Sometimes you travel far and wide to see some great places
and tend to overlook what in your your own backyard.
This is how I felt when Viji and I planned a day visit to Mudhena halli combined
with a revisit to Nandi hills after few decades. Checking the place out on the Net for nearby
places in this area - Mudhena halli (home of India’s greatest Engineer Sri Mokshagundam Vishveshwarya fondly known as
Sri M V) and Skandhagiri
drew our attention along with Nandi hills.
We decided to venture out early Saturday morning on Jun 30th
2018 – plan was to visit Mudhen halli
(Sri M V home, Museum and Samadhi ), Skandhagiri followed by Nandi hills and get back after sunset
in Nandi hills.
 |
| Museum Signboard |
We left by a comfortable taxi Etios at 7:40 AM on a 60 KM
ride to Mudhen halli on NH 44. We had a decent breakfast on the way at Krishna
Gardens which is some distance after the airport.
Roads are good but there is also the sad sight of stonequarry which has almost destroyed
huge rocks on the way. Reached our destination by 9:30 AM, GPS was handy and
precise.
There is no introduction
required to this pioneer Sri M V - visit these links for information on
Sri M V ( www.itslife.in/travel/sir-m-visvesvaraya-memorial-muddenahalli and
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M._Visvesvaraya
). This sign board about Sri M V pretty much sums up his personality.
 |
| Shri M V Museum complex |
Museum timing on the
gate of the complex that houses Sri M V’s ancestral residence and museum
said it opens at 11:00 AM. We were told by KSTDC it opens at 10:00 AM on
weekends
L .
Across from this property is Thaluk office. We saw a local man sitting outside
office, went up to check with him. He said the guard will open the gate by
10:30 AM on weekends and recommended in the meantime we go to the Samadhi area
which was open. I was surprised to hear how knowledgeable the villager was about M
V. He gave us some interesting info including how the family of M V helped local community. They built all
the houses across from their house for villagers with a compound wall surrounding the area. There are some remains of this compound wall. Over the years, villagers have updated or
rebuilt the houses.
 |
| Garden |
 |
| Samadhi |
We walked towards the well maintained garden and
Samadhi.
It is a peaceful place at the
base of Skandhagiri hills.
Payed our
respect and enjoyed lovely old trees especially Ashoka trees with huge trunk
reflecting its age.
We tried walking
towards Skandhagiri
base from behind the
Samadhi area.
As there was too many obstacles we
turned back. One of the villager said Skandagiri is now closed for
trekkers.
 |
| Hutha |
On the way back saw this huge
Hutha/snake pad. It has been many years
since I saw one. There was a time when
we used to see these not far from my house near Bugle rock/A P S grounds. It was 10:30 AM and we walked towards museum
and the guard was opening the gate!
 |
| Museum |
Museum is operated by the family trust. It is maintained well
retaining the old charm of the building with its original red oxide floor etc.,
this building was built after M V got his Bharath Ratna and he used to lived in it.
Museum has 3 rooms full of nice
collection of his photographs, awards & certificates and writings.
It was amazing to read how disciplined he was
, his time table on what he did in a day did not change much when he was 25 Yrs
to when he was 95 Yrs. His schedule was almost same.
They even have his personnel belongings like
passbook from Bank of Mysore. The bank he started, his passport and his Jathaka
(Birth horoscope) ; They have also kept his bedroom as-is.
A simple humble man!
 |
| Ancestral home |
 |
| Garden backyard |
Next to museum is ancestral home where visitors are not allowed inside. Understand his grandson
who is the care taker uses this house during his visits. It has an old style
typical lovely garden at the back with the trees and plants which were once in
most of the house gardens like Karabevu, Goose berry, veggies, a big Tulasi
plant and flowering plants. Glad to have visited the place of a great man whose maxim says
“Make out a straight line and walk on it, regardless of other people's crooked curves”. To touch the soil once walked and conquered by great thinkers and doers, is an intriguing experience and this place was no different.
We decided to skip Skandagiri as we did not get proper
information on whether it is open or closed.
I was told it takes 2 hrs to trek up. But, after fire in the Tamil Nadu forest trekking has been banned. Instead we proceeded towards Nandi hill which is
about 20 KM from here.
 |
| Bhoga Nandeeshwara temple |
Our first stop
was at the base of Nandi hills to Bhoga Nandeeshwara Temple, This 1100 yrs old
temple is one of the oldest in Karnataka.
Original temple was built in 9
th century with a large
coutyard.
According to the Archaeological Survey of India, it was first
built by Nolamba dynasty ruler Nolambadiraja and the Rashtrakuta emperor
Govinda III dated c.806, and later by the Bana rulers
Jayateja and Dattiya of about c.810. Later it has undergone many
additions and modifications, spread over five dynasties –
Gangas, Cholas, Hoysalas, and the Vijayanagara rulers.
 |
| Carvings |
Architecture has the best of each dynasty.
It has 3 temples inside - Arunachaleshwara, Uma
Maheshwara and the Bhoga Nandeeshwara.
Aurnachaleshwara temple, built by
Gangas has a unique form of Ganesha as Simha Ganapathi and a Shiva Lingam and Nandi.
