwad to the southeast in roughly an hour and a half. The nearest railway station is Dharwad on the Hubballi line, and the nearest commercial airport is Belagavi. A motor road climbs partway up Yellamma Gudda, with the final approach to the sanctum on foot. Inside the central shrine the goddess is worshipped as a stone head, the iconography that gives Renuka her story. The historic devadasi tradition associated with the temple has been formally banned in India since 1982.