South-West Karnataka
9th-13th August, 2002
South-West Karnataka
(Photos/pics
for this travelogue might be available on My
Tourism Photo Album)
My parents were visiting me 7th-15th August, 2002 as it is monsoon season and
hence lean business period for papa. We took a fantastic 5-day tour to Jain pilgrimages and other tourist places in South/South-west
Karnataka. This was my 3rd/4th visit at a number of Jain pilgrimage sites and maybe 5th/6th visit for my parents. Similarly, we had already seen tourist places like Mysore etc a number of times. So we decided to snap Ooty outta our circuit this time and visit Coorg (Madikeri) instead, a first visit for my parents. In all, we visited (stopped at) Sravanbelgola, Halebidu, Belur, Dharmasthala, Venoor, a jain temple way off-Dharmasthala-Moodbidri road, Moodbidri, Varanga, Karkal, Mangalore, Coorg, Bhagamandala, Talcauvery, Abbi Falls, Harangi Dam, Cauvery Nisargadhama, Tibetean
Monastery near Kushalnagar, Brindavan Gardens, Mysore, Chamundi Hills, Somnathpura, Sivasamudram Falls.
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Day 1
Hiring a taxi from Bangalore, on first day we started for Sravanbelgola early morning (0630 hrs). Reaching Sravanbelgola by 1000 hrs, we went to the main temple and statue atop Vindhyagiri Hill (620 steps). The monolithic statue of Bhagwan Bahubali is the largest one in the
world. Performed abhishek and pooja there and came down to get a room to stay. Took a room in the regular Jain Dharmshala and slept for a while. Noticed a framed letter from an American person dated 1968 inquiring the truth about the statue whose details were published in 'Ripley's Believe it or not' in an American daily one day before the date of letter. In the afternoon, went to Basadis (Basadi=Jain temple) in the town, completing which climbed the Chandragiri Hill, where 17 beautiful temples await devotees. In the evening, met Maharajashri and then had a peaceful sleep.
Day 2
Second day, starting at 0730 hrs in rain from Sravanbelgola, we reached Halebidu at 1100 hrs, i guess. Saw Jain temples first (3 of 'em in single compound) and then the main Hoysola temple. A beautiful temple, it was never completed, just like its counterpart in Belur (and both unlike these temples are different from the same architecture temple at Somnathpura in that the later was actually completed. We'll come to Somnathpura later). Parking charges are enormous 20 Rs at Haleidu. From Halebidu to Belur, a distance of merely 18kms didn't take much time. Belur police station reminded me of the FIR (First Information Report) that I had lodged there when my
pocket was picked just in front of police station four years back (Apr 1998). Wished I had brought that FIR
receipt with me to ask the status of any progress on my wallet's case :) Saw the Belur temple and had snacks outside the temple. And then, it was time to move on.
Next halt was Dharmsthala. The main Manjunath Swami temple was closed so we went to the three Jain temples including the one in Mr. Veerendra Hegde's home. It brought back a lotsa memories. The other one is huge Bahubali statue installed in 1980s by Hegde family on on Chandragiri hill. From Dharmasthala, we had to goto Moodabidri and on the way is Venoor, another jain pilgrimage. A very old big statue of Bahubali stands out in the open. After Venoor, as we were traveling towards Moodabidri, we chanced upon a painted slab on the right of road, pointing to a digamber
(alternative spelling Digambar) jain temple 2km off road. We took that turn and later realized that the road after a Km. or so was all full of stones and it was hard going that way. Still we went ahead and after 2-3 Km, we reached a house in the wilderness which housed the temple. It is also supposed to be quite an old jain temple. Karnataka seems to be full of Jain temples. It surprises me
every time with some new pilgrimage/temple. Dusk was falling as we started for Moodabidri, where we reached at some 2000 hrs. Took a room from Jain Math. As papa and me went to bazaar to just check the place out, we got stuck in heavy rains. Me at one shop and Papa at another shop a few meters away! Anyways when the rain stopped, we came back to the room and then it was time to call it a day.
Day 3
In the morning, we visited all the Jain temples of Moodabidri. There are 17 temples in a single street, apparently a result of religious competition amongst families living in that street long long time ago. Now, the families who built these temples are not even traceable. Also Moodabidri is a unique Jain pilgrimage centre in that, it has a number of highly valuable Jain Teerthankars' idols. They are made of various types of gems, crystals, and stones and highly invaluable. Abhishek jal (Gandhodak: or water with which idol has been bathed, a religious exercise) of one idol of Bhagwan Parshwanath is even supposed to cure the victim of a snake-bite. Even though these idols used to be freely display some years back, now these idols are kept in heavy security - a grim reminder of the times we live in.
