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. 


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