The Misty Himavad Gopalaswamy temple

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:

• Bandipur forest which has few resorts to stay in
• Somanatapura which has very beautiful temple of 12^th Century
• Mysore
• Nanjanagud
• Srirangapatana which has at least 5 places of interest
• Doda Mallur, Kalahalli, Arati Ukada in Pandavapura
• Melukote
• Chanapatana and its surroundings
• Kengal, Kanva Reservoir, Janapada Lokha
• Mutati
• Kabalamma Temple
• Kalale
• Yalandur

And list continues choice is yours.

Find my other posts Here

View from hill top Himavad Gopalaswamy betta

Basarallu temple Entrance

Basarallu Temple from Outside

Pillar carvings at Bsarallu... Its just at Entrance

Pillar carvings at Bsarallu

Inner sight of temple from Entrance

A Day's Trip to Gati Subramanya, Lepakshi, Kadiri and Rangastala

It’s always refreshing to go out on weekend with family on a day trip. It will be more refreshing if things go as planned. We started our journey at 7AM from home (@Yelahanka), which was relatively late for the planned trip to be covered. We decided to have breakfast on the way. We chose to visit Gati first and hence travelled via Dodaballapur.

The roads are pretty decent which helped us to cover the places in much better pace than we expected. Though we have visited this temple multiple times, we visit it every time we set off on this way. It is really a very nice temple with some Legends associated with it. One of the legend tells that the deity here Subramanya swamy had threat from Garuda, who chased him and Subramanya Swamy had to seek Lord Vishnu’s help. Then Lord Vishnu promised him that he would stay along with him and Garuda wouldn’t trouble him. We can find the Vishnu at back of Subramanya Swamy and mirror is placed so one can have the view. Both deities are on same idol.

Many people visit temple and take the blessings of the Lord here. There are various Poojas performed for relief of Sarpa dosha and other doshas. It is one of the important temple for such kind of Poojas. I visit this temple for other reason too, we do get Guavas and other seasonal fruits at reasonable ratesJ. I did purchase few custard Apple (One of my favorite) and Guavas (not the ones we get at Bangalore they are tastier ones).

Then we moved on to our next destination Santebidannur. One can visit Vidurashwatha which is just few kilometers from Gati which we decided not to visit due to the time factor. Few words about Vidurashwatha, which is also known as second Jallianwala Bagh. During 1938, similar incident happened where around 10 villagers were killed by British and one can find the monument in the due respect of people who sacrificed their life. Apart from that we can also find a temple dedicated to “Nagaraja”, Snake God, which has lot of idols surrounding the temples installed by the devotees.

This place is one of the favorite spot for movie makers who have shot lot of movie songs on devotion. There is also Legend about this place that “Vidura”, the prime minister of Hastinapura during Mahabaratha era, had performed penance here under an “Ashwatha vriksha” (Peepal tree), hence the name Vidurashwatha.

One can also visit the famous Someshwara temple which is also few kilometers away from Gati onto the right hand side (one can see board pointing to the temple on right hand side on the highway). Someshwara temple has very nice sculptures and is one of the beautiful temple built during the time of Cholas , the temple is renowned for its architecture. (We again opted not to visit this for lack of time).

We reached Gouribidanur which is last town of Karnataka where we stopped for a while and gave rest to car. One can get organic fruits and vegetables here (during season groundnuts are pretty good with decent pricing and even seasoned beans will be good deal here). We then headed towards Santhebidanur which is the first village of Andhra Pradesh after the border. To reach this place one has to take diversion towards left where there is a board guiding the travelers. The road is not that great. One can reach temple with some directions since it is a village. Temple is not that bigger one nor has any prominence w.r.t to carvings or any other historical aspects. This is one of the older temple and has undergone lot of renovations. There are lot of devotees from Bangalore who visit this temple regularly. This temple has lot of Legends on the installation of idol and worship done by various mythological prominent saints.

