Popular belief is that King Ram Bhoj installed the idol of Lord Shiva in the Ananteshwar Chandreshwar temple at the place where Chandradeva did penance to get rid of Daksha Prajapati's curse of tuberculosis. The place where Chandradeva meditated was named Udupi (Sanskrit word udupa), which means moon. It is a common practice in Udupi to visit the Chandramouleshwara and Ananteshwara Temples and then visit Sri Krishna Temple.

Another story is that the idol of Lord Krishna in the city of Dwarka was covered with sandalwood in the 13th century. The idol was taken away by a boatman mistaking it for a lump of sandalwood. In the middle of the voyage, the ship was caught in a storm off the west coast of Malpe. Sri Madhvacharya, wearing his saffron robe, pulled the ship out of the storm and calmed the sea storm with his divine powers. Finally, Saint Madhvacharya asked for a lump of sandalwood and as a token of gratitude, the boatman gifted the sandalwood to Madhvacharya. The saint purified the idol with water and installed the idol of Shri Krishna in the temple.

Legend has it that in the 16th century, Kanakadasa, an extremely pious devotee of Lord Krishna, was not allowed to enter the temple because he belonged to a lower caste. Lord Krishna was so pleased with the worship of his devotee that the idol turned back to face east, where Kanakadasa was praying and the Lord made a hole in the back wall of the temple so that he could see and worship the idol. The hole is now known as Kankan Kindi. There is a tradition of worshiping God from this window only.

Service and worship
The deity is worshiped with 14 rituals a day as he is the master of 14 words, which ends with darshan from 5 am to 11 am in the morning and 5 pm to 8.50 pm in the evening.

Celebration
Saptotsav or Seven Festival is celebrated in the middle of January and is considered as the annual festival of Sri Krishna Temple. During the Paraya Utsav, held every two years, the temple management is handed over to the next Ashta Matha. Other important festivals here are Krishnashtami, Ramnavami, Hanuman Jayanti, Vasantotsav, Yugadi (Ugadi), Akshaya Tritiya and Diwali.

Best time to visit: October to March

Interesting fact
The Chandramouleshwar and Ananteshwar temples adjacent to the Sri Krishna temple are about 2,000 years old.

Nearby Places:
Barkur Temples: Barkur had 365 temples and their ruins can be seen even today.
Chaturmukh Basadi Jain Temple: St. Mary's Island at a distance of 37 km from Udupi It is a group of small beautiful islands. It is said that Vasco da Gama reached this land before reaching Kappad Beach (near Calicut) while searching for the sea route to India (15 km from Udupi station).