Boulders of Karnataka - Part 2

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 7^th 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. 

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.

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. 

Magnificent Boulder

trek mid-point

View thro' boulders

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.

Valmiki Ashram

Inside the ashram cave

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

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. 

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.

Kudure Gunde

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.

 

    

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.

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.”

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.

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 😊

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!

An angel among Gadavas

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.

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!