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All Philately Passport Sites

106 sites documented across Karnataka's districts.

Heritage

Aihole Heritage Complex

Bagalkot

Called the "cradle of Indian temple architecture," this early Chalukya capital holds over a hundred stone temples spanning centuries of experimental design, from apsidal chaitya-hall forms to fully evolved shikharas.

Stamp at: Aihole Post Office

Temple

Amritapura Amriteshwara Temple

Chikkamagaluru

A Hoysala temple consecrated in 1196 CE by the general Amrutheshwara Dandanayaka, renowned for its unusually tall shikhara and finely detailed sculptural work.

Stamp at: Amritapura Post Office

Heritage

Ashoka Pillar

Bengaluru Urban

A replica of the Ashokan lion capital at a landmark Jayanagar traffic circle, invoking Emperor Ashoka's Mauryan legacy and India's national emblem at the heart of one of Bengaluru's oldest planned localities.

Stamp at: Jayanagar Post Office

Hill Station

Baba Budangiri Hills

Chikkamagaluru

A syncretic pilgrimage hill revered as both Dattatreya Peetha and the dargah of Sufi saint Hazrat Baba Budan, who is also credited with bringing coffee cultivation to India.

Stamp at: Baba Budangiri Post Office

Heritage

Badami Cave Temples

Bagalkot

Rock-cut Chalukyan cave temples (6th century CE) carved into a red sandstone cliff above Agastya Lake — the site of Karnataka's very first Permanent Pictorial Cancellation, issued in 1987.

Stamp at: Badami Post Office

Heritage

Bahmani Tombs

Bidar

The royal necropolis of the Bahmani Sultanate at Ashtur, a row of monumental domed tombs that trace the dynasty's architectural evolution and eventual decline.

Stamp at: Ashtur Post Office

Temple

Banashankari Amma Temple

Bagalkot

Temple of Banashankari, the forest form of Goddess Parvati and tutelary deity of the Chalukyas, whose large stepped tank and January jatre draw pilgrims from across north Karnataka.

Stamp at: Banashankari Post Office

Wildlife

Bandipur Tiger Reserve

Chamarajanagar

One of India's original nine Project Tiger reserves, declared in 1973, and a core link in the Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve's forest corridor connecting Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, and Kerala.

Stamp at: Bandipur Post Office

Wildlife

Bannerghatta National Park Butterfly Sanctuary

Bengaluru Urban

A netted butterfly enclosure inside Bannerghatta's 260 sq km protected forest on Bengaluru's southern edge — the closest wildlife stop on the passport trail to the state capital.

Stamp at: Bannerghatta Post Office

Heritage

Barah Kaman Ruins

Vijayapura

The skeletal arcade of an unfinished mausoleum begun by Sultan Ali Adil Shah II, meant to outdo Gol Gumbaz in scale — construction halted by the Mughal conquest of Bijapur in 1686, leaving only twelve soaring stone arches.

Stamp at: Vijayapura Post Office

HeritageNeeds verification

Beaulieu Heritage Mansion

Bengaluru Urban

A colonial-era heritage mansion in Bengaluru's civic core, standing amid the cluster of nineteenth- and twentieth-century public buildings that line Ambedkar Veedhi near the seat of Karnataka's government.

Stamp at: Ambedkar Veedhi Post Office

Heritage

Belagavi Fort

Belagavi

A moat-ringed fort founded around 1204 by the Ratta dynasty and later held in turn by the Vijayanagara, Bijapur Adil Shahi, Maratha, and British powers — a physical record of the Deccan's shifting political control.

Stamp at: Belagavi Head Post Office

Temple

Belur Chennakeshava Temple

Hassan

The Hoysala Empire's former capital temple, begun in 1117 CE to commemorate a military victory — renowned for star-shaped platforms and sculptural friezes so detailed they took over a century to complete.

