In our zest to trek as many hills/betta/gudda
as we can within 150 Kms radius from Bengaluru as day trips, my sister Viji and
I decided to visit Avani Betta and a couple of heritage
temples in this region. It is about 100 Kms from Basavanagudi, Bengaluru in the Kolar district of Karnataka. One of the reasons we chose this - it is less
travelled betta.
To appreciate the rocks of Kolar, a little bit of information about its
Geology. The Kolar greenstone belt of Archean age
is a narrow north south trending zone of mafic volcanic rocks. They are massive
and pillowed tholeiitic basalt, gabbroic sills, pyroxenites and minor interflow
clastic. Boulders in Avani Betta
like most of Karnataka boulders are couple of billions of years old and belongs
to Eastern Dharwar Craton.
On 7th Nov 2023, we started
early by 6AM from Bengaluru as it can get too hot to climb if you reach later
in the day. With a quick humble breakfast stop on the highway, we reached Avani
village by 8:45AM.
In ancient times, Avani village was called
as Avanthika Khestra. According to legend, this hill was residence of sage
Valmiki, the author of Ramayana. This place is mentioned in a Bana inscription
from 339 CE (The Bana or Vana was a dynasty based in South India, who
descent from king Mahabali. The dynasty takes its name from Bana, the son of
Mahabali). In another, it is referenced as “Gaya of the South” There is a 10th
century CE Ramalingeswara temple at the base of Avani Hill. A little distance from here is the starting point
of the trek and its peak has a Sita Parvati temple.
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| Starting point |
Once we reached the starting point, a local
by the name Venkatesh offered to be our guide for 500 Rs which we rejected as
path looked straight forward. He said it is not just the path it is the fine
details he knows😊we refused!
Story of this place goes - (no historical facts so, take it with a grain
of salt) In threta yuga Laxmana (Rama’s brother)
left Sita here at Valmiki Ashram after the exile and it is here she gave birth to
Lava and Kusha. Later as teenagers they tied the Ashvamedha Kudhure of Rama and
fought with his brother and his army here.
Sita later went inside the Bhoomi at the top of this hill where we have
the Paravti & Sita temple. Avani in Sanskrit means Earth – Some say since
Sita is daughter of Bhoomi/Earth and later went into Earth at this place, is
called Avani.
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| Our four-legged new friends |
Near the starting point we were accompanied
by 4 stray dogs and they were with us through out.
They did not look violent like Bengaluru strays so we did not chase them
away. In fact, they were very cute and friendly – stopped when we stopped &
walked when we walked, always by our side. Royal guards for us, as only we two were
there!
Some of the betta steps are carved from the
rock and some proper granite steps till you reach mid-point. It is about 350 steps till here. At the mid-point terrain suddenly opens-up with
huge boulders of various shapes. It is an exuberating experience to see and
touch these boulders - If only, they can speak about these billion years!! one
can see the marks and signs of natural erosion on them.
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| Magnificent Boulder |
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| trek mid-point |
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| View thro' boulders |
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| Prayer stones |
Here you come across small
stacks of stones put together all over the place.
These are prayer stones,
assembled by childless couples who frequent the Sita Parvati temple at the
peak, wishing for a child of their own. Mid-point is a good resting area with nice
breeze. You have to walk on the boulders around here. There are some caves believed
to be Valmiki Ashram and where Lava Kusha were born. The mud here is considered
sacred and is believed to have medicinal properties. Local villagers collect
this mud, soak it in water and then drink in the belief that it will cure their
illness.
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| Valmiki Ashram |
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| Inside the ashram cave |
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| Holes in the cave ceiling |
At this point we decided to call the guide
to come up
😊 as we did not see path to go up with grass
grown too high and also to hear his version of fine details about the caves we
saw. It was interesting indeed! One of the caves had lot of holes/openings in the ceiling and Venkatesh told us “This
used to be the cave where Sita cooked and raised Lava and Kusha. When he tapped
inside the hole, one made sound of copper vessel which he said was a hande
(copper vessel for hot water for bath) and some made clay pot sound. Viji asked, how they stored water as opening was
facing down. Well, he had an answer for that too…
😊 he said Hanumantha after Sita went inside
Bhoomi/Earth, got upset and turned the cave upside down! This cave also has a unique double linga in
the room where Lava Kusha believed to have prayed. Now, do not ask me why this
is not inverted like other things
😊 |
| footprints |
A little way on the boulder he showed foot prints of diff size and said they are Lava Kusha’s from childhood to teenage.
