Guddatu Ganpati temple is hailed in high reverence by many devotees. Guddatu Ganpati temple is located in Guddatu town in Kundapur taluka of Udupi district of karnataka state in India.This Ganpati is Swayambhu ganpati,which has come up on its own,amidst the huge rock that is 2 furlong in length.Under the rock,there is small cave,within which the idol of ganpati resides.This ganpati is found immersed upto neck deep in water.The wonder of this place is that water has come out of the rock against the scientific fact that water is never found within the rock.

Speciality of Guddatu Ganpati temple:

Speciality of this temple is that Lord Ganpati’s idol is always under water,that submerges ganpati upto his neck.This swayambhu idol is in the shape of elephant.
This is unique place wherein Rudrasbhika is done to Ganpati against the fact that
usually Rudrabhisheka is not done to Ganpati and Rudrabhisheka is always done to lord shiva.
There is strong belief among people,that if you pray this ganpati with faith and devotion,your wishes will come true.

Legend accociated with the Guddatu temple:
It is believed that lord shiva went on to fight with the monster tripurasur.But he lost the fight with tripurasur.Lord shiva thought that the reason for this failure was lord ganapati,his son.. Lord shiva thought that as he did not take lord ganesha’s name (act of doing sriganesha before beginning any good thing )before going for a fight with monster tripurasur,he lost the battle.
so in a feat of anger,lord shiva releases a powerful arrow towards ganpati,which hits him.As it was expected,that nothing could harm ganpati and also that lord shiva’s arrow should not go as waste,lord ganpati falls into sea of honey.
After falling into sea of honey,lord ganpati gets joyous as he likes honey.He drinks too much of honey.As a result his body gets heated too much and ,ganpati starts feeling uncomfortable.Lord shiva sees the uncomfortable ganpati.Then he asks ganpati that he
can cool himself in water at Guddatu cave,the place where present guddatu mahaganpati temple is located and where lot of people go to pray to lord Ganpati.
This legend is believed by people.

How the Ganpati’s idol was discovered:
About 700 years ago,a devotee of Lord Ganpati had a godly intuitive dream wherein
He was the the swyambhu idol of ganpati amidts the present day rock of gudattu.Then
in reality,he went to the intuitive place to find the idol of ganpati immersed in water upto Ganpati’s neck.There onwards he spread this fact to people and that’s how today people came to know about the miraculous idol of Ganpati at Gaddatu.



Pooja offered to Guddatu Ganpati:

People offer special pooja called Ayurkoda Pooja which is unique in the world.This pooja involves pouring 1000 pots of water over the idol of the Ganpati.
People who had their wishes fulfilled come here to offer ayurkoda pooja to ganpati.
How the ayurkoda pooja is performed:
First of all ,before starting with the ayurkoda pooja, the water around the Ganpati idol is removed.Then aarti is done.After this rudrabhisheka is done.Then panchamruta abhishek is offered to ganpati.After this 1000 pots(called koda’s of water in Kannada) of water are pulled out of nearby well within temple premises only and that too, by temple Priests ,many of whom pass on a pot of water between them to ultimately pour it over lord ganpati to cool the lord ganpati.This activity of pouring 1000 pots of water is only done by temple priests and nobody else is allowed to pour this water over lord ganpati.After this mahamangalaarthi is performed.This entire activity of ayurkoda pooja must be completed before sunrise.
The miracle of ganpati is the fact that in the process of ayurkoda pooja, while upto the time,that panchamruta abhishek is done,there is no water around ganpati idol.But no sooner does the panchramruta abhisheka gets over,within blink of eye,water comes out on its own and rushes around ganpati immersing the ganpati upto his neck.Nobody till date knows from where does this water come up suddenly.


Facts of Blessing Power of Ganpati:
One person whose son had serious heart problem and was not expected to live anymore,as per doctors and after medical science had failed to help his child survive,came down to Gundattu Ganpati and prayed to the God for his childs survival.After this his child’s heart problem vanished and child became normal.Today that child is leading a normal life.This child’s father comes every year to Gudattu and offers Ayurkoda pooja to Lord Ganpati.
In another incident,a girl’s father was seeking a groom for his daughter, to be an engineer and that too from a very good family background.He came dwon to Guddatu Ganpati temple and prayed to Ganpati that he gets groom of his choice for his daughter.
Within one months time,his daughter got an engineer groom and that too from a very good family background ,exactly as he had wished.Thus his wishes came true due to Gudattu Vinayaka’s blessings.