Mahimapura and Heggunda

This post has been on the blog queue for a while ,since i havent been keeping too well.

On a lazy summer morning i decided to check out some places around Bangalore,a quick breakfast on the way and i landed at Mahimapura -the abode of Lord Venkateshwara.It was rocky mountain ,very quiet and peaceful-around 300 steps takes you to the summit.One can spot Shivaganga ,the direct line of sight from here.




Since i reached the summit pretty early i decided to head to my second desination Heggunda nearby and visit this temple on my return journey.As i was getting down the stairs i was stopped on the way by the Brahminy Kite. :)


The next destination for the day was Heggunda abode of Lord Rama.This place was a real surprise for me as i bumped into one of the rare birds -The egyptian vulture.As it sat patiently for more than 20 minutes i was able to capture it on my camera ,i was delighted-little did i know that more surprises awaited me for the day.



As i went up the hill i was stopped by Lord hanuman,as the path branched i took the wrong one only to end up on a dead end with some amazing plains greeting me.The path i had taken was wrong and i ended up at a place where the temple was on the other hill ,seperating me was a deep ravine.After i retraced my path ,i was climbing uphill ,the sun was shining brightly by now.After climbing about 50 steep steps i was on top of the rocky mountain.

A bolt from the blue i was taken by surprise by the egyptian vulture.It was the same vulture that i had seen below.It gave me a brilliant display of acrobatics.This was something that i have never experienced and i was simply overjoyed seeing this .All the while it was surveying the intruder into its rocky hill keeping a close eye on me all through its flight.Heggunda has had lot of political activity in its hay days ,more information can be found in this link

http://www.hindu.com/mp/2006/06/10/stories/2006061002590100.htm

After 10 minutes it made a safe landing on the plains nearby.As i spent my next 30minutes relaxing i decided to head down the hill.I was stopped by the priest who was making his way to the top.A breif pooja and i headed down along the priest.It was quite sunny by now and i headed straight back to Mahimapura.

Climbing the 300 steps i was greeted by a lot of people on top.A brief pooja ,i headed back to bangalore.Another day ,another rocky mountain,another day of silence and peace.

Idu Bhavya Suvarna Karnataka,ondu punyabhumi

Bheemeshwari

This was supposed to be a trek which later had to be abandoned due to some poor planning.Started of late from bangalare in a TT.Had breakfast at kanakpura and headed towards muthathi.This trek was organized by Yhai-bangalore.

The intial trek was towards a viewpoint,the views from here are worth watching.The Cauvery river which is the lifeline of our state ,flows along.The forests here are shrub jungles.This stretch of forests is contagious ,and further runs along the anchetty and rasimanal forests that i had recently been to.


Post viewpoint we treaded downhill to have a dip.After spending sometime clicking away snaps we headed towards our trek point.It was a disaster in making with the sun peaking around noon,the progress was very poor .Finally around 2:30pm we had to abandon the trek.

We headed back towards the cauvery river to have a dip.I had not taken to the water in the morning and was just waiting to hit the water.It was really soothing to have a bath in the river.After spending about 2 hours we decided to head back to bangalore.


Note : If one heads towards the river near muthathi -it is really very dirty with hoards of tourists from bangalore and local people having dirtied the place to the hilt.Also in case you are travelling alone ,it is suggested to leave early from this place since a lot of people come here only to booze.

Narayanswamy betta

With very little information i set out to explore this little known destination.Set out early in the morning around 6 am on a saturday morning.Soon i was zipping past on the mysore highway.There is something which really eggs me on in a car,although it is only a maruti 800 :)

Soon i reached bidadi ,had thatte idli for breakfast.After making a few enquiries i headed towards Chikkakuntanahalli.I was stopped abruptly my Lord Hanuman at this point!!!.



After a few enquiries about Naraynaswamy betta i was directed towards the place.The countryside is very nice to view.One can see the village is buzzing with activity.The oxes are getting ready,the women are busy with rangoli infront of the house.The small kids look in awe as a car passes through the village waving at me.Rich fields soothes my eyes on both sides of the road







An enquiry about the temple is met with a detailed reply about the place.It gives me great pleasure to travel in my state.Finally as i came near to the place,the road turned into a mud road,finally reaching the base of the temple.




