Places to Visit in Mysore - Episode 08 | Brindavan Gardens | Venugopala Swamy Temple | Balmuri Falls

The Brindavan Gardens is a garden located 12 k.ms from the city of Mysore in the Mandya District of the Indian State of Karnataka. It lies adjoining the Krishnarajasagara Dam which is built across the river Kaveri. The work on laying out this garden was started in the year 1927 and completed in 1932. Visited by close to 2 million tourists per year, the garden is one of the major attractions of Srirangapatna. Sir Mirza Ismail, the Deewan of Mysore, a man with a penchant for gardens, founded the Brindavan Gardens (Krishnaraja Sagar Dam in particular) and built the Cauvery River high-level canal to irrigate 120,000 acres in modern Mandya district.[citation needed] The gardens were designed by German botanist and landscape designer Gustav Hermann Krumbiegel.
The Venugopala Swamy Temple located at Hosa Kannambadi, near Krishna Raja Sagara, is an example of Hoysala architecture in Karnataka, India. This temple was built in the 12th century AD around the same time as the Chennakesava Temple at Somanathapura, Mysore district.Before the Krishna Raja Sagara dam project was conceived by Sir M.Visvesvaraya in 1909, the temple complex was located in the village of Kannambadi. The KRS Dam project meant that Kannambadi and other surrounding settlements would be submerged. The then king of Mysore, Krishna Raja Wadiyar IV ordered the construction of a new village for the residents of Kannambadi and aptly named it Hosa Kannambadi (New Kannambadi).

However, the Venugopala Swamy temple complex and 2 other temples namely Kenneshwara (Ishwara) temple and Kalamma (A local deity) temple had to be abandoned. By 1930, the first phase of the dam was completed and all three temples were submerged.

The main idol of Venugopalaswamy, Lord Krishna playing on flute as a cow-herd, was shifted to a new temple in the rehabilitated village before the submersion.