Next is
Uma Maheshwara temple built by
Hoysalas,
this has the presiding deities
of Uma and Maheshwara in the Sanctum, depicts the wedding scenes between Shiva
and Parvati. The Kalyana Mantapa is surrounded by four pillars each of which
have a divine couple carved on them – Shiva and Parvati, Brahma and Saraswathi,
Vishnu and Lakshmi and Agni Deva and Swaha Devi. Pillars and walls have wonderful intricate
carvings, a typical
Hoysala architecture.
The main temple,
the Bhoga Nandeeshwara built by Cholas in 11
th
Century
has a majestic Shiva Linga. There
is a figure of a Chola King in this temple, believed to be of Rajendra Chola.
There is a very nice Nandi Idol in front of the Sanctum in this temple. Outer wall
and the two additions to the
temple - the Kalyana Mantapa and the Tulabhara Mantapa were built by the
Vijayanagara rulers in 16th century.
 |
| Shringi Theertha |
There is a kalyani/pond called Shringi Theertha. It is surrounded on all four sides by a walkway and a running
mantapa. Legend has it that this pond was
created by the Bull Nandi plunging his horn into the ground to draw out
water from the Ganga. This pond is said to be the source of the South
Pinakini (South Pennar) River. This temple complex is an
amazing culmination of different architectural styles and a “must see”
temple!
On a side note, we saw a marriage
shoot "Bollywood style" happening in the temple complex… I have noticed nowadays youngsters opting for an elaborate fantasy Disney style wedding. What a waste of resources, food and flowers! :-(
Time for our next destination : Nandi hills. Drive
from Nandi base to the hill parking lot is a winding up hill of 8 KM. One can
trek from here as well. From the parking
area you can walk up or take the car. Either way the charge is 100 Rs/person. We
decided to walk up and cover all around the top of the hill in a loop around the fort
wall. Nandi Hills is 1479m above sea
level and comprises of 5 peaks; Nandi Giri, Brahmagiri, Skandagiri,
Chandragiri & Govardanagiri. Brahmagiri Hill is popularly known
as Nandi One. It is the twin peak of Nandi Hill View Point. It is also believed
to be origin of 5 rivers. I was very curious to see Nandi hills as we had
visited this place as kids! Viji and I
recalled the wonderful memories of going there with our father for couple of
days and we did this couple of summers or more.
I must have been 5 or 6 Yrs old I think…Playing in children park is
something we vividly remembered which was across from travelers' bungalow where
we used to stay.
 |
| walk way around fort wall |
 |
| Amrutha Sarovar |
Our first stop was Amrutha Sarovar – A Beautiful Lake that
apparently has water all year round and is the source of water to this region. We took the walking path uphill around the
fort (fort was originally built by Gangas and later expanded by Tipu Sultan ) with
views of
peaks and valley.
 |
| Palar river origin |
 |
| Nellikai Basava |
Next we saw
nellikai basavanna/Nandi an ancient, 1300-year-old Dravidian-style Nandi temple
situated on this hill. One of the theories goes this place got its name Nandi
from this temple. A winding path from
here and few steep steps down took us to the Palar river origin (a deep well). Did not see any water… and finally we reached
the top of the hill.
 |
| Views |
By now it was 1:15
PM and we took a lunch break at KSTDC Restaurant at the top of the hill. Better than expected lunch. Lot of monkeys here on the hill busy
snatching food, water bottle and even ice cream… some entertainment we got from
them!
Horticulture Dept is doing some
interesting work here and have few gardens. Children’s park is one of them. I think this is the same park from childhood
days but bigger and better… also we saw one huge nursery type near Amrutha
sarovar but were not allowed. When
questioned how come they allowed few people before us, Guard said they have
paid for marriage shoots a fee of 6,000 Rs J. After this we called it a day, there are
couple other places like Gandhi bhavan (now a hotel) and a cave. We took about 3:30 hrs including lunch to
cover these places and we were mostly on our feet… except lunch break. We thought of skipping sunset as it had
started to be cloudy. Although it was
Saturday, crowd was not too much! I understand this is a hot spot for bikers who
line up by 5:30 AM to see sun rise.
I must say road from base to top of
the hill is good & a decent walk way on top of the hill all around. Biggest
problem though is lack of a sign board to lead to tourist attraction spots;
this is a “must” in any place!!! They
just have a map at the entrance and on top of the hill on various tourist spot:
need much improvement here. They do have public toilet on the top but did not
venture in J
Viji ended up buying a huge jack fruit on the way back to Bengaluru...she was inspired by a whatsapp video on how to cut a jack fruit easily and with all fruits intact 😆. Our driver said it would not be possible for her...so I am curious to see the outcome
Although we travelled around 200
KM, since taxi charges 300KM/day@11 Rs/ KM, cost came to 2200 Rs/head – taxi + food + entrance. A day with the nature & our Karnataka's own Engineering pioneer was totally worth it! 😆😆
There is a kalyani/pond called Shringi Theertha. It is surrounded on all four sides by a walkway and a running
mantapa. Legend has it that this pond was
created by the Bull Nandi plunging his horn into the ground to draw out
water from the Ganga. This pond is said to be the source of the South
Pinakini (South Pennar) River. This temple complex is an
amazing culmination of different architectural styles and a “must see”
temple!
Keep writing
ReplyDeleteTravel more