Stamp at: Belur Post Office

Temple

Bhoga Nandeeshwara Temple

Chikballapur

One of Karnataka's oldest and most architecturally layered temples, built up across the Ganga, Chola, Hoysala, and Vijayanagara periods at the foot of Nandi Hills.

Stamp at: Nandi Post Office

Heritage

Bidar Fort

Bidar

A vast triple-moated fort that served as the capital of the Bahmani Sultanate from 1429, showcasing Persian-influenced Deccan military architecture at an exceptional scale.

Stamp at: Bidar Head Post Office

Wildlife

BR Hills Wildlife Sanctuary

Chamarajanagar

The Biligiriranga Hills Tiger Reserve, an ecologically rare transition zone between the Western and Eastern Ghats, and ancestral home of the indigenous Soliga tribal community.

Stamp at: BR Hills Post Office

Heritage

Brindavan Gardens & KRS Dam

Mandya

A terraced, musical-fountain garden laid out beside the Krishna Raja Sagara Dam across the Kaveri — one of early twentieth-century India's landmark irrigation projects, engineered under Diwan M. Visvesvaraya.

Stamp at: KRS Dam Post Office

Temple

Chamarajeshwara Temple

Chamarajanagar

The historic Shiva temple after which Chamarajanagar town and district are named, a longstanding centre of worship tied to the Mysore royal family's patronage.

Stamp at: Chamarajanagar Post Office

Hill Station

Chamundi Hills & Nandi Monolith

Mysuru

The hill sacred to the Mysore royal family, crowned by the Chamundeshwari temple and reached by a thousand-step stairway guarded midway by a huge monolithic Nandi bull carved in 1659.

Stamp at: Chamundi Hill Post Office

Heritage

Channapatna Wooden Toys Craft Site

Ramanagara

India's "Toy Town" — a GI-tagged, lac-lathe wooden toymaking tradition locally credited to craftsmen invited by Tipu Sultan, still practised by hundreds of family workshops along the Bengaluru–Mysuru highway.

Stamp at: Channapatna Post Office

Heritage

Chitradurga Fort Seven-Circles

Chitradurga

A massive hill fort built in seven concentric fortified rings by the Nayaka chieftains of Chitradurga, famed for its rock-cut bastions and the legend of Onake Obavva's lone defense of a secret passage.

Stamp at: Chitradurga Post Office

Heritage

Devanahalli Fort

Bengaluru Rural

A stone hill fort and the birthplace of Tipu Sultan in 1750, later strengthened by Hyder Ali into one of the strongest strongholds guarding the approaches to Bengaluru.

Stamp at: Devanahalli Post Office

Heritage

Dharwad Pedha Culinary Heritage Location

Dharwad

The Malmaddi neighborhood birthplace of Dharwad Pedha, a GI-tagged milk sweet whose recipe was brought to the city by a Gujarati confectioner family nearly two centuries ago.

Stamp at: Dharwad Head Post Office

Temple

Gadag Trikuteshwara Temple

Gadag

An 11th-century Chalukyan triple-shrined temple in Gadag town, closely linked to the birth of Kannada literature through poet Kumaravyasa's legendary composition of the Karnata Bharata Kathamanjari here.

Stamp at: Gadag Post Office

Hill Station

Gaganachukki & Barachukki Twin Falls

Mandya

Twin waterfalls where the Kaveri splits around Shivanasamudra island — site of Asia's first major hydroelectric power station (1902), which lit Kolar Gold Fields and Bengaluru decades before most of India had electricity.

Stamp at: Shivanasamudra Post Office

Hill Station

Gokak Falls

Belagavi

A 52-metre horseshoe-shaped waterfall on the Ghataprabha river, often compared to a miniature Niagara, and site of one of India's earliest hydroelectric power stations, commissioned in 1887.

Stamp at: Gokak Post Office

Temple

Gokarna Mahabaleshwar Temple

Uttara Kannada

A Shaiva pilgrimage temple on the Karavali coast, believed to house the Atmalinga described in the Ramayana — the spiritual anchor of a town whose crescent beaches later made it one of India's best-known backpacker destinations.

