Water cave temple at Bidar

(in the above picture you can see the way to the tunnel beside the idol)

It was past 6 in the evening when we reached Bidar town. Our next stop at Bidar was Sri Kshetra Jharni Narsimha temple – a water cave temple dedicated to the Hindu god Lord Narsimha.

The legend goes that Vishnu after killing Hiranyakashyap killed another giant Jharasura. While breathing his last the giant requested Vishnu to live in the cave in which he lived and to grant wishes to devotees. Granting his wish, Narsimha came to live in the cave.

It is a temple over looking a deep valley. After descending nearly 40 steps we were told the temple was nearing its closing time.

We rushed down the remaining flight . We had to buy an entrance ticket of Rs.5/head.

Though we heard from our friends who visited before , about the uniqueness of the temple, We were really surprised when we saw the temple.

At the entrance of the temple is an Idol of Narsimha. Beside this idol is a flight of nearly10 steps which leads to a water canal inside a cave. The entrance of the cave is populated with hyperactive bats(yes, the mammals were flying in and out of the cave but never near us)


One has to wade through this water canal of nearly 90 metres with bats hovering above to reach the main idol. The canal water is supposed to emerge from the feet of the lord. At no point of time has the level of water receded / exceeded and the flow of water is continuous. The tunnel is adequately lit with electrical lights and ventilated by an air- duct .

The devotees have the privilege of doing puja and ksheera abhishekam to the lord personally.

I ,my daughter and our friends family accompanying us were scared to enter the tunnel and stood at the entrance of the temple while my 11 year old son and my husband went inside and offered puja and did Ksheera abhishekam. My son came back from the tunnel after 20 minutes and told ‘Amma, romba nalla irukku, neriya ladies irukka and neriya cockroaches koda irukku’ (the god is beautiful and there are many lady devotees inside and cockroaches too).

The temple closes on all days by 6.p.m except on Saturdays it closes by 6.30p.m.

Prasadam is distributed after mahamangalaarthi to the Idol of the lord installed outside.

After a good darshan we went back to rest in our hotel room and planned to visit the Panchanatha temple, gurudwara ,fort and bidriware workshop next day.