At Kammasandra in the Kolar district of Karnataka, the Kotilingeshwara temple is renowned for a truly astonishing sight: a colossal Shiva linga rising over thirty metres, among the tallest in the world, before which stands a giant Nandi — and, spread across the temple grounds, lakhs upon lakhs of smaller Shiva lingas installed by devotees over the decades, with the aspiration of reaching a crore (koti), from which the temple takes its name.
Developed from the late twentieth century, the temple has become a major pilgrimage of the region, where devotees install a linga in their own name as an act of devotion and remembrance. Amid its vast field of lingas, Kotilingeshwara offers a striking expression of the collective worship of Lord Shiva.
