Lord Krishna
At the end of Dwapara era, Devaki desired to see
Krishna’s “Balaleelas” once again. These ‘leelas’ which
re-enacted by Krishna were also witnessed by his wife Rukmini
Devi. Rukmini requested him to get her similar image for her daily
worship. There upon Sri Krishna asked Viswakarma to make such an idol
of balakrishna with a churn in its right hand a cord in the other. The
idol of Lord Sri Krishna was sculpted by Vishwakarma out of Saligrama stone.
After Sri Krishna’s disappearance from this world, the idol fell into the hands
of Arjuna who had it in Rukmini’s garden. Over a period of time the idol got
completely covered by ‘Gopichandanam’. A sailor from Udupi loaded this heavy
lump in his boat as ballast in one of his trips along the west coast. Sensing
this, Sri Madhwacharya awaited the arrival of this precious ballast at
Vadabhandeshwar, near Udupi.