Stamp at: Gokarna Post Office

Architecture

Gol Gumbaz Whispering Gallery

Vijayapura

The mausoleum of Adil Shahi Sultan Mohammed Adil Shah, its dome one of the largest in the world without internal support, famous for a whispering gallery where a whisper carries clearly across nearly 40 metres.

Stamp at: Vijayapura Post Office

Heritage

Gulbarga Fort & Jama Masjid

Kalaburagi

A 14th-century Bahmani Sultanate fort whose Jama Masjid, modeled on Cordoba's Great Mosque, is one of the few fully domed, courtyard-free mosques in India.

Stamp at: Gulbarga Post Office

Temple

Gurudwara Nanak Jhira Sahib

Bidar

A major Sikh pilgrimage site built around a natural spring said to have been created by Guru Nanak during his visit to Bidar, one of the religion's most important shrines in south India.

Stamp at: Bidar Post Office

Temple

Halebidu Hoysaleswara Temple

Hassan

The twin-shrined former Hoysala capital temple ("Dorasamudra"), sacked by Delhi Sultanate forces in the 14th century but still holding some of the most elaborate stone carving in Indian temple architecture.

Stamp at: Halebidu Post Office

Heritage

Hampi Stone Chariot

Vijayanagara

The iconic stone chariot within the Vittala Temple complex, carved as a shrine to Garuda and modelled on temple ratha processions — one of the most recognisable monuments in India, and depicted on the reverse of the Rs. 50 note.

Stamp at: Hampi Post Office

Temple

Harihareshwara Temple

Davanagere

A 12th-century Hoysala temple at the confluence of the Tungabhadra and Haridra rivers, unusual for enshrining a composite Harihara form of Vishnu and Shiva in one idol.

Stamp at: Harihar Post Office

Architecture

Ibrahim Rauza Tomb

Vijayapura

A twin-structure tomb-and-mosque complex for Adil Shahi Sultan Ibrahim Adil Shah II and his family, its slender minaret-like finials and delicate stonework earning it comparison as an architectural precursor to the Taj Mahal.

Stamp at: Vijayapura Post Office

Temple

Ikkeri Aghoreshwara Temple

Shivamogga

The Shiva temple of Ikkeri, second capital of the Keladi Nayakas, noted for its finely carved black-stone doorway and pillars from the dynasty's architectural high point in the seventeenth century.

Stamp at: Ikkeri Post Office

Architecture

Indian Institute of Science - IISc

Bengaluru Urban

India's premier research institute, founded in 1909 with the backing of Jamsetji Tata, that trained C.V. Raman and generations of scientists and seeded much of the country's modern research infrastructure.

Stamp at: IISc Post Office

Architecture

ISRO Headquarters Landmark

Bengaluru Urban

Antariksh Bhavan, headquarters of the Indian Space Research Organisation since 1969, the coordinating nerve centre behind India's satellite, launch vehicle, and interplanetary missions.

Stamp at: ISRO Post Office

Hill Station

Jog Falls

Shivamogga

India's tallest untiered waterfall, where the Sharavathi river plunges roughly 253 metres over a Western Ghats escarpment in four named cascades — Raja, Rani, Roarer and Rocket — long before it reaches the Sharavathi hydroelectric reservoir below.

Stamp at: Jog Falls Post Office

Temple

Kaiwara Heritage Site

Chikballapur

Birthplace of the eighteenth-century Kannada saint-poet Kaiwara Narayanappa (Taatayya), and home to an ancient Someshwara temple complex that anchors one of the region's major folk pilgrimages.

Stamp at: Kaiwara Post Office

Temple

Kamal Basadi Jain Temple

Belagavi

A 13th-century Jain basadi within Belagavi Fort, its sanctum ceiling carved with an intricately lobed lotus (kamal) medallion that gives the temple its name.