From Santebidannur we headed towards Hindupur. From Hindupur we headed towards Lepakshi which was one of the destination I kept waiting to visit. Though it was very near and was not able to visit. Lepakshi is one of the most prominent temple and has lot to see and enjoy stuff. The temple has beautiful carvings and mind blowing sculptures, one has to have the interest in enjoying the art to really gauge the value of those carvings. Each pillar has one story and it’s a festival for those who love to see such artistic work. There are paintings on rooftop which are still alive with the colors and clarity of vision which is one of the greatest work by our ancestors. Today the latest technology paintings also fail to have greater life but these paintings done using mere natural colors extracted from plants sustain the ruining of all the tough weather conditions and still carry the same beauty.

The temple is very well maintained, thanks to the archaeological department having taken pain in keeping the things in place. The temple has undergone renovation and still lot of work is under progress (but not affecting us in enjoying the beauty). There is open “mantappa” where the pillars have beautiful carvings and this “mantappa” is said to be incomplete. There are lot of legends about this temple.

There is a hotel managed by Andhra Tourism department near the huge Nandi idol which is a km far from temple, one can have lunch over there since there are not that good food points after this hotel. From Lepakshi we headed towards Kadiri which is around 60kms. One has to take help of either Google maps or the localities for directions if travelling for first time. One can visit Putaparti if interested since it is very nearby.

We went pretty slowly since it was 2pm when we left Lepakshi and Kadiri temple would be closed till 5pm. Since it was just 60Kms we could reach there by 3.30pm. We had to roam around till the temple had opened its door. For our fortune the temple remained closed till the day from a week due to a death in the street of temple and they had done sudhi Pooja in the morning hence temple doors opened late by 30 mins in the evening.

Kadiri is one of the “Nava Narasimha Kshetras”. The temple follows lot of orthodox customs which may be irritating for many but for the legends it has, one needs to visit. The temple is well maintained and very clean but one may get irritated by the staff over there at times. Ladoo served as prasadam is very tasty and one shouldn’t miss it. Even the trade mark puliogere of all south Indian temples especially the Vaishnava temples is also very tasty here.

The town is comparatively clean now. Earlier the town was very shabby and unhygienic. The streets weer filled of full trash thrown everywhere. The inner roads are very narrow. There is no ample space for parking vehicles in front of temple as well. The parking fees is also bit high. On any normal day there won’t be much rush and one can have peaceful darshan.

From Kadiri we headed back towards Bangalore via Chikkaballapur and we visited the most famous temple Rangastala on the way for which we had to take diversion from the By-pass towards the town. From Bus stop one has to take right and move on Chikkaballapur to Hindupur road to reach Rangastala. It’s better to take direction from locals there. It is around 5kms from Chikkaballapur.

The temple is very old and has very good sculptures. The temple is well maintained and less crowded. The deity here is Ranganathaswamy and is said to be installed at the same time when Rangananathaswamy idol at Srirangapathana was installed. It is said to be installed by Lord Indra.

This temple is also well known for its architecture and sculptures. It also has very good example of great engineering of our ancestors. The Sun rays touch the feet and move on to touch the forehead as the day progresses on Makara Sankranthi day. This is so well planned and designed. This is the good example of engineering and knowledge our ancestors had.

It was around 8 we had visited the temple and except for the priest and staff no one else was seen. It’s better to visit in day time to have better sight of the beautiful carvings. The priest is very kind and did let us know about different legends associated with temple.

And it was pleasant end to the day. There was still lot to explore, lot to enjoy but as everything even this has to end but it ended on good note.

I have recorded only the stuff which I have witnessed and heard from various people. Believing the Legends and other things is purely left to individuals. 


Find my other posts Here

LokhaPradakshine-Introduction

LokhahPradakshine is blog to share my travel experience. I love to travel and explore places. The places might be of Historical, mythological or commercial importance. I love to explore places, know more about them. I am just sharing the same with you people. 

Many times we may not know about the places very near to us. We may not know the legends associated with it, various things for which it might be renowned. I would like to share this and try to put all the information I get to know about the places I visit. The information I share would be more of what I get to know when I visit those places and try to keep them as genuine as possible and it is very tough to validate the information heard from people. Many a times we may not get the proofs for the same.

All the stuff is just for sharing about the places I visit and not intended to promote any religion, caste or any kind of superstitious beliefs.

Read through these articles:

• A Day's Trip to Gati Subramanya, Lepakshi, Kadiri and Rangastala
• The Misty Himavad Gopalaswamy temple