From here through the tall grass was a small path heading towards the peak.
At this point, you see beautiful small waterbody between rocks – story goes, Lakshmana with his bow and arrow created this for Sita.
Near this point you see some awesome massive boulders smaller ones above larger ones.
Apparently, Hanumantha created
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| Laxman Theerta |
this ensemble
so that Sita can watch Lava and Kusha (who captured the horse of the sacrifice/Ashvamedha
Kudhure} wage war and they defeated Rama's brothers and their army.
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| Hanumantha's boulder ensemble |
Each boulder has unique shapes here in
Avani Betta and there is equally nice matching story. You find a huge boulder called Kudure
gundi which is believed to be the place where lava -kusha tied the horse of
Ashwamedha Yajna. Another huge boulder
called Ururlu bande – Belief is if you roll
down underneath this boulder any back pain will be relieved.
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| Kudure Gunde |
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| Boulder walk |
It is 300 steps from here to the peak. Temple
was closed but we could see Sita and Parvati idols. It is believed that Sita
worshiped Parvati here and the idol is from Threta yuga. Years later Adi
Sankaracharya dreamt of Goddess Parvati instructing him to worship Sita Devi
here. Hence the name Sita Parvati Temple. There is a Shankar Mutt in Avani village
and a Jambuvantha temple (was closed for renovation). You can see these from top of the betta. After spending some time here – started to
climb down. Total time we spent was 2hrs. It is an easy climb up/down – just keep
some water. It was a perfect day for this short trek!
After we came down, first thing we did was
go to a small shop which sold biscuits for our new four-legged friends. They
were not leaving us till we fed them well. They were jumping up & down with
tails wagging to catch biscuits.
From here we headed straight to Kolar to
see Someshwara and Kolaramma temple which are inside Kolar town. Although I had heard about ancient Anjaneya
temple nearby somehow, we did not want to miss seeing other two temples as most
the temples close between 11:30 AM & 12:30 PM and it was already 11 AM) It is
28 Km from here in Kolar town. Our first stop was Kolaramma temple.
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| Kolaramma Temple |
Kolaramma temple - Built by Cholas. this
Granite temple is small and has a Dravida Vimana Style of architecture with more
than 30 inscriptions from 1012 CE in Tamil and Kannada. Goddess Kolaramma is
worshiped as Goddess Durga/Chamundi. Temple has two shrines- one is Kolaramma
and the other is Saptamatras. A common entrance is shared by both the shrines,
the main temple faces east and the other shrine faces north. Since the eight
arm Durga is not in Sowmya/calm rupi, we are to see the reflection in the
mirror. Another deity here is Chelamma/scorpion goddess, it is believed that a
person will be saved from the bites of a scorpion if you pray here. Mysore Wadiyars (kings of Mysore) frequented this temple as
Chamundi is their family deity. Temple is very well maintained. It has the look and aura of an ancient
temple.
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| Someshwara temple |
Someshwara temple is very close-by. We knew it would be closed but
did not realize it is not just garba gudi that they close but its entire complex.
It was extremely disappointing that we could not even see till garba gudi. Although small, it is supposed to be
beautiful and ornate 14
th century CE temple originally built by
Cholas then Hoysala & Vijayanagara has done lot of work and add-ons. Supposed to have a wonderful Kalyana Mantapa
with 16 faced 64 pillars with fine carvings.
Antaragange is one of the mountains
in the Shathashrunga Mountain range. It is located about 3 Kms from Kolar town.
This is where we headed next! This is a beautiful area with boulders, caves,
and forest. 200 steps from the starting point you come to Kashi Vishveshwara
temple also known as Dakshina Kashi and has spring water flowing from Basava’s
mouth throughout the year at its Kalyani/well. Source of this water is still
unknown.
Sthala purana/Legend says “This mountain
is associated with Lord Parasurama and Jamadagni. The killing of
Kartaviryaarjuna by Parasurama followed by killing of Jamadagni m by sons of
Kartaviryaarjuna and the self-immolation of Renuka happened here. Parasurama
took a vow to kill the entire Kshatriya race.”
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| Kalyani |
Behind the temple kalyani is the start of the 4Kms trek
to top of the mountain. This mountain contains several volcanic rocks of
various sizes and naturally carved caves around it. I am told a clear view of
entire town of Kolar can be seen from the top of this mountain. Combination of rain
and no prior planning & no guide inhibited us to do the trekking to the
peak. We were advised not to go without a guide as path is tricky.