Stamp at: Belagavi Post Office

Temple

Kanakagiri Kanakachalapathi Temple

Koppal

The temple town of a small former Hindu samsthana (princely estate) in the Deccan, its Venkataramana-form Vishnu shrine giving Kanakagiri its name and its centuries-old fort-and-temple townscape a distinct identity within Koppal district.

Stamp at: Kanakagiri Post Office

Temple

Karkala Gommateshwara Statue

Udupi

A 41-foot monolithic 16th-century statue of Bahubali atop Gomatagiri hill, one of only a handful of colossal free-standing Gommateshwara images in India.

Stamp at: Karkala Post Office

Architecture

Karnatak University Landmark

Dharwad

One of Karnataka's oldest universities (est. 1949), whose sprawling Pavate Nagar campus and landmark buildings shaped Dharwad's identity as a center of higher learning in the Kannada-speaking region.

Stamp at: Dharwad Post Office

Coastal

Karwar Rabindranath Tagore Beach

Uttara Kannada

A crescent Arabian Sea beach at the mouth of the Kali river, renamed for Rabindranath Tagore, who visited Karwar as a young man and later drew on its coastal scenery in his writing.

Stamp at: Karwar Post Office

Temple

Keladi Rameshwara Temple

Shivamogga

The temple at Keladi, cradle of the Keladi Nayaka dynasty that ruled much of coastal and Malnad Karnataka for two centuries, blending Hoysala- and Vijayanagara-influenced carving in a shrine still active today.

Stamp at: Keladi Post Office

Hill Station

Kemmangundi Hill Station

Chikkamagaluru

A colonial-era hill retreat in the Baba Budangiri range, developed as a private resort by Mysore ruler Krishnaraja Wodeyar IV and named after him as Krishnarajendra Giri.

Stamp at: Kemmangundi Post Office

Heritage

Kempegowda Tower

Bengaluru Urban

One of the four sixteenth-century watchtowers built by Kempegowda I to mark Bengaluru's original city boundary, now a symbol of the city's founding and a protected heritage structure in Basavanagudi.

Stamp at: Basavanagudi Post Office

Temple

Khwaja Bande Nawaz Dargah

Kalaburagi

The domed shrine and library complex of Sufi saint Khwaja Bande Nawaz Gesu Daraz (d. 1422), among the most visited Sufi pilgrimage sites in South India and a symbol of syncretic devotion across faiths.

Stamp at: Kalaburagi Post Office

Heritage

Kittur Rani Channamma Fort

Belagavi

Fort of the small kingdom of Kittur, ruled by Rani Channamma, who in 1824 led one of India's earliest armed uprisings against East India Company rule and briefly defeated a British force before being captured.

Stamp at: Kittur Post Office

Temple

Kolar Amma Temple

Kolar

The Kolaramma temple, an ancient shrine to the mother-goddess Kolaramma after whom Kolar town is named, with roots going back to the Ganga and Chola periods.

Stamp at: Kolar Post Office

Temple

Kollur Mookambika Temple

Udupi

A major Shakti Peetha at the foot of the Kodachadri hills, revered as the seat of goddess Mookambika and closely tied to the philosopher Adi Shankaracharya, who is said to have consecrated the idol.

Stamp at: Kollur Post Office

Heritage

Koppal Fort

Koppal

A granite hill fort above Koppal town, held in turn by the Chalukyas, Bahmanis, Vijayanagara Empire, Bijapur Sultanate, Marathas and Hyder Ali — a compact record of the northern Deccan's centuries-long contest for control of this corridor.

Stamp at: Koppal Post Office

Temple

Kotilingeshwara Temple

Kolar

A modern Shiva pilgrimage site built around one of the world's tallest lingas, surrounded by more than a million smaller lingas installed by devotees over recent decades.

