Chunchanakatte Falls

Chunchanakatte Falls is a waterfall on the Kaveri River, near the village of Chunchanakatte in krishnaraja Nagar Taluk, Mysore district, Karnataka. Water cascades from a height of about 20 meters. It is in the Western Ghats. Here the river falls in two small cascades before joining again to flow as one. Distance from Bangalore to Chunchanakatte Falls, Karnataka is 208 km and takes 3 hours 52 mins. Distance from Chunchanakatte Water Fall, Haleyuru to Chilkunda, Karnataka is 33.8 km and travel time is around 49 min via SH 86.



Chunchanakatte waterfall can be reached by taking a diversion at Krishnarajanagar on the Mysore-Hassan highway. The diversion is on the left at the circle in the town of KR Nagar. A subsequent right turn on to a mud road leads to the waterfall. It is located at approximately 15 km from the town of KR Nagar.

Chunchanakatte is well know for Lord KodandaRama temple which is situated just on the banks of river Kaveri. An eye catching water falls of Cauveri river does exist just beside the temple. The place is very scenic with water falls and greenery in surrounding place. During January 15th (Makara Sankranti) of each year there will be car festival (Brahma Ratotsava) and cattle festival during August.

Chunchanakatte is the holy place where Lord Sri Ram during his vanvas stopped by and availed the hospitality of a tribal couple called Chuncha and Chunchi. The significance of this place is that the sound of the powerful falls can be heard all over except inside the sanctum sanctorum of the centuries old temple, the story goes that Lord Ram was tired of the constant complaining of Sita Mata and gave a curse saying that the tongue of a woman should not be sharp and since Cauvery (river) is considered to be female the noise that the river generated would not be heard in the sanctum sanctorum of the lord. It is also said that when Sita Mata was tired and weary and wanted to have a bath, Lord Ram directed Lakshman to fire an arrow at a rock, once Lakshman fired the arrow, water in 3 different shades started pouring out, one with turmeric, one with oil and one with shikakai (fruit for hair - natural shampoo). These shades are visible even today when there is considerable amount of water flowing in the falls. Before the powerplant was established, this place was like paradise on earth with nature at its best. This locale has been used in a lot of regional (kannada) movies and has been a haunt for many of the film stars and politicians, most famous being Dr Rajkumar. This region is mainly inhabited by farmers and employees of a local sugar mill and of late the power generation plant.

Chunchanakatte is famous for Sugar also Paddy. Chunchana Kattey is sourrounded by Kaveri River, which goes to KRS dam reservior.

Chunchanakatte Kodanda Rama temple

Kodanda Rama Temple is dedicated to Bhagavan Sri Rama and is located at Chunchanakatte Village near KR Nagara in Mysore. The temple is around 55 km from Mysore. Legend has it that Bhagavan Sri Ram during his exile period in the Ramayana stayed in home of a tribal couple, Chuncha and Chunchi, on the banks of Kaveri River.

A story associated with temple gives information regarding the Chunchanakatte waterfalls near the temple. It is said that Mata Sita wanted to take bath and Lakshman on the advice of Sri Ram fired an arrow into a rock. Three streams appeared from the rock � these are now known as Chunchanakatte falls. The three streams had different color � one in the color of turmeric, the other as oil and the third one as a shikakai (used to wash hair in India). The three different colors can be still seen near the temple. The place where Lakshman fired his arrow came to be known as Dhanushkoti.

The waterfall near the Chunchanakatte Temple cascades from the height of about 20 meters and runs in full swing.

The significance of the place is that the sound of the waterfalls is not inside the sanctum sanctorum of the Kodanda Rama Temple.

The temple has murtis of Sri Ram, Mata Sita and Lakshman.

Chunchanakatte Temple Timings: 6:00 AM to 12:30 PM and 6:00 PM to 8:30 PM.

Shree Kodandarama Temple,
Chunchanakatte, K.R Nagara Taluk,
Mysore District - 571617