Vidyashankara Temple

In the same complex and worth as much time as the main shrine. Built around 1338 under Vijayanagara patronage, it fuses Hoysala and Dravidian styles - a stellate plan with a Dravidian tower, carved horses along the outer wall, pierced stone windows and detailed relief work. Its twelve zodiac pillars are the celebrated feature, positioned so that sunlight falls on each in the order of the solar months. Visit in the morning when the light is best for the carving. Allow an hour and look at the inscriptions; the temple is also a substantial historical record of the early Vijayanagara period.

The Tunga and Sirimane Falls

The Tunga runs below the temple and the fish in it are enormous, protected for generations and entirely tame - feeding them from the steps is part of what people come to do. A footbridge crosses to the far bank. Sirimane Falls, around ten kilometres from the town near Kigga, drops in stages into a pool set in forest and is easily reached with a short walk and steps; it is the most visited falls in the area and it is genuinely lovely. Visit Sirimane between July and January when there is real water; there is a small entry charge and the last stretch of road is narrow.

Kigga and the Rishyashringa Temple

A few kilometres from Sringeri, Kigga holds the Rishyashringeshwara temple, dedicated to the sage Rishyashringa whose name the town carries - the ascetic of the Ramayana who was brought to Anga to end a drought and whose presence is traditionally associated with rain. Local practice holds that prayers here are made for rainfall. It is a small hill temple in forest country rather than a grand one, and it takes half an hour. Visit it on the way to or from Sirimane Falls, which is in the same direction, and for the sense of why this particular valley carries the name it does.

Horanadu and Kalasa

The two temples that complete the standard circuit. Horanadu, around fifty kilometres away, holds the Adi Shakthi Annapoorneshwari temple, where the goddess of food is worshipped and where every visitor is fed - the free meal served to all comers is central to the place and is what most pilgrims remember. Kalasa, twenty kilometres from Horanadu on the Bhadra, has the Kalaseshwara temple and a setting among coffee estates and hills that is worth the drive on its own. Visit both together as a full day from Sringeri; the roads between are winding and slower than the distances suggest.

Agumbe and Kudremukh

Agumbe, twenty-five kilometres west, is among the wettest places in India and is sometimes called the Cherrapunji of the South - a small village on the edge of the Ghats with a celebrated sunset viewpoint looking west toward the coast, and a rainforest research station known for its work on king cobras. Kudremukh, to the north, is a national park of shola and grassland with a well-known trek to the horse-face peak that gives it its name. Visit Agumbe for the sunset on a clear evening between November and March; in the monsoon you will see cloud and very little else, though the forest is extraordinary.