Stamp at: Kamasandra Post Office

Temple

Kudalasangama Temple

Bagalkot

Sacred confluence of the Krishna and Malaprabha rivers where the 12th-century reformer and Lingayat founder Basavanna is believed to have attained union with Shiva, making it the faith's holiest site.

Stamp at: Kudalasangama Post Office

Temple

Lakkundi Temple Complex

Gadag

A once-flourishing Chalukya-era town whose surviving cluster of over 50 stone temples and stepwells makes it one of Karnataka's densest concentrations of 11th–12th-century temple architecture.

Stamp at: Lakkundi Post Office

Heritage

Lalbagh Botanical Garden Watch Tower

Bengaluru Urban

A Kempegowda-era watchtower atop Lalbagh's granite outcrop, standing within a 240-acre botanical garden begun by Hyder Ali and expanded by Tipu Sultan into one of Asia's finest.

Stamp at: Lalbagh Post Office

Heritage

Lalitha Mahal Palace

Mysuru

Mysuru's second-largest palace, built in 1921 to host the British Viceroy, its Italianate double-storey facade and central dome modelled loosely on St. Paul's Cathedral — now run as a heritage hotel.

Stamp at: Mysuru Post Office

Architecture

Lotus Mahal

Vijayanagara

A two-storeyed pavilion in Hampi's royal Zenana enclosure blending lotus-petal-shaped Hindu arches with Indo-Islamic domes, reflecting Vijayanagara's cosmopolitan architectural exchange with the Deccan sultanates.

Stamp at: Hampi Post Office

Heritage

Madhugiri Monolithic Fort

Tumakuru

A fort built atop Asia's second-largest monolithic hill, its granite ramparts and seven-gated stepped approach climbing the near-vertical rock that made it a formidable stronghold from Vijayanagara times through Hyder Ali's rule.

Stamp at: Madhugiri Post Office

Heritage

Madikeri Fort

Kodagu

The hilltop fort of the Kodava Haleri kingdom's former capital, now housing a museum, a British-era church, and district offices — the historic anchor of Karnataka's misty, coffee-growing Kodagu district.

Stamp at: Madikeri Post Office

Temple

Mahakuta Temples

Bagalkot

An active 6th-century Chalukya-era Shiva temple cluster built around a spring-fed sacred tank, among the earliest surviving examples of North Indian temple design in Karnataka and still a living pilgrimage site.

Stamp at: Mahakuta Post Office

Heritage

Mahmud Gawan Madrasa

Bidar

A fifteenth-century Islamic college built by Bahmani prime minister Mahmud Gawan, once three storeys tall and clad in Persian tilework, one of the earliest centres of higher learning in the Deccan.

Stamp at: Bidar Post Office

Temple

Male Mahadeshwara Hills

Chamarajanagar

A major hilltop Shiva temple dedicated to the sage-deity Male Mahadeshwara, one of Karnataka's most visited pilgrimage sites, set amid dense forest on the Karnataka–Tamil Nadu border.

Stamp at: MM Hills Post Office

Coastal

Malpe St. Mary's Island

Udupi

A cluster of small islands off Malpe famed for rare hexagonal basaltic lava columns, and reputedly the first landfall of Vasco da Gama on Indian soil in 1498.

Stamp at: Malpe Post Office

Temple

Malyavanta Raghunatha Temple

Vijayanagara

A still-active Rama temple built into a granite hillside identified in the Ramayana as Malyavanta Parvata, where Rama and Lakshmana are said to have sheltered through the monsoon while Sugriva's army searched for Sita.

Stamp at: Kamalapura Post Office

Temple

Mangaladevi Temple

Dakshina Kannada

The 9th-century temple of the goddess Mangaladevi that is traditionally held to have given the city of Mangaluru its very name.

Stamp at: Mangaluru Post Office

Temple

Melukote Cheluvanarayana Swamy Temple

Mandya

A hilltop Vaishnavite temple town forever linked to the philosopher Ramanujacharya, who took refuge here in the twelfth century — its annual Vairamudi festival displays jewellery gifted by Mysore's Wodeyar kings and, by tradition, by Tipu Sultan.

