PAYANIGA

Travel Blog by Prashanth M

Chandragiri: Less known hillock of Shravanabelagola

May 5, 2013 by Prashanth | 1 Comment

For most of the people visiting Shravanabelagola, their purpose of visit starts and stops at the huge monolithic statue of Lord Gommateshvara on top of Vindhyagiri (more commonly known as ‘Dodda betta‘). What most of them don’t know is that the small hillock on the other side of the town also has an equally important historically and architecturally. Though Chandragiri is less than half the size of Vindhyagiri, more than 90% of the monuments found on top of this hillock. A small flight of steps leads one to the top of the hillock which is almost flat and half of it is enclosed to cover the monuments. The temple complex is scattered with ruined statues of all sizes and shapes including an interesting statue of Gommateshvara. The statue is sculpted only from the knee above and is about 8 to 10 feet tall (and local people call this statue fondly as ‘Ajjagummappa‘ – I’m not sure why/how the name derived!).

PAYANIGA - Chandragiri: Less known hillock of Shravanabelagola

PAYANIGA - Chandragiri: Less known hillock of Shravanabelagola
One of the many ruined sculptures

The hillock has 14 Jain basadis which were constructed along a wide timeline in the history – Chandragupta Basadi was constructed by Emperor Ashoka in 3rd century BCE, and was dedicated to his grandfather Chandragupta Maurya. Another basadi ‘Savatigandhavarana basadi‘ was constructed by Queen Shantala, wife of Hoysala king Vishnuvardhana. It is said that Chandragupta Maurya traveled down to Shravanabelagola after abdicating the throne along with his spiritual guru Bhadrabahu. Both the guru and the disciple performed penance on top of Chandragiri and ended their days in ‘sallekhana‘ (religious ritual of suicide by fasting practiced in Jainism).

PAYANIGA - Chandragiri: Less known hillock of ShravanabelagolaA view of the temple complex

PAYANIGA - Chandragiri: Less known hillock of ShravanabelagolaChandragiri as seen from Vindhyagiri

Along with the statues and basadis on top of Chandragiri, there are also stone scripts scattered around. One of the prominent one is by poet Ranna (one of the earliest and one of the greatest poets of the Kannada literature) in his handwriting and also by his brother Jinavallabha. And one last but interesting tidbit is about Chavundaraya, the minister in Ganga dynasty who commissioned the sculpting the huge monolith of Gommateshvara. It is said that he was asked (in his dream) to climb Chandragiri, go to a point and shoot an arrow southwards. And the legend is that place where the arrow stuck on Vindhyagiri is the foot of the 57 feet statue of Gommateshwara. The place where Chavundaraya shot the arrow is still accessible on top of Chandragiri.

In case if you visited Shravanabelagola but missed paying a visit to the Chikka betta as its locally called, don’t make that mistake again when you visit next time. :)

Seven Years of travelling and writing

May 2, 2013 by Prashanth | 8 Comments

While I was at yet another futile attempt to finish a long pending draft, I realized that it has been 7 years since I went out on a day ride to Shivanasamudra and the ride experience came out as a first post on Payaniga. The journey of travelling and writing started as I went out on first long ride on my bike with three complete strangers (whom I got to know them from a biking group and unfortunately I never got a chance to meet them again). The travel bug which bit me long ago has taken me to places – made me trek quite a few mountains, took me to less know places, made me travel along unknown terrains, took me back in time while visiting historical place. And more than the places, I got to meet & know lot of amazing people along the way. And more over it has given me a new identity.

PAYANIGA - Landscapes of