Shrimat Ananteshwar Temple, Manjeshwar, near Kasargod, Kerala a neighbouring District of Dakshina Kannada, not far off from Mangalore, is the most ancient temple of All GSBs (Konkani). It has the unique fame of belonging to 18 towns of old Dakshina Kannada, which either means, for the GSB Settlements of eighteen different places this was the only temple available  or in the Board of Trustees, there were trustees from the eighteen centres. This temple or the place of worship was supposed to be existing since the 2^nd Century A.D. and had enormous wealth which was looted from time to time by pirates and chieftains.

  Manjeshwar is the birthplace of the famous Manjeshwar, a poet-laureate of Kannada Language. He had also written a research paper on the  History of GSBs which is a good record for the samaj. Besides this temple’s, he had  written the history of Mulki Shri Venkatraman  Temple. GSBs (Konkani) can always be proud of him and his literary works.

 The temple has three principal deities, Shri Anant, (Serpent God), Shri Ishwar, (Lord Mahadev—and therefore Shri Ananteshwar) and Lord Narasimha, the incarnation of Lord Vishnu). The temple is a unique living example of evolution of worship of different deities in the long history-- from the local Naga worship to Shaiva cult and then to Vaishnava Cult.  Instead of one cult replacing the other in Manjeshwar, they go hand in hand in this temple, serving as another shining example of GSB culture of tolerance.

 The main festival of this temple is the popular Manjeshwar Shashti somewhere in November/December every year on the sixth day of bright half of Margasheera  month of the lunar calendar. This is associated with Naga festival of great popularity with Lord Skanda, Subramanya or Shanmuga. At that time the beautifully decorated chariot, supposed to be the tallest among all GSB temples (Height about 75 feet ) will be drawn by hundreds.  It has six wheels while most of the temple chariots have four wheels.

As a part of charities, the temple distributes rice to Harijans on every Saturday in consonance with the age old system of giving alms, not by money but by food grain.

Although the temple has its own website, they have blessed and honoured  ours  with a request to include their Temple in our website.  Do visit this ancient temple of the GSBs (The domain names are http://www.manjeshwar.org & also http://satemple.tripod.com

 Journey Details: Manjeshwar has a Railway Station on the Southern Railways  from Mangalore. Nearest Airport is Mangalore and is connected by Road including the National Highways.