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| Monkeys!! Monkeys!! |
How can I forget to write the most
important incident here? As we headed towards the temple, decided to ditch
backpack and just carried a sling bag and camera. As soon as we entered the
starting point, I was attacked by a gadava/big male monkey for the sling bag. I
had no food, just cash, cards and mobile. It started pulling the bag and I was pulling
it back (I was so impressed with myself that I was fighting back with a gadava who
was showing all his teeth and growling) and did not throw the bag to him and
run - house keys, ID, cards everything
was in it
😊😊and Viji came to chase him away but
it went towards her to attack. It did not care for her expensive camera around
her neck but only interested in my sling bag.
By now I ran back to our car and got both of our trekking poles and
threw the bag in the car and carried only small water bottle. By then, Viji had chased him away after some
fight – Battle of the titans! Whew!! What an action drama it was
😊
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| Pathway to the temple |
There is lot of greenery on both sides all
the way to the temple accompanied by wild monkeys of all sorts from a new born
to pregnant mothers to teenagers to gadava rascals. Somebody had put a whole
bag of carrots for the monkeys but we saw very few little ones there. Amazing
is that they did not come to us even though I had water bottle this time in my hand.
I wonder if it was the stick or they are trained to snatch wallets and
mobiles!!!!???? We reached temple with no new monkey attack!
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| An angel among Gadavas |
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| Ancient Shiva temple |
As per the priest, the Linga inside this
old temple is from Parashurama period/Threta yuga. An unassuming temple it is. Decided to
come back to this place again for a planned trek to the peak with a guide.
Headed back to the car. We were hungry by now and could not find
any decent place inside Kolar town. Google referred us back to National Highway
about 5Kms away. There are few on HW and we just went to one closest for a
simple south Indian meal – Boy! Was it hot/spicy!! I heard people in this region eat very hot
food. So be careful!
It was 2PM, we asked our driver to take us
to the much talked about Kotilingeshwara temple in Kammasandra village of Kolar
district. This is when our driver said we
are doing unnecessarily back and forth. Apparently, this is closer to Avani
village which meant we had to go in opposite direction again and may be some 30
Kms extra. Road was not that good and
took us about 50min to reach the place.
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| Kotilingeshwara |
Kotelingeshwara - This
temple complex has the tallest and largest linga@33 mts and Basava@11mts. This linga is surrounded by lakhs of lingas
of different size. This temple is a not historic one and is from 1980’s. It was
a dream of a swamiji to have one crore lingas installed here. It is still not one crore yet but getting
there. It receives lot of pilgrims during Shivarathri and a popular
destination.
It is a very commercial temple with many
small temples inside. Lot of good marketing happens to persuade you to get a
linga installed – starting from 6k to 1lakh+ INR depending on size and options.
I must say, flower decoration in this temple were very elaborate & nice! Like
Hindu temples in the western countries, you have all gods here. There are many helpers who
double-up as marketing folks 😊. We were not that impressed with this place although
I liked their laddu prasada that, one can buy.
An OK visit for just one time visit. It was 4PM and we decided to head back to
Bengaluru.
We reached KR Puram within 1hr 45min and it took
us another 2hrs from this point to Basavanagudi. Horrible it was, as we came bang during peak
hours.
Better planning would have been – Go to
Avani first, do the local ancient Anjaneya and Ganesh temple (which we did not
go) in Mulubagalu, have lunch and next head to Kotilingeshwara which is only 10
Kms from here. I am sure it will be 4PM by the time you see this and lastly, do
Someshwara and Kolaramma temple in Kolar town as it is in Bengaluru direction
and they re-open at 5PM. Timing wise (as most of the temples closes by noon and
reopens at 5PM) this is optimal and best option to cover more historic places.
Unless you just want to do ½ day Avani Betta only.
All in all – it was a great one-day trip! I recommend
this less travelled Avani Betta with wonderful boulders combined with nearby ancient temples as
an energy booster trip.
Stay tuned for my next lesser-known betta
experience! So many bettas and so little time!
Once we reached the starting point, a local
by the name Venkatesh offered to be our guide for 500 Rs which we rejected as
path looked straight forward. He said it is not just the path it is the fine
details he knows😊we refused!