Stamp at: Melukote Post Office

Temple

Moodabidri Thousand Pillar Jain Temple

Dakshina Kannada

The 15th-century Saavira Kambada Basadi ("thousand-pillared temple"), centerpiece of a town so dense with Jain shrines it is called the "Jain Kashi" of the south.

Stamp at: Moodabidri Post Office

Heritage

Mudgal Fort

Raichur

One of the oldest forts of the Deccan interior, its multiple gateways and bastions rebuilt across Chalukya, Kakatiya, Bahmani and Vijayanagara rule, marking Mudgal as another flashpoint in the long Raichur Doab wars.

Stamp at: Mudgal Post Office

Heritage

Mudhol Hound Heritage Site

Bagalkot

Home of the Mudhol Hound (Caravan Hound), India's own indigenous sighthound breed, bred and preserved for centuries under the patronage of the Ghorpade royal family of the former Mudhol princely state.

Stamp at: Mudhol Post Office

Coastal

Murudeshwar Shiva Statue

Uttara Kannada

One of the world's tallest Shiva statues, standing over 37 metres on Kanduka Hill above the Arabian Sea, built in the early 2000s beside an older Murudeshwara temple linked in legend to the Ramayana's Atmalinga story.

Stamp at: Murudeshwar Post Office

Heritage

Murugha Matha Heritage site

Chitradurga

A centuries-old Veerashaiva-Lingayat monastic institution in Chitradurga that has long combined spiritual leadership with education and social welfare activity across the region.

Stamp at: Chitradurga Post Office

Heritage

Mysuru Amba Vilas Palace

Mysuru

The Indo-Saracenic royal residence of the Wadiyar dynasty, one of India's most-visited monuments and the centrepiece of Mysuru's Dasara festival — and one of the four cities where the Philately Passport itself is sold.

Stamp at: Mysuru Head Post Office

Temple

Namdroling Monastery Golden Temple

Kodagu

A vast Nyingmapa Tibetan Buddhist monastery, its "Golden Temple" housing three colossal gilded Buddha statues, at the heart of the largest Tibetan settlement outside Tibet.

Stamp at: Bylakuppe Post Office

Hill Station

Nandi Hills Historical Site

Chikballapur

Tipu Sultan's fortified hilltop summer retreat, built on a volcanic plateau that is also the source of three rivers — the Arkavathy, Palar, and Penna.

Stamp at: Nandi Hills Post Office

Temple

Nanjangud Srikanteshwara Temple

Mysuru

One of Karnataka's largest Shiva temple complexes, on the banks of the Kabini, patronised by both the Mysore Wodeyars and — by tradition — Tipu Sultan after his favourite elephant was reputedly cured here.

Stamp at: Nanjangud Post Office

Heritage

Pant Balekundri Heritage Site

Belagavi

Samadhi and ashram of Pant Maharaj (1855-1905), a Datta-tradition saint of the Belagavi region, whose shrine and eternal flame draw a multi-day pilgrimage procession from the city each October.

Stamp at: Balekundri Post Office

Heritage

Pattadakal Temples

Bagalkot

A UNESCO World Heritage cluster of 7th-8th century Chalukya temples where Dravida and Nagara architectural styles were experimentally fused, and where Chalukya kings were traditionally crowned.

Stamp at: Pattadakal Post Office

Heritage

Raichur Fort

Raichur

A double-walled stone-and-mud fort in the heart of the Raichur Doab, the fiercely contested triangle of land between the Krishna and Tungabhadra rivers fought over by the Bahmani Sultanate and the Vijayanagara Empire for two centuries.

Stamp at: Raichur Post Office

Hill Station

Raja's Seat

Kodagu

A garden viewpoint on Madikeri's western ridge, said to be where the Kodava kings once watched the sun set over the Western Ghats — now the town's best-known sunset spot.

