This Hanuman sheds tears

There are many Anjaneya temples in Bangalore and among the most famous is the Gali Annaneya Temple and the Hanuman temple in Mahalakshmi Layout.

The Hanuman temple at Ragigudda, the Kote Anjaneya Temple and the Minto Kannu Aspatre Temple are the other famous temples. Infact, Bangalore has several Vyasa Prathistha Hanuman temples.

The Vyasa Prathistha Hanuman temples were consecrated by the great Madhwa saint, Vyasa Raja or Vyasa Theertha and there are more than two dozen of them in and around Bangalore, including the Gali Anjaneya Temple on Mysore Road.

Many miracles are ascribed to these temples but one of the most unique temple is that of Hanuman at Banaswadi.

Banaswadi is one of the well-known localities of Bangalore and initially it was known as the place near the ITC cigarette factory. Banaswadi today is a bustling locality and it has several temples and other religious places of worship bit none as famous as the Hanuman temple.

The Sri Anjaneya Swamy Temple attracts scores of devotees every day and people from other localities too throng to the temple. A majority of the people are aware of the grand Navaratri celebrations that are held in the temple.
These celebrations see all the deities in the temple being decorated with flowers and ornaments. The Navaratri celebrations ked up decked up in flowers during the time of Navaratri festival. The celebrations are held for all the nine days of Dassara or Navaratri. . However, a little known fact of this temple is that the Anjaneya idol sheds tears on the occasion of Hanuman Jayanti every December. The tears flow from the eyes on that day and there is no particular time or period when this strange phenomenon occurs.

The tears have continued to flow over the years and this is perhaps the most unique feature of this temple. Infact, no other Hanuman temple has reported such a phenomenon.   
The temple is believed to be more than 150 years old and the idol of Hanuman or Anjaneya has been sculpted at Saligrama, a small town between Udupi and Kundapura.

Apart from the idol of Hanuman, the temple has a few other deities too such as that of Kodandarama and Basaveshwara. The temple is better known as the Hanuman temple of Dodda Banaswadi. It comes under the Muzrai Department and it is among the richest in Bangalore.

Incidentally, Banaswadi was a village till two decades ago. The boom in IT and BT and the growing urbanisation of the city led to the disappearance of this village and in its place we have a busy locality.

The village that existed here was called Dodda Banaswadi and Chikka Banaswadi. Though these names survive, the villages have vanished.

Today the Ring Road borders Banaswadi on one side.  It has a railway station called Banaswadi railway station. It is flanked by HRBR Layout and Kalyan Nagar.