Sri Durga Devi Devasthana

The story of Sri Durga Devi Devasthana

Sri Durga Devi Devasthana stands within Virupaksha Temple, Hampi, about 45 m away, so what you are looking at is a smaller shrine inside one of the best-known monument groups here. The larger temple complex is part of the Group of Monuments at Hampi, and that setting is what frames this place.

The name tells you the deity: Devi is the Sanskrit word for goddess, and Devasthana means a place of worship. Sri Durga Devi Devasthana is therefore a shrine to a goddess form, and the strongest local clue is the Durga name.

There is no separate account of this exact shrine, so the most detailed published material names Sri Vijaya Durga Temple instead. Sri Vijaya Durga Temple says construction was undertaken following the guidance of the architect Smt. Lakshmikantamma, a resident of Proddatur, on a worthy, auspicious site facing east on the western side of the city. It also names Sri C. V. Subbanna, a Satavadhani, as the person who laid the foundation stone, with work supervised by Srimaan Vellala Venkata Seshayya, a centenarian elder rich in Vedic knowledge and a resident of Tallamapuram.

That same publication dates the consecration of the temple spire to 1-3-2002, at 10 in the morning, and the Pratishtha Mahotsavam of Sri Sri Sri Vijaya Durga Amma at 1 in the afternoon. Look for the shrine as part of the Virupaksha Temple complex rather than as a separate monument.