After completing Moodabidir, we moved on to Varanga as we decided to come back and do Karkala later. Weather was just superb and surroundings plush green everywhere. It was a pleasant drive to Varanga, which is a bit off the main road. The byroad ends at a beautiful pond! Pond has a wall at the other end which kinda separates it from a larger and deeper lake. Now, in the middle of that lake is situated the Jain temple!! God, did the scene in monsoon mist look gorgeous! A
aquaphobe that I am, I didn't venture to goto the temple on a boat but mummy papa did! After all they are the ones with better hearts than me :( I really am scared of water. I zoomed by camera to max and clicked their pics at temple from this end of the lake.
Varanga was the farthest point in our journey to south-west Karnataka. After that we decided to turn back to head home via different tourist places. While on the way back to Moodabidri, stopped at the last jain pilgrimage in the circuit: Karkala. On a hill, a huge statue of Bhagwan Bahubali
(Gomateshwara). Apart from this hill, there's another fantastic temple at a nearby hill. There, a near-blind priest runs the show. From my previous visit, I know that the priest used to be a science graduate in Mumbai in 60s when one day in laboratory, acid got sprayed on his eyes. Nice guy he is. He takes u on a tour of rectangular arrangement of statues. And architectural wonders have been created in that temple. Through the minute openings in these statues you can see the Bahubali statue on the other hill! By the way, Karkala is home to a lot of adept cotemporary sculptors, who have made statues like the ones of Bhagwan Mahaveer at AhimsaSthala (Mehrouli, Delhi). As soon as we had reached the bottom of the Bahubali hill after having offered paryers at the top, heavy rains started lashing out the landscape. Perfect weather for leaving the last pilgrimage place in itinerary. And then it was time to goto some popular tourist destinations. Thats why we were now headed to Coorg (or Madikeri)!
On the way, we encountered milestones saying "Mangalore 30 Km" etc . Mangalore was not on our way and we had to take another root down the road. But when "Managlore 17Km" milestone came, Papa said lets visit the beach also!! And so we left the road to Coorg and took the road to Mangalore! There we had a
magnificent evening view (it was 1730 hrs by then) of the Indian Ocean just by the side of Mangalore port. There was even a distant ship on the horizon (recall Floyd? :). Enjoying that view and storing it in our memory, we now finally started for Coorg.
As we were nearing Coorg, in the Ghats section, the clouds really came low and the visibility was very poor, not even 1 meter! Since we knew we wanted to stay Mayura Valley View, a KSTDC hotel, we directly went to that place when we reached Coorg at around 2145 hrs. Got a cozy room and slept.
Day 4
The KSTDC hotel, even though not all that well maintained, offers the best view in the Coorg. (Its located just next to a popular tourist attraction Rajaji's seat. And that place is famous for the view of the valley. So there!). In the morning, Baswaraj - one man team of Mayura View, made us tea which we had in the nice restaurant of the hotel. It was a misty morning and hence the view of the valley was also clouded. As we visited to Rajaji's seat, first tourist attraction of the day, the we could get a clear superb view of the valley. Now we started for TalaCauvery, 43 kms from Coorg. TalaCauvery is the origin of river Cauvery, which flows through the states of Karnataka and TamilNadu before falling into the lap of the ocean on the eastern fringes of Indian land. The way to Talacauvery is typical hill route and hence majestic, made more spectacular by the monsoon. On the way, we were shown the crop of Ilaichi (cardamom), Coffee, Pepper by our driver - a local. These spices and coffee are quite expensive up North and hence we were quite glad to see landscape full of these crops!! Just 8 km before Talacauvery is Bhagamandala, a Sangam (joining of holy rivers) place for 3 rivers, one of which is invisible as it is underground! There's an old temple there which has copper-tiles roof! Man, that is expensive! From Bhagamandala, Talcauvery was a short journey. Now as we reached the place of origin of Cauvery, it was all clear. And as soon as I wanted to click mummy-papa at the origin point, dark clouds came from nowhere and I couldn't even click a photo properly due to invisibility! And in no time, even pouring rain started. We had to take refuge under a nearby shed. That is some amazing place: from almost clear to almost zero
visibility in seconds!! I love that place.
We started back and after crossing Coorg, headed for Abbi (also Abbey) Falls. I was told by a local that Abbi also means Falls itself!! The Falls are in a private coffee/pepper estate. God, these Falls might not be all that big but are they august!!
Especially in monsoons, the Falls are at full beauty. Now they have made a hanging wire-bridge across the bottom of the Falls which was not there during my
earlier visit in 1999 with exchange
students.
Came back to Coorg and had a round of the local market and bought some spices, coffee from Coorg Provisions Stores.
Coorg was then over and next destination was Mysore. But on the way we had to visit Harangi dam, Cauvery Nisargadhama, Dubare elephant training camp (which we didn't goto finally), and Tibetan monastery.
On Coorg-Mysore road, after the ghats are over, a left turn at Guddehosur takes you to Harangi Dam. Its a peaceful and uncrowded picnic place. The sluices were open and we could see the gushing flow of water through them. The grass/parks/lawns around the dam are very well maintained.
