Legend sthala purana · as told by tradition
Yellamma is held to be Renuka, mother of Parashurama, beheaded at her husband Jamadagni’s command and restored at her son’s request. The 1884 Belgaum Gazetteer adds a local telling: even after she was restored, her husband’s curse struck her with leprosy, and after long devotion she was cured and built this temple on the hill that had been her home.12
Documented history
The shrine stands in the bed of the small Sarasvati stream below the hill, in a courtyard ringed by arcades. A Kannada inscription dated 1514 records that Bommappa Nayaka of Raybag, an officer of Krishnadevaraya, completed an upper storey over the stone mantapa of the west gate “at the feet of the goddess”.1
Though locally said to be 2,000 years old, the Gazetteer judged the present temple, except perhaps the sanctuary, to be of the seventeenth or eighteenth century, and its predecessor no older than the thirteenth. Archaeological finds show settlement on the hill from the eighth to the eleventh centuries, with megalithic tombs older still.12
In 1884 about 100,000 pilgrims came each year for the fairs at the full moons of Chaitra and Margashirsha; the priests were Lingayats of forty families who served in turn.1
Where sources differ
The encyclopedia says the temple “was built in 1514 by Bomappa Nayaka”; the 1514 inscription, as read in the 1884 Gazetteer, records only the completion of an upper storey over the west-gate mantapa.21
Where to go next
AI-created illustration
AI-created illustrationSources
- Book (1884) Gazetteer of the Bombay Presidency, Vol. XXI: Belgaum — Government Central Press, Bombay, 1884 · Internet Archive · Places: Yellamma’s Hill · accessed 2026-11-08
- Encyclopedia Yellamma Temple, Saundatti — Wikipedia · accessed 2026-11-08
Researched 2026-11-08 from the cited sources. Community corrections are welcome; traditions differ, and differences are shown rather than resolved.