LokhaPradakshine

This is my second article in the temple series. Being a Bangalorean I have always been missing out on visiting nearby places. Himavad Gopalaswamy betta is one such place which kept me in wait. I couldn’t visit this place even after setting off many times. I went very near and still couldn’t make it. Mysore being like my second home and this place being hardly 70+ kms I never got chance to visit.

This time I made up my mind to set off for a day trip to Himavad Gopalaswamy betta. Plan was to visit places around Srirangapatana, Basarallu, Someswara temple along with betta but I could only cover half of them courtesy road widening project from Mysore to Bandipur. It would normally take not more than 1 hour to reach betta from Mysore but for us it was 3 hours sadly which did upset my plans.

We started around 7 from Yelahanka towards Gopalaswamy betta, stopped at Bidadi for light breakfast at Hotel Shivaprasad which is quite famous for “Tatte idly”. Bidadi itself is famous for such hotels. You can find plenty of them on the highway. As planned we reached Mysore by 9.30 but then our boring journey on the road started where the road widening project was on and it reminded me of Bangalore’s regular traffic during peak hours. We could reach the place only by 12.30.

To our fortune there was another surprise that the private vehicles were not allowed from the check post onto the top of the hill. Some idiotic people had gifted it to all others by troubling people and forced the forest department to close the road for private vehicle. It has been enforced from 3 months which I was unaware. Now we had to get down and wait for KSRTC bus and since it was weekend there were couple of buses (weekdays only 1). Buses from Gundlupet also ply via the same checkpost but even they are very less in number and they would be already loaded.

Our wait ended after 30 mins and bus arrived from top of the hill. It was another nightmare since the bus was supposed to be in garage for permanent retirement but KSRTC was so kind on its passengers which let such buses to ply on a very narrow Ghat section. The bus took exactly one hour to travel 6 kms and one can just imagine how good the bus condition was. For every curve the driver was stopping bus, rather he stopping bus used to stop and driver with all his experience had to ride it “safe”. It was so irritating since bus was fully loaded and couldn’t move quickly. It felt we could have climbed the hill quicker than that bus.

With all these obstacles we finally reached top of hill by 2. Being summer (I visited in May 2016) I was surprised to see the mist covering the entire place. It is said that throughout the year one could see the fog covering the whole place. I was mesmerized by the view and one would forget all the troubles, all issues by the view from the top of hill. It was cool and had dead opposite weather which we acknowledged throughout our journey.

I had heard about this and finally was able to witness the beauty of this hill and surrounding. I wish I could visit in rainy or winter so I could witness more greenery and thick fog. It is in Bandipur forest region so it is said that one can see Elephants, Deer and other wild animals if they are lucky enough. Even I heard that Elephants come near the temple every day morning and one could see their dung as proof.

We entered the temple which is not pretty spacious and very congested inside. Added to it the temple was crowded. Luckily by the time we entered the “Garbhagruha “the priest stopped us as it was time for the “Mahamangalarathi”. We had a good view of God Gopalaswamy. As always the idol is very beautiful though it is hardly 3-4 feet. We could stand in front God for more than 10 mins. My parents were so happy that they could have the “darshan “for so long and without any "extra fees"

The outer premise of temple is pretty spacious and one can have good view of surroundings. There are many legends associated with temple. Many childless couple visit temple praying for child. As per priest one would get blessed with baby within 3 months of visit. One should take bath in “Papa vinasham” lake and taking blessing of God. I believe it’s the belief more than anything that would do the miracle.

One who plan to visit this place they should note few things:

The tourists/public are allowed only from 8.30AM to 4.30PM. This restriction is made to allow the natural habitants to have their privacy and to protect the wild life. Remember that Bandipur is one of the reserved forests.
Public vehicle entry is prohibited now on top of the hill and has to halt 6 kms before near the check post. Ample parking space is available.
Weekends are most preferred than weekdays.
For quality food one has to look around Gundlupet. There are stores at checkpost selling tender coconuts, some snacks but they will not fill stomach and also they are heavy for pocket as well.

We were able to catch a better bus to get back to check post and could reach by 15 mins. Then we had our late lunch at Gundlupet. Then we headed towards Nanjanagud where the famous Srikanteswara temple is situated. It is very close by to Gundlupet around 15-20 kms. We keep visiting Nanjangud so it was just another visit. This time we couldn’t get into temple since it was closed for break. We decided not to wait for the temple to open for “darshan”, since it was not a new place for us and we had larger agenda.

We had drop Somanatapura since it was too late to cover and move to other part. So we headed towards Srirangapatana,(I will have much detailed article on Srirangapatana and places of interest) where we had to visit lot of places but visited just “Nimishamba temple” and since we were running out of time had to move towards our next destination.

It was already 5 and we had to catch up with time to visit Basarallu which was around 40 kms far from Srirangapatana which near to Mandya. It is in between Mandya and Nagamanagala. Basaralu is said to be once upon a time Capital of Hoysala dynasty. There is a beautiful temple which we had never visited and wanted to. By the time we reached it was 6, thanks to missing the route. We were astonished by the beauty and equally were sad by the way it is maintained. There is only one watchman cum Priest who looks after it and he had left the premises already. The temple would be open till 4 only which was told to us by the residents there since this temple is not visited much by people. The temple is surrounded by residential area. The temple is almost acquired by the people there. Government should take some measures to preserve such historical places.

Since I couldn’t get in I have planned to visit it again and will write a separate article about Basarallu. I strongly feel such monuments should be visited by people to witness the great artistic work done by those architects who had were not exposed technologies which we had today.

Finally we left Basarallu with heavy heart and we had new challenge of finding route back to Bangalore in the evening which was almost dark. By the guidance of villagers we took short cut to Maddur but which misfired us since we took wrong turn in the unknown route and finally reached Mandya with some local guidance. The place is close to jungle and we witnessed Fox crossing road and Peacocks on the road side. It was good experience all together. It was kind of driving inside a mini forest.

We were able reach Bangalore by 9.30PM and had to pack some light food for dinner and back home restless due to fact that we were travelling more than seeing the places.

One can actually club Himavad Gopalaswamy betta with lot of places surrounding it: