All the post from my previous Delhi visit have been compiled here.
1] Red Fort
2] Birla Mandir
3] India Gate and Rashtrapathi Bhavan
4] RajGhat
5] Qutab Minar
6] Lotus Temple
Agra and Jaipur posts are in the pipeline.
Friday, March 27, 2009
Monday, March 09, 2009
Melukote
This was my 12th visit to Melukote, but I had always taken the same road via Pandavapura or Maddur. But, this time it was from Sharavanabelagola. And only then I realized, I had missed so much. Aaaaah, this route is just heavenly. Contoured land, hilly terrain, greenery, dotted with ponds with huge Lotus. I have never ever seen a huge PINK LOTUS, except in a Photo or a Calendar which has Goddess Lakshmi. How much I wanted one for myself and I still continue to….. But, be warned in the 30+ minutes drive, we never ever saw one human being or vehicle.
Melukote is a small temple town cocooned between ancient rock formations known by Yadugiri, overlooking the Cauvery valley. Melkote became religiously and culturally important from 12 th century AD when Ramanujacharya spend around 12 precious years of his life in Melkote. The Cheluvanarayanaswamy temple and the Yoganarasimhaswamy temple overlooks the town of Melkote and it is around these temples that the pilgrimage is centered. Melkote is home to the oldest Sanskrit School in India dating back to 1853 situated within the temple premises.
My memories of Melokte dates back to Std 5. My first Scout and Guide camp, where I got to spend 3 day at Melukote. Exploring the temples, mantaps, tanks, hills, caves. Those exhausting days filled with morning jog, flag hoist, treasure hunt, cooking ended with camp fire. I literally know every nook and corner of the town. There it was still standing immune to the stride of time. This town just has 2 streets. The residents are mostly priests or from priestly families. The houses are old looking and nothing is modern here. Its quiet, peaceful and easygoing. People are friendly and hospitable, but you ought to be treated as untouchables, when they don’t obviously spot their trademark symbol on your forehead, and as they continue to suffer from ‘we-belong-to-superior-caste-complex’.
None can be a better guide to Melukote than me. Headed straight to Raya gopura.
Raya Gopura
A movie buff ought to identify this. Since, everyone from Rajkumar to Aishwarya Rai has danced here. I love these unfinished structures. On the other side is the Sankrit Research Institute. I can't relate falling-in-love to writing-on-structures.
There are steps, not easy though, but anyone adventurous can reach the top of the gopura, from where you can get a view of the entire Melukote.
Akka Thangi Kola
There are a pair of pond further down Raya Gopura. Interestingly the water of Akkana kola is sour-salty and that of Tangi kola is sweet. You are allowed to taste them. And to date only the sweet water is used at the temples.
The preist having his afteroon nap, the guard and people interested to taste the water.
Cheluvanarayanaswamy temple
The temple is richly endowed having been under the special patronage of the Mysore Rajas, and has a most valuable collection of jewels. As early as 1614, the Mysore king Raja Wodeyar who first acquired Srirangapatna and adopted the Srivaishnava faith, handed over to the temple and the Brahmins at Melkote, the estate granted to him by Vijaynagar king Venkatapati Raya. On one of the pillars of navaranga of the Narayanaswami temple is a bas relief about one and a half feet high, of Raja Wodeyar, standing with folded hands, with the name inscribed on the base. He was said to be a great devotee of the presiding deity and a constant visitor to the temple. A gold crown set with precious jewels was presented by him to the temple. This crown is known as the Raja-mudi after his name. From the inscriptions on some of the gold jewels and on gold and silver vessels in the temple it is learnt that they were presents from Krishnaraja Wodeyar III and his queens. Krishnaraja Wodeyar III also presented to the temple a crown studded with precious jewels. It is known after him as Krishnaraja-mudi. Vairamudi or Vajramukuta is said to be older than Raja-mudi and Krishnaraja-mudi.
All the three crowns are under the safe custody of the Government and brought to the temple for annual celebration of Vairamudi Utsava.
Pancha Kalyani and Bhuvaneshwari Mantapa at the foot of YogaNarasimha Temple Hill.
Walking around the Kalyani is a pleasure in itself.
Yoganarasimha temple on the top of a hill
Passing through these beautiful mantaps and climbing 200+ steps, you reach the shrine.
A view of the Melukote from hill top.
A visit to the Temple and we exit to capture the sunset.
And we descend......
Never miss the Puliogere in Melukote and some packets of Puliogere Gojju(mix) to bring home. Aaaah, this reminds me of a friend visiting Melukote at 2 in the night, in her dream and starts craving for Puliogere at that hour.
Melukote is a small temple town cocooned between ancient rock formations known by Yadugiri, overlooking the Cauvery valley. Melkote became religiously and culturally important from 12 th century AD when Ramanujacharya spend around 12 precious years of his life in Melkote. The Cheluvanarayanaswamy temple and the Yoganarasimhaswamy temple overlooks the town of Melkote and it is around these temples that the pilgrimage is centered. Melkote is home to the oldest Sanskrit School in India dating back to 1853 situated within the temple premises.
My memories of Melokte dates back to Std 5. My first Scout and Guide camp, where I got to spend 3 day at Melukote. Exploring the temples, mantaps, tanks, hills, caves. Those exhausting days filled with morning jog, flag hoist, treasure hunt, cooking ended with camp fire. I literally know every nook and corner of the town. There it was still standing immune to the stride of time. This town just has 2 streets. The residents are mostly priests or from priestly families. The houses are old looking and nothing is modern here. Its quiet, peaceful and easygoing. People are friendly and hospitable, but you ought to be treated as untouchables, when they don’t obviously spot their trademark symbol on your forehead, and as they continue to suffer from ‘we-belong-to-superior-caste-complex’.
None can be a better guide to Melukote than me. Headed straight to Raya gopura.
Raya Gopura
A movie buff ought to identify this. Since, everyone from Rajkumar to Aishwarya Rai has danced here. I love these unfinished structures. On the other side is the Sankrit Research Institute. I can't relate falling-in-love to writing-on-structures.
There are steps, not easy though, but anyone adventurous can reach the top of the gopura, from where you can get a view of the entire Melukote.
Akka Thangi Kola
There are a pair of pond further down Raya Gopura. Interestingly the water of Akkana kola is sour-salty and that of Tangi kola is sweet. You are allowed to taste them. And to date only the sweet water is used at the temples.
The preist having his afteroon nap, the guard and people interested to taste the water.
Cheluvanarayanaswamy temple
The temple is richly endowed having been under the special patronage of the Mysore Rajas, and has a most valuable collection of jewels. As early as 1614, the Mysore king Raja Wodeyar who first acquired Srirangapatna and adopted the Srivaishnava faith, handed over to the temple and the Brahmins at Melkote, the estate granted to him by Vijaynagar king Venkatapati Raya. On one of the pillars of navaranga of the Narayanaswami temple is a bas relief about one and a half feet high, of Raja Wodeyar, standing with folded hands, with the name inscribed on the base. He was said to be a great devotee of the presiding deity and a constant visitor to the temple. A gold crown set with precious jewels was presented by him to the temple. This crown is known as the Raja-mudi after his name. From the inscriptions on some of the gold jewels and on gold and silver vessels in the temple it is learnt that they were presents from Krishnaraja Wodeyar III and his queens. Krishnaraja Wodeyar III also presented to the temple a crown studded with precious jewels. It is known after him as Krishnaraja-mudi. Vairamudi or Vajramukuta is said to be older than Raja-mudi and Krishnaraja-mudi.
All the three crowns are under the safe custody of the Government and brought to the temple for annual celebration of Vairamudi Utsava.
Pancha Kalyani and Bhuvaneshwari Mantapa at the foot of YogaNarasimha Temple Hill.
Walking around the Kalyani is a pleasure in itself.
Yoganarasimha temple on the top of a hill
Passing through these beautiful mantaps and climbing 200+ steps, you reach the shrine.
A view of the Melukote from hill top.
A visit to the Temple and we exit to capture the sunset.
And we descend......
Never miss the Puliogere in Melukote and some packets of Puliogere Gojju(mix) to bring home. Aaaah, this reminds me of a friend visiting Melukote at 2 in the night, in her dream and starts craving for Puliogere at that hour.
Sunday, March 08, 2009
Shravanabelogola
On the way to Sharavanabelogala.....
We drive across the bridge over this canal. Haven’t come across any such rocky deep canal. It belongs to Jayachamarajendra Wodeyar days, but I seem to have forgotten the name.
Aaaaaahh… And our first glimpse of the hill. Could even see Gomateshwara. The greenery, the hill excited me so much that I ended overtaking the on guy on the bike(captured in the snap below) from right, and while he was approaching in the opposite direction! Arrr, awkward glances, to which I smiled back.
Sharavanabelogala in Hassan district, is an important Jain pilgrim centers. I consists of 2 hills, Vindyagiri and Chandragiri. A 100 steps leads you to the top of Vindyagiri. You are supposed to climb the hill bare foot. For those sensitive foots, they sell socks for Rs 10 per pair, which would last a climb.
Chandragiri and the Kalyani separating both hills, from Vindyagiri.
This one caught my attention on the way.
For the pages : The Vindhyagiri hill is home to a thousand year-old gigantic 17.38 meter high monolithic stone statue of the Bhagavan Gomateshwara Bahubali, considered to be the world's largest, built by Chamundaraya, a general of king Gangaraya. The base of the statue has inscriptions in Kannada, Tamil and the oldest evidence of written Marathi from 981 AD. Every 12 years, thousands of devotees congregate here to perform the Mahamastakabhisheka, a spectacular ceremony where the thousand-year-old statue is anointed with milk, curds, ghee, saffron and sandal-paste.
The first glimpse
And then we enter..........
On either sides of Lord Bahubali, you find these sculptures.
And one of my favorite snaps.
Chandrgiri from atop Vindyagiri
Such mantaps and pillars always interest me.
As we explored this area, we found it was dotted by ‘pairs’ at regular intervals. I think, on falling in love, they gain expertise in lying and in finding secluded places.
He too was visiting the shrine.
After a lunch at the base, we drove towards Melukote. The highlight of the lunch was that it was 5 of us! When me, mom, dad, bro settled down under a tree, we were joined by a cute 45days old calf, which loved curd rice and hadn’t yet learned to eat a Banana peel.
We drive across the bridge over this canal. Haven’t come across any such rocky deep canal. It belongs to Jayachamarajendra Wodeyar days, but I seem to have forgotten the name.
Aaaaaahh… And our first glimpse of the hill. Could even see Gomateshwara. The greenery, the hill excited me so much that I ended overtaking the on guy on the bike(captured in the snap below) from right, and while he was approaching in the opposite direction! Arrr, awkward glances, to which I smiled back.
Sharavanabelogala in Hassan district, is an important Jain pilgrim centers. I consists of 2 hills, Vindyagiri and Chandragiri. A 100 steps leads you to the top of Vindyagiri. You are supposed to climb the hill bare foot. For those sensitive foots, they sell socks for Rs 10 per pair, which would last a climb.
Chandragiri and the Kalyani separating both hills, from Vindyagiri.
This one caught my attention on the way.
For the pages : The Vindhyagiri hill is home to a thousand year-old gigantic 17.38 meter high monolithic stone statue of the Bhagavan Gomateshwara Bahubali, considered to be the world's largest, built by Chamundaraya, a general of king Gangaraya. The base of the statue has inscriptions in Kannada, Tamil and the oldest evidence of written Marathi from 981 AD. Every 12 years, thousands of devotees congregate here to perform the Mahamastakabhisheka, a spectacular ceremony where the thousand-year-old statue is anointed with milk, curds, ghee, saffron and sandal-paste.
The first glimpse
And then we enter..........
On either sides of Lord Bahubali, you find these sculptures.
And one of my favorite snaps.
Chandrgiri from atop Vindyagiri
Such mantaps and pillars always interest me.
As we explored this area, we found it was dotted by ‘pairs’ at regular intervals. I think, on falling in love, they gain expertise in lying and in finding secluded places.
He too was visiting the shrine.
After a lunch at the base, we drove towards Melukote. The highlight of the lunch was that it was 5 of us! When me, mom, dad, bro settled down under a tree, we were joined by a cute 45days old calf, which loved curd rice and hadn’t yet learned to eat a Banana peel.
Monday, February 16, 2009
Hosaholalu
The second of October was fortunately a Thursday, the entire team had planned a mass CL on Friday, I had a long weekend at my disposal. We planned to visit Sharavanabelogala this time. Among all the places around Mysore, its tough to accommodate Sharavanabelogala in any of the circuits. So, it had to be Sharavanabelogala and Melukote.
View Larger Map
I had TWO other tasks on agends.
ONE – The roads are good and driving is a pleasure, and I was taking driving lessons for Bro.
TWO – My cousin’s kid wanted me to visit Shravanabelogola and Gommatagiri for long and check if Gomateshwara has started wearing his Pants, at least now.
We had planned to start at 6, but started at 8:30(still good….). I hate paying a visit to the Petrol Bunk early in the morning, on the day of travel. But, it was not a necessity this time. We drove along Mysore –> SH17 –> Pandavapura -->you see a big welcome banner of Shravanabelogola and Gomateshwara -> take a left -> keep driving till KR pet.
The town was full of activity. Due to the lack of sign boards, we stopped-by at the main circle here to inquire, if we were to go straight or take a right to reach Shravanabelogala. But, we were also advised to take a left first(why left now?) visit a Hoysala style temple which is just 2kms away and then proceed to Sharavanabelogala.
And so we did.
HosahoLalu
It can be easily spotted, Hosaholalu is a small village, and it reminded me of Aihole.
Hosaholalu Laxminarayana Temple
This temple is of the trikoota structure with deities being LaxmiNarayana – the main deity, LaxmiNarasimha in the right Sanctum and VenuGopala in the left Sanctum.
The outer walls have carvings of Vishnu and his incarnations. Below it is 6 levels/stripes of intricate carvings with Horse, Peacock, Swan and depictions from Ramayana and Mahabharata. I love watching those monotonous continuous running strips. I could easily get the stories, as Mom and Bro are always good at those, unlike me. In fact even up to 7th std, I found it confusing and difficult to recall if Arjuna belonged to Ramayana or Mahabharata. :-P
Remember reading it somewhere that, ‘The new style of Hoysala temples have 6 strips of carvings running around the temple, while the old style has only 5 strips running’.
I however failed to spot the Hoysala Emblem – Sala fighting with the lion, which I we usually see on the Hoysala style temples.
Side View........
Back View........
It was 11:15 AM and we had't even thought of Breakfast. The Hotels in such villages prepare tasty stuff most times. So, it was for the Dad & Bro to look for a decent, clean place, first taste and then buy take aways’ for us.
We continued towards Sharavanabelogala, searching for a pit stop. It was a hot and we were in search of shaded region. And we happened to drive through a place lined by trees and a fresh water stream flowing parallel to the road! What more could any one ask for. A breakfast to remember …….
View Larger Map
I had TWO other tasks on agends.
ONE – The roads are good and driving is a pleasure, and I was taking driving lessons for Bro.
TWO – My cousin’s kid wanted me to visit Shravanabelogola and Gommatagiri for long and check if Gomateshwara has started wearing his Pants, at least now.
We had planned to start at 6, but started at 8:30(still good….). I hate paying a visit to the Petrol Bunk early in the morning, on the day of travel. But, it was not a necessity this time. We drove along Mysore –> SH17 –> Pandavapura -->you see a big welcome banner of Shravanabelogola and Gomateshwara -> take a left -> keep driving till KR pet.
The town was full of activity. Due to the lack of sign boards, we stopped-by at the main circle here to inquire, if we were to go straight or take a right to reach Shravanabelogala. But, we were also advised to take a left first(why left now?) visit a Hoysala style temple which is just 2kms away and then proceed to Sharavanabelogala.
And so we did.
HosahoLalu
It can be easily spotted, Hosaholalu is a small village, and it reminded me of Aihole.
Hosaholalu Laxminarayana Temple
This temple is of the trikoota structure with deities being LaxmiNarayana – the main deity, LaxmiNarasimha in the right Sanctum and VenuGopala in the left Sanctum.
The outer walls have carvings of Vishnu and his incarnations. Below it is 6 levels/stripes of intricate carvings with Horse, Peacock, Swan and depictions from Ramayana and Mahabharata. I love watching those monotonous continuous running strips. I could easily get the stories, as Mom and Bro are always good at those, unlike me. In fact even up to 7th std, I found it confusing and difficult to recall if Arjuna belonged to Ramayana or Mahabharata. :-P
Remember reading it somewhere that, ‘The new style of Hoysala temples have 6 strips of carvings running around the temple, while the old style has only 5 strips running’.
I however failed to spot the Hoysala Emblem – Sala fighting with the lion, which I we usually see on the Hoysala style temples.
Side View........
Back View........
It was 11:15 AM and we had't even thought of Breakfast. The Hotels in such villages prepare tasty stuff most times. So, it was for the Dad & Bro to look for a decent, clean place, first taste and then buy take aways’ for us.
We continued towards Sharavanabelogala, searching for a pit stop. It was a hot and we were in search of shaded region. And we happened to drive through a place lined by trees and a fresh water stream flowing parallel to the road! What more could any one ask for. A breakfast to remember …….
Saturday, February 07, 2009
Lotus Temple
This would be the last post in the Delhi series. After...
Delhi >> Red Fort >> Birla Mandir >> India Gate >> Raj Ghat >> Qutub Minar
Delhi >> Red Fort >> Birla Mandir >> India Gate >> Raj Ghat >> Qutub Minar
Had traveled back from Jaipur the previous night. A quick shower and a sumptuous Breakfast. And we set out.
Akashradham Temple was our first stop for the day. I would least appreciate such places. Tight core security and all the richness in the world. The theist in me would neither appreciate the temple nor the sanctum santorum. Shiva-Parvathi, Rama-Sita, Radha-Krishna are made to occupy other small shrines around SwamyNarayana. All the richness, pomp, splendor and grandeur - wonder how the funds would flow-in. The same thoughts echoed, while I visited ISKON. A temple shop which sells everything from Pizza to Vada, at exhorbitant prices. And another selling everything from SwamyNarayana Scissors to SwamyNarayana Magnetic Compass. In all it was disappointing.
The Sun was high up, by the time we reached Lotus Temple. A long walking pathway leads to the Lotus Temple. No security checks, no prohibitions, all you are expected is to leave your footwear.
Built in 1986 this is set among pools and gardens, and adherents of any faith are free to visit the temple and pray or mediate silently according to their religious beliefs.
It just has a huge prayer hall. You are allowed to sit and meditate for long. It was definitely different compared to all places. A quick visit and we exit.
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