Harihar

Harihar is a city located in Davanagere District in Karnataka. Harihar also spelled Hari-hara, in Hinduism, a syncretic deity, combining the two major gods, Vishnu (Hari) and Siva (Hara). Images of Harihara (also known as Sambhu-Visnu and Sankara-Narayana, variants of the names of the two gods) began to appear in the classicalperiod after sectarian movements, which elevated one god as supreme over the others, had waned sufficiently for efforts at compromise to be attempted..The region of Harihar had been under the control of the Hoysalas from 11th to 13th Century AD. Harihar is famous for a Harihareshwara temple, which is also known as "Dakshina Kashi".

Harihara is situated on the banks of the Tungabhadra River, 275 kilometres north of Bangalore. It is connected by road and railway, and is located on national Highway 4 (Puna - Bangalore). It has a very pleasant climate through the year.There is famous temple built in 12th century during Hoysala's time called Harihareshwara temple (Guharanya Kshetra), from which the city derives its name, which is also known as "Dakshina Kashi". This temple astpounding for his wealth of Sculptural details.

The god Harihareshwara is a combination of god Shiva and Vishnu. There is an interesting story behind avatara of this god. In ancient days this place was known as 'Guharanya'. A dense jungle and habitat of a demon Guhasura. He had a boon that no Human or Rakshasa or God can kill him. And he started harassing people around this place. Then Vishnu and Shiva came together in a new avatara called Hari – Hara (Harihara) and killed demon Guhasura. That is how this place has got the name Harihar. Every year the Car festival is celebrated with great enthusiasm and lots of people participating.

Harihar also has a famous Ragavendra Mutt located on the banks of Tungabandra. The brindava of sri Ragavendra Swamy is very pleasant to watch getting famous by time for its locality, the functions like hastodaka, aradana, etc. It also serves punya kaarya (events) like pitru kaarya, darmodaka, varshantaka etc. It is featured with all the activities and good place spend time.

The harihar serves as a major Industrial base also. It is servied by the famour Kirloskar Industry and at present Aditya Birla, Grasim, Synthite, Shamanur Sugar's and more. Although Kirloskar Engineering company has closed down, resulting in a loss of nearly 15,000 jobs, there are still 2 units of Grasim Industries run by Kumaramangalam Birla - the first unit is named as Harihar Polyfibers and the other unit is Graslene division. Apart from these heavy industries, there are a number of other engineering and small manufacturing industries, not to forget the famous brick kiln Industries in the region. The major lifeline of this small town is the Tungabhadra river, which continues to be exploited and polluted as a result of heavy industrialization.

During Nagpanchmi the "Karnika" means words of God will be chanted by the priest of Yelavatti Hanumappa Temple on the banks of the Tungabhadra. The priest will get impressions from the God Harihareshwar on that particular day when he visits the Harihareshwara Temple. This "Karnika" which has been chanted for the last 200 years, is believed to be the future direction of the country and its politics.

Harihar Temple is accessible by road. Plenty of buses going up to the main temple from Hubli/Bangalore and various places across Karnataka. The photo of Lord is available at stalls but strangely till date no Murti(idol) is available in market around the temple.