Male Mahadeshwara Hills
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.
Male Mahadeshwara Hills is named for a Shaiva saint-ascetic revered as an incarnation of Shiva, whose legend is deeply tied to this stretch of forested hill country near Kollegal. The temple built on the site he is said to have inhabited has grown into one of Karnataka’s largest pilgrimage destinations after only a handful of sites like Tirupati and Sabarimala in scale of annual footfall, drawing devotees especially from the state’s rural southern districts.
The temple’s setting within thick reserve forest, contiguous with the Male Mahadeshwara Wildlife Sanctuary and the wider Cauvery South Wildlife corridor, means pilgrimage here has always been intertwined with the surrounding wilderness — historically a difficult, forest-crossing journey undertaken as an act of devotion, and still a landscape shared with elephants and other wildlife moving between reserves.
Getting there: MM Hills is reached from Kollegal via a forest ghat road; the MM Hills Post Office serves the temple township.
The site itself
Where to get your stamp cancelled
This may not be next to the site itself — some post offices serve several nearby landmarks.
- Post office
- MM Hills Post Office
- Pincode
- 571440
- Address
- MM Hills Post Office, Male Mahadeshwara Hills, Kollegal Taluk, Chamarajanagar District, Karnataka
Sources
- Project maintainer transcription of the physical Philately Passport booklet (district/landmark/post office list)
- Male Mahadeshwara Hills (MM Hills) Post Office pincode record