After coming to the main road, If you take the right turn at Guddehosur, that will lead to Dubare elephant training camp, some 15-20 km off the road. And Cauvery Nisargadhama is just 3-4 km down the main road. Its an island in river
Cauvery. I guess the front land-the cut is man-made but am not sure. To arrive at the island, you have to cross a wire-bridge hanging across a part of Cauvery. There's a mini zoo inside and tree-top houses and also a small restaurant. The whole island is shaded by bamboo trees.
It took only a few minutes at Nisargdhama and then we moved on to the Tibetan settlements at Bylakuppe and Kushalnagar. The monsatery is real big and compared to my last visit, the area around the main temple has been very well developed, what with all the lawns and small ponds. The teaching session was on when we arrived at the temple. Periodic loud sound of bell was quite an experience!
(Update, Sep 02, 2004: It is called Sera-India
by Tibetans)
Now it was almost 5pm and we decided to head straight for Mysore, via KRS (Krishnaraja Sagar) dam Brindavan / Vrindavan gardens :) This is a huge dam built over river Cauvery (just like Harangi dam). You must find a noticeable dose of mention of river Cauvery in the whole account here. Actually the truth is that if you follow river Cauvery from its origin
Talacauvery / Coorg thoughout Karnataka, you'll cover whole lot of popular tourist
destinations!! Even though we reached the Brindavan gardens at some 6:45 pm (it is 10 km off the main road to Mysore), we parked the car and decided not to go in the park! The reason is that we had seen it so many times before. I think my parents were visiting it like sixth time or something!! So we just spent sometime there outside the dam and park and then headed for Mysore. Saw some of the city and then called it a day.
Day 5
This was the last day of the tour. Mysore was again an oft-visited place for us but we stayed the night in Mysore as Papa Mummy have old memories associated with that place. Morning was the time for usual tour of Chamundi Hills, Nandi Bull, and Palace.
Then I came across something new (for us) in my Lonely Planet: Sandalwood Oil Factory. We thought of giving it a shot. Its located
towards Ashokapuram, just a few km from city centre. As we reached there, we saw a very old building in a serene locality. Its an 85 year old factory and now a division of Karnataka Soaps and Detergents Limited. The
security guards gave us permission and then took us on a guided tour!! Seems like the place is used to being a tourist attraction! The surprising bit though is, that no Indian tourist guide mentions about the factory! The visitor's register mainly included names of foreign tourists, and I suspect they all had Lonely Planet.. The photography inside the factory is not allowed. Well, there's nothing much to photograph anyway but a lot to smell!! Boy, I have never seen so much sandalwood in my life! The production is a batch process and uses quite old equipment. We saw a huge heap of Australian sandalwood. The plant makes some 25-30 kg of oil a day. Not much? Well, calculate the prices at the rate of Rs 55000 per kg (market price in Bangalore Rs 75000 [1500 US$]per kg!). The premises of the factory is full of Sandalwood trees. The sandalwood trees are grown for like 45 years before they are felled! Probably, that is one of the reasons the stuff is so expensive. We saw a thin tree 14 years old.
Does Veerappan
know about the place? :)
Coming back to city, we went to the Railway Museum, which was closed, day being a Tuesday. Last place to be seen before departure was St Philomena's Cathedral. A neo-gothic style architecture, bulit in mid 20-th century, its got very high structure and spires seem to touch the sky.
In the afternoon, after checking out some Mysore silk sarees and stuff, we left Mysore for Bangalore. Via, Somnathpura and Sivasamudram Falls, that is! Byroad to Somnathpura and later is really bad. But Somnathpura was worth the toruble. As I said in the beginning, this we found to be the best amongst the three temples of Halebid, Belur and Somnathpura. Amazing three shrine , or trikutachala, structure and mind-boggling carving of figures and sculptures. The legend has it that it turned out to be so perfect that gods wanted to take it away. And hence even as the temple started flying towards the abode of gods, sculptors realized this and caused a minor imperfection by throwing a chisel at flying temple. So the temple landed again, at somewhat different coordinates though! And thats why you see a pillar in total
dissonance with the rest of the structure.
After Somnathpura, we didn't visit Talaguppa as the temples there are all but covered by sand, only to be unveiled in the next once-in-12-year ceremony. So we moved to Shivasamudram. On the way we passed Kollegal, a notable mention as
Veerapan kidnapped an ex-minister from a village near Kollegal on August 25,
2002!! Unfortunately we reached Sivasamudram late (it was past 1730 hrs, allowed time for tourists). Still we could get the permission. However, the only bridge on small canal that takes u to the other side was being rebuilt. And the only alternative now was to walk to the Falls, a distance of some 1.5 km. We tried some distance but it was dark already so we had to head back without seeing the Falls.
Now finally, we sat down in the car and headed for uninterrupted journey to Bangalore where we reached by 9:45 pm! Five days of fun travel and exploration thus came to an end.