Stamp at: Madikeri Post Office

Hill Station

Ramanagara Sholay Hills

Ramanagara

Rugged granite boulder hills on Bengaluru's doorstep, forever associated with the 1975 Bollywood classic "Sholay," filmed here and turning the landscape into an unofficial pilgrimage site for cinema fans.

Stamp at: Ramanagara Post Office

Temple

Ranganathaswamy Temple

Mandya

The riverine Vaishnavite temple that gives Srirangapatna its name — the first and northernmost of the three sacred Ranganatha shrines strung along the Kaveri, predating the fortress-capital that grew up around it.

Stamp at: Srirangapatna Post Office

Heritage

Sandesh Museum of Communication

Bengaluru Urban

India's first dedicated postal heritage museum, run by India Post itself, tracing the evolution of communication in India from runner-relay mail to modern electronic services.

Stamp at: Museum Road Post Office

HeritageNeeds verification

Santi Bastwad Landmark

Davanagere

Likely booklet transcription of Shanti Sagara (Sulekere), an 800-year-old Hoysala-era embankment tank in Channagiri taluk said to be Asia's second largest man-made lake, still irrigating over a thousand villages.

Stamp at: Davanagere Post Office

Heritage

Shettihalli Rosary Church Submerged Ruins

Hassan

A roofless 19th-century Gothic church, abandoned after the Gorur dam's backwaters submerged its village, that reappears eerily above the Hemavathi reservoir waters each dry season.

Stamp at: Shettihalli Post Office

Heritage

Shivappa Nayaka Palace

Shivamogga

A fortified palace built by Shivappa Nayaka of the Keladi dynasty, the seventeenth-century ruler and land-revenue reformer for whom Shivamogga is popularly said to be named; now home to an archaeological museum.

Stamp at: Shivamogga Post Office

Temple

Shravanabelagola Monolithic Gommateshwara Statue

Hassan

A 57-foot 10th-century monolithic statue of Bahubali atop Vindhyagiri hill, the tallest free-standing statue of its kind in the world and the foremost pilgrimage site of Digambara Jainism.

Stamp at: Shravanabelagola Post Office

Heritage

Siddaganga Matha Landmark

Tumakuru

A centuries-old Lingayat matha on Tumakuru's edge, transformed into a vast free residential school and hostel under the long stewardship of Sivakumara Swamiji, popularly revered across generations as one of Karnataka's most respected spiritual and educational institutions.

Stamp at: Tumakuru Post Office

Temple

Siddheshwara Temple

Haveri

A well-preserved 12th-century Kalyani Chalukya-era Shiva temple in Haveri town, notable for its stellate plan and finely lathe-turned pillars typical of the region's temple architecture.

Stamp at: Haveri Post Office

Temple

Sogal Someshwara Temple

Belagavi

A Shiva (Someshwara) temple in the forested Khanapur taluk on the Belagavi-Goa border tract, a historic waypoint linking the Deccan plateau to the Sahyadri approaches toward the Konkan coast.

Stamp at: Sogal Post Office

Temple

Somnathpur Keshava Temple

Mysuru

A trikuta Hoysala temple completed in 1268 CE, its three star-shaped soapstone shrines covered in dense friezes — part of the "Sacred Ensembles of the Hoysalas" UNESCO World Heritage listing alongside Belur and Halebidu.

Stamp at: Somnathpur Post Office

Temple

Sringeri Sharada Peetham

Chikkamagaluru

The first of the four cardinal mathas founded by Adi Shankaracharya in the eighth century, and the senior seat of Advaita Vedanta scholarship and monastic authority in south India.

Stamp at: Sringeri Post Office

Heritage

Srirangapatna Daria Daulat Bagh

Mandya

Tipu Sultan's teakwood summer palace on the island-town of Srirangapatna, its walls covered in painted murals of court life and the Battle of Pollilur — one of the best-preserved Indo-Islamic palace interiors in South India.

