Udupi

Udupi, a temple town on the coast of Karnataka, holds a place of extraordinary importance in both the spiritual and the culinary life of India.

• At its heart stands the Sri Krishna Matha, the revered Krishna temple founded in the 13th century by the great saint-philosopher Madhvacharya, who established here the Dvaita (dualist) school of Hindu philosophy.
• The temple's most beloved feature is the Kanakana Kindi — a small nine-holed silver window through which devotees view the idol of Krishna, born of the tender legend that the deity himself turned around to face the window so that Kanakadasa, a devotee barred from the inner sanctum, could see him.
• The temple is run by the Ashta Mathas (eight monasteries) in a rotating two-year cycle marked by the grand Paryaya festival.
• But Udupi is famous far beyond pilgrims, for this is the birthplace of one of India's greatest gifts to vegetarian food: Udupi cuisine, the sattvic, all-vegetarian culinary tradition developed by the Shivalli Madhva Brahmins in the temple kitchens to feed pilgrims and make ritual offerings — and it is widely held that the masala dosa itself was invented here.
• The crisp dosa, idli, the array of sambar and coconut chutneys, and the pure-vegetarian "Udupi hotel" that has since spread across the world all trace back to this town.
• Beyond the temple and the table, Udupi's coast offers the lively Malpe Beach and, a short boat ride offshore, St Mary's Island, with its rare hexagonal columnar-lava rock formations where Vasco da Gama is said to have landed in 1498.
• The nearby pilgrim shrines of Kollur Mookambika and Kateel, the university town of Manipal, and the Kaup lighthouse and beach make Udupi a fine base for exploring the temple coast of southern Karnataka.
• For vegetarian travellers, Udupi is simply paradise: temple meals, masala dosa and Mangalore buns, goli baje, filter coffee, and the full sattvic Udupi feast.
• The best season is October to February.