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Chamundi Hill

Arun Mohan, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Attraction · Mysuru

Chamundi Hill

A thousand steps up to the goddess Mysuru is named for, with a monolithic Nandi two thirds of the way and the whole city laid out behind you.

Time neededHalf a day
Best timeFirst light
StepsAbout 1,000
NandiCarved 1659
About

The hill the city is named after

Chamundi Hill rises about a thousand feet above Mysuru and carries the temple of Chamundeshwari, the form of Durga who killed the demon Mahishasura — from whom the city takes its name. The temple is old, expanded by the Wodeyars, and its seven-storey gopuram is the shape you see from the plain. There are two ways up: a road that winds to the top, and a stone stairway of roughly a thousand steps cut in the seventeenth century, which pilgrims climb and many still do barefoot. Two thirds of the way up the steps stands the Nandi, a bull carved in 1659 from a single outcrop of black granite and some five metres tall, garlanded and oiled and quite unlike anything at the summit.

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What to See

What to look at

The Nandi is on the steps, not at the top.

🛕 The temple

  • Chamundeshwari, with a seven-storey gopuram and a shrine that is genuinely busy rather than curated

🐂 The monolithic Nandi

  • Carved from a single granite outcrop in 1659, about five metres high, roughly 700 steps up
  • Missed entirely by anyone who drives to the summit, which is most visitors

👹 Mahishasura

  • The statue of the demon near the summit, from whom Mysuru is named

🏙️ The view

  • The whole city below, and the palace picked out in it — best before the day's haze builds
Getting There

Getting there

Steps or road, and they are different visits.

🪜 The stairway

  • About a thousand steps from the foot of the hill, an hour at a steady pace, passing the Nandi on the way

🚗 By road

  • A winding road to the summit car park, thirty minutes from the city, and it bypasses the Nandi

🎟️ Entering

  • The temple has a free queue and a faster paid one; the hill itself costs nothing
Best Time

When to go

First light, for the climb and for the view before the haze builds.

🕰️ Time of day

  • Early morning: cool enough to climb, and above the haze the city sits under later
  • Evenings are busy with local visitors and the view is hazier

📅 Season

  • Dasara brings very large crowds to the temple; the hill is at its quietest on ordinary weekday mornings

⏱️ How long

  • Half a day if you climb; two hours if you drive up
Visitor Intelligence

Worth knowing

Climbing and driving are not the same visit.

🐂 Walk at least part of it

  • The Nandi is on the stairway. Driving to the top means not seeing the single best object on the hill

👣 Barefoot

  • Many pilgrims climb barefoot; visitors need not, but shoes come off at the temple

⏳ Queues

  • The free darshan queue can be long on festival days; the paid queue is shorter and clearly signed

🐒 Monkeys

  • Along the steps and at the summit, and practised at taking food and offerings
Nearby

Nearby

The rest of Mysuru.

Mysore Palace
In the city below, and visible from the top
Brindavan Gardens
Below the Krishnarajasagara dam, north of the city
Mysuru
The city guide
Good to Know

Frequently asked

About a thousand, cut in the seventeenth century, and an hour at a steady pace. Many pilgrims climb barefoot. There is also a road to a car park at the summit, which takes about thirty minutes from the city — but it bypasses the stairway entirely, and with it the monolithic Nandi that stands roughly seven hundred steps up.
A bull, the mount of Shiva, carved in 1659 from a single outcrop of black granite and standing about five metres high. It is garlanded and oiled and still in active worship. It sits on the stairway rather than at the summit, which means most visitors — who drive up — never see it. It is the single most striking object on the hill.
After Chamundeshwari, the form of Durga enshrined in the temple at the top, who in the local telling killed the demon Mahishasura on this hill. Mysuru takes its own name from that demon — Mahishuru, Mahisha's town. A statue of Mahishasura stands near the summit, which is why the two names sit together on the same hilltop.
First light. It is cool enough to climb, the temple is far quieter than in the evening, and you are above the haze that settles over the city as the day warms — which is the difference between seeing the palace picked out below you and seeing a grey blur. Dasara brings very large crowds and is the exception to every part of that.
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