Stamp at: Srirangapatna Post Office

Heritage

St. Aloysius Chapel Heritage Paintings

Dakshina Kannada

A late-19th-century Jesuit college chapel whose interior is covered floor to ceiling in frescoes by Italian artist Antonio Moscheni, often called the "Sistine Chapel of Mangaluru."

Stamp at: Mangaluru Head Post Office

Architecture

St. Philomena's Cathedral

Mysuru

A Neo-Gothic cathedral built through the 1930s under Mysore Maharaja Krishnaraja Wodeyar IV's patronage, its twin spires modelled on Cologne Cathedral and, at completion, among the tallest church buildings in Asia.

Stamp at: Mysuru Post Office

Temple

Talakaveri Kaveri River Origin

Kodagu

The sacred spring-fed tank on Brahmagiri hill revered as the mythological source of the Kaveri river, one of South India's most important pilgrimage sites.

Stamp at: Talakaveri Post Office

Architecture

Tungabhadra Dam

Vijayanagara

A major post-independence multipurpose dam (completed 1953) on the Tungabhadra river whose reservoir and terraced gardens made it one of Karnataka's earliest large engineering projects and a key irrigation lifeline for the Krishna basin.

Stamp at: Hosapete Post Office

Temple

Udupi Sri Krishna Mutt

Udupi

The 13th-century Krishna temple founded by the philosopher-saint Madhvacharya, worshipped uniquely through a silver-latticed window (Kanakana Kindi) and the seat of Dvaita Vedanta's eight monastic mathas.

Stamp at: Udupi Post Office

Heritage

Ugra Narasimha Statue

Vijayanagara

A 6.7-metre monolithic statue of Vishnu's fierce Narasimha avatar seated on the coiled serpent Adishesha, commissioned in 1528 under Krishnadevaraya and among the largest single-stone sculptures in India.

Stamp at: Hampi Post Office

Architecture

Vidhana Soudha

Bengaluru Urban

The granite seat of Karnataka's state legislature, built in 1956 in a Neo-Dravidian style to assert Indian architectural identity after independence, and the ceremonial anchor of Bengaluru's civic core.

Stamp at: Bengaluru GPO

Temple

Vidyashankara Temple

Chikkamagaluru

A fourteenth-century temple at Sringeri built to honour Vidyatirtha, whose twelve zodiac-sign pillars are aligned so that sunlight falls on each in its corresponding solar month.

Stamp at: Sringeri Post Office

Temple

Virupaksha Temple

Vijayanagara

A still-active Shiva temple at the heart of ruined Hampi, in continuous worship since long before the Vijayanagara Empire was built around it — the spiritual anchor of a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Stamp at: Hampi Post Office

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Virupakshapura Ancient Inscription Stones

Bengaluru Urban

A cluster of ancient hero stones and inscription slabs near Kodigehalli, quietly recording the medieval land grants and local memorials of the villages that once stood where north Bengaluru now sprawls.

Stamp at: Kodigehalli Post Office

Heritage

Vittala Temple Complex

Vijayanagara

Hampi's most ornate temple complex, built to enshrine Vitthala (Krishna) and famed for its musical pillars that ring out different notes when struck — widely considered the pinnacle of Vijayanagara temple architecture.

Stamp at: Hampi Post Office

Heritage

Yadagiri Fort

Yadgir

A hill fort above Yadgir town in the Krishna–Bhima river tract, passed between Bahmani, Bijapur and Hyderabad Nizam rule — the namesake landmark of one of Karnataka's most recently carved-out districts.

Stamp at: Yadagiri Post Office

Heritage

Yana Caves Black Limestone Formations

Uttara Kannada

Two towering, jet-black karst spires — Bhairaveshwara and Mohini Shikhara — rising abruptly from Western Ghats rainforest, a rare crystalline-limestone formation that has drawn pilgrims and geologists alike for centuries.

Stamp at: Kodambale Branch Post Office