Murdeshwar is a town in Uttara Kannada district in the state of Karnataka, India, It is famous for the world's second tallest Shiva statue, the town lies on the coast of the Laccadive Sea and is also famous for the Murudeshwara Temple. The town has a railway station on the Mangalore–Mumbai Konkan railway route.

Shikhara, a Sanskrit word translating literally to "mountain peak", refers to the rising tower in the Hindu temple architecture of North India, and also often used in Jain temples. A shikhara over the garbhagriha chamber where the presiding deity is enshrined is the most prominent and visible part of a Hindu temple of North India.