After praying to Lord Venkateshwara,i decided to explore the rocky hill.Spent my time exploring the place.Relaxed on top of a boulder overlooking the valley from where one can see plain lands far away.There is a huge jackfruit tree ,the surprising thing i found is it is very cool below this tree than under any other tree in the vicinity.

Relaxing in this serene place with some amazing breeze and silence is a moment i will cherish for a long time to come.

Anchetty-Rasimanal Biodiversity survey

Above : The forest guesthouse at Anchetty

I was a member of KANS for a while but somehow due to one reason or the other couldnt make it to any of their past surveys.

This was one of the final surveys mainly aimed at finding out what kind of flora and fauna existed in the areas of Anchetty and Rasimanal.Getting here was a bit of a adventure since i havent been to these areas before.Anchetty can be reached via Hosur-mathigiri-denkanikotta-anchetty.It is about 140 kms from bangalore.


Thanks to Mahesh i got a drop from Denkanikotta to Anchetty,reached the forest guest house by 10pm.Sanjeev from KANS briefed me about the program.

Day 1 : Anchetty to Doddahalla trek to look for flora /fauna ,scat and pug marks on the way
Day 2 : Brief survey at Rasimanal on the banks of the river cauvery


Above : On the way to Anchetty forests
Woke up early and after a quick ,hot,yummy breakfast we headed towards our start point.As we started along the shrub jungle ,slowly one group consiting of Laxmeesha,karthik,aparna and me got lost along the way.The forest watcher venkatappa gave a mouthful for straying away from the team ,we was concerned since it was elephant area.



Above : An interesting velvet bug on the way

We were divided to 2 teams of 5 each going into two seperate trek routes.Our trek route turned out to be slightly longer but worth the effort.We trekked along the river bed of one of the tributaires of doddahalla which later joins cauvery.Much of it was dry,but gave us some interesting leads into some new shrub jungles for me.We spotted wild dogs,leopards ,wild boarspug marks along the way .Therer was a bit of confusion with venkatappa not able to correctly judge the distance for todays trek ,which lead us to being on the move always.
We briefly took a break .Everybody in the team -Mani,mahesh,karthik,george and me took a break to quench our thirst.It was a stagnant pool,but good enough to consume Venkatappa declared.We all had good gulps and rested for a whle before.

As we moved along from this place venkatappa sensed that there was a elephant and its cub in the vicinity,this was confirmed by the pug marks and the rich odour of the elephants that i could pick up.Elephants are always dangerous not matter what time of the day it is ,more so if it is with a little one ,always better to be on guard.We finally ended day 1 by hitting the road at around 12pm ,a good four hour trek.It was a nice experience in another kind of forest which
was an eye opener for me.



Above: On the banks of cauvery

We later headed for lunch where in a surprise waited for us ,curds :).We quickly headed towards Rasimanal to be joined by Thillai who had driven all the way from krishnagiri for this.There was some confusion in terms of the keys of the forest APC,we decied to give it a skip.It rained heavily towards late evening and these were welcome showers .The darker side of it was it meant about 14 people had to cram inside the watch tower .For veggies it was only idli+sauce -for others it was fish curry,fish fry and idlis.



Since there was space only for few ,some of decided to sleep inside the cars.The next day morning after finishing the morning ablutions ,we decided to head towards the place where the camera trap was set.Another interesting thing about these calm waters is that it is home to some fresh water crocodiles,hence i was always wary of going near the water.Couple of them even spotted them on the opposite banks.Also spotted were the rare river otters.



What is a camera trap :
A camera trap is motion sensor camera which is installed generally at a place frequented by animals,this time it was on the banks of the cauvery river.Unfortunately we didnt have any didnt have any animals sighted in the camera trap.Nevertheless it was a nice experience in knowing some techniques of tracking animals scientifically.



Above : A camera trap

After checking out some birds we decided to head back.A quick breakfast consisted of noodles thanks to guru and aparna ,post breakfast we decided to head back to bangalore.We decided to have a quick lunch,again it was simply delicious lunch.After a quick round of byes we decided to head back to bangalore

A good writeup by Aparna on how KANS plans to make Melagiris as a sanctuary,this would be an ideal soak up area to the present forests on the cauvery banks

http://highonwilderness.blogspot.com/2010/04/melagiri-sanctuary-proposal.html

Malakonda

My father spent his initial years at this place and he wanted to see the place very badly.We planned to visit -Malakonda-the abode of Lord Narasimha.The route to reach Malakonda is via Singarayakonda,kandukur,malakonda.



Above : View from below the temple



Above: On the way to the temple



Above: Govardhanagiri -near the kalyani



Above : Another view from the top of the temple

Again since it was summer ,that was something which always keeps me on my toes.We booked a garuda on the bangalore ongole route.As we woke up early morning we were surprised to see the highway was covered with dense fog with very low visibilty.After a tense 2 hour drive manovering heavy lorries on the way ,we finally managed to get down at Singarayakonda.From here we took a bus to Kandukur where we got a room.After a quick breakfast ,we headed towards the busstand to catch a bus toward Malakonda.





Above : View from the top of the hill



Above : Mica deposits in Malakonda

Malakonda is about an hour journey from Kandukur -about 30 kms.We reached around 9:30 am and took an shared auto to climb the hill.The temple is open only on saturdays.We then had darshan of the lord.After that we visited the laxmi-narasimha devasthana had darshan.After the Archana we were given the prasadam which we had and decided to climb down hill.It was really hot day and the sun was out in full blast touching close to 40 degrees.Another interesing feature of Malakonda is that it is situated in a shrub jungle .The vegetation here is very unique -the flora variety here is not found in any of the neighbouring areas apart from malakonda which makes it interesting.Even the rocks found here have many unique minerals not found elsewhere in the nearby areas.


We came back to Kandukur ,had lunch and slept like a log till 5pm.Evening was much cooler,we decided to check out the local market.



Above:Interesting display of food!!



Above : Chillies at the market




Above : The tobacco crop in the fields


Kandukur is the largest producer of Tobacco in the world,there is also a central tobacco research institute in the city.It is a matter with matter of pride that i can say that my grandfather ran one of the most successful hotels for about 18 years in this town,before returning back to our native in Karkala.To this day no other hotel has come anywhere near to breaking this record.As we moved along the market there was an old man -dad recognized him,so did the man -it was a break from the past.



Above : Old man selling tobacco leaves at the market



Above :Downtown Kandukur



Above : An old well dotted with many sculptures in its walls



Above : A temple in the town

We later visited an old temple where one of dad's friend is a priest and offered pooja to lord hanuman.We visited another old friend -spent about an hour .

A day well spent with dad enjoying his childhood memories brought back.We headed back to take the volvo back from
Singarayakonda to Bangalore.

Fort Penukonda

I was down with cold and fever for sometime.More than a month without exploring a place was running at the back of my mind,finally made up my mind on exploring Penukonda fort

.

Nevertheless i made all the necessary enquiries about Penukonda before hand.Got up early and headed towards Chikkaballapur at around 5am.A brief stop at the kamat hotel beyond Chikkaballapur with some crisp idli and vada was indeed a good start for the day :).Reached Penukonda at around 8am,parked my car near the fort entrance and walked along only to be stopped at the temple of Lord Venkateshwara.It was the first pooja for the day and indeed i was blessed.After the pooja ,prasad was given ,thanking the lord for the blessing and the good beginning for the day i went ahead only to see a giant hanuman statue.

It then dawned on me ,Penukonda is one of the holiest places in south India.It has 365 temples of Lord Hanuman alone.Right through this post i will bring out some facts which might be a bit disturbing ,but it has be taken at face value since these are facts and well documented.



Above : An erstwhile temple which was converted into a mosque post the conquest of the vijayanagar empire by the adilshah king

King krishnadevaraya was a staunch disciple of Lord Venkateshwara.He also believed in Lord
hanuman -the god of strength.He has installed hanuman vigraha in most places to make sure
that he gets to pray before ,before he sets out to do any work.

He also installed shiva linga which was brought from kashi.The shiva temple has very beautiful sculptures comparable to the hoysala architecture.One can imagine the granduer of the huge homa mantapa with all the hymns in full throttle -what a sight it must have been-sadly the homa mantapa is today a cattle stable.



Above : Shiva temple




Above : Homa mantapa










Above : Aymukteshwara temple



That is when i met my guide venkatesh,who intitally promised me to take me to the fort atop the hill but later backtracked sadly.As i climbed on it was a difficult to climb on since the heat was starting to beat me,there was little or no track visible all along,made my way along the rocky hills of the fort.Unfortunately there is very little of the fort which is remaining but the sheer joy of climbing the fort where once king krishnadevaraya ruled is indeed a joy in itself. After exploring the fort until a certain level where it overlooks a huge lake below,the path ahead was either non-existant or ended with a path full of thorns,it would have been a better idea to take a local along.Rested for a while before i started my descent to meet my guide at the Gagan mahal palace.



Venkatesh was sitting in the cosy halls of the Gagan mahal palace.The palace is in itself not a huge one.The ground floor has a elaborate halls which is said to have been used for king meeting the common people.The first floor has the durbar hall which is said to have housed the king's throne along with his son thimmaraya and his queen.A little ahead of this durbar hall is a small personal natya mandira where the king krishnadevaraya is said to have enjoyed the company of his misstresses.A small cozy place where there were dance performances personally for him.A fact to be known here is that the king was a sex maniac.He was known for his insatiable thirst for sex.It is said the king used to keep himself fit with a strict regimen of excercises daily.He became a king at the age of 20 and died at the prime age of 40-establishing on of the most flourishing kingdoms in south india.



Above : Durbar hall where the king used to sit on the throne



Above : The king's gym -it is said that he used to lift these heavy stones with ease as a part of his gym regimen



Above: A kalyani near the Vajramushti Hanuman devasthana
After exploring Gagan mahal palace i headed for lunch ,where i bumped into the raghavendra
swami brindavana -the priest there gave a brief of history.It is said the one of the disciples of raghavendra swami found a lot of hidden wealth ,since he was a sanyasi he offered it to the king .The king meantime welcomed the swami ,sought his blessings for the kingdom from the disciple.In spiritual acitivities the king sought a lot of guidance from them.After the fall of the vijayanagara empire ,vyasaraya again a raghvendra swami disciple came back after the fall of the vijayanagara empire.In a bid to stop the onslaught of the jains who were flourishing he took an initiative to establish his philosophy.He took on the jains in a spiritual and intellectual debate defeating the jains in each of them.It is said that he installed one hanuman for each win against the jains .In one year alone he installed 365 hanuman idols-establishing his philosophy and giving a new turn in the religious history of Penukonda.The heat was a bit too much to take ,after taking the blessing of Raghavendra swami ,i had lunch at the matha-thanking the priest ,i decided to conintue my journey of exploring penukonda.We later visited the vedavyasa theerthara brindavana-a nice calm place followed it by shree laxmi-kanta theerthara brindavana.A small abandoned hanuman temple near this brindavana is worth seeing.





After this we headed to the hanuman which is at the edge of the city in a ram temple which is again very famous.Each of these temples is different and has an aura of its own.Beside it is a giant statue of Kumbhakarana which was established recently as a tourist attraction.It is a welcome spot for kids to be shown about the hindu mythology,a place that the kids are sure to enjoy.

Later we entered back to the town checking out the prison of thimmaraya the son of Krishnadevaraya.Some interesting information about Krishnadevaraya can be found in this link

http://de-guide-offbeat.blogspot.com/2009/10/iconi-king-krishnadevaraya.html.

After checking out the sripadaraja matha at the edge of the town ,headed back after a memorable day out in the summer.