Kambada Kashi Lingeshwara Temple

A temple of Lord Shiva (Kambada Kashi Lingeshwara) which is about 400years old lies in the village of Tarikal. Tarikal comes under Hunsur Taluk, Mysore District and it is about 25kms from Hunsur / 7 kms from Ratnapuri Colony (Darga). It is a small village and it comes under the "Dharmapura" village Panchayat. The temple was built by the then Mysore Maharaja Sri. Kanteerava Narasaraja Wadeyar about 400years back, it was a very unique and a biggest temple in the surrounding villages and had about 1000pillars. The overall size of the temple was spread about 20 Guntas (1/2 acre) of land. The temple once had about 7 gopuras of which only about 3 gopuras can be seen today. The Mysore Emperor Sri Kanteerava Narasaraja Wadeyar had gifted this temple to all of the surrounding villages and to this effect had prepared a Will (Dhana Patra), even to this date one can see the Epigraphy of that. We understand from the villagers that the carbon copy of the Will is available at the Mysore University Library under the Epigraphy Department. The temple which was built with such an importance and with such features is today in a sad state. It is not very clear why it was deserted? Lot of bushes have been formed around the temple and inside the temple premises, the villagers tell us that few years back the temple premises was so bushy that a leopard had occupied the space and had given birth to the young ones.