Hassan shrine opens for first time this year

Hassan: Hassanamba Devi temple here opened its doors for devotees on Thursday for the first time this year. 

As it will remain open only for a few days before it shuts its doors again for a whole year, devotees usually rush for a darshan of its deities.

Interestingly,  one legend has it that Hassanamba Devi is actually Hasan Bi, a Muslim woman turned deity.  Mr Dyavanoor Manjunath, who has come out with  a book “Grama Purna” on the historical and religious places of Hassan district, says the epigraphy of Karnataka and Hassan Gazetteer refers to the legend of Hasan Bi, a woman, who was allegedly so tortured by her mother-in-law that she entered the temple and locked herself in. The story goes that a year later, when the temple doors  opened, she was found with an anthill around her  and an oil lamp was burning inside it. As time passed, her name changed first to Hasanbe and later to the present Hassanambe .

A Muslim family in Pension Mohalla says some Muslims too believe that  Hassanamba is Hasan Bi and even queue up to have a darshan of the deities at the temple.

But  local mythology has it that Sapta Matrukes-Vaishanvi, Indrani, Maheshwari, Kumari, Brahmi Devi, Varahi and Chamundi, who were travelling to the south from Varansi, were fascinated by the beauty of Hassan and decided to settle there.  While Vaishanvi, Kumari and Maheshwari took on the form of an anthill at the Hassanamba temple, Brahmi Devi settled at Kenchamana Hosakote and Chamundi, and Varahi and Indrani, at Devi Kere close to the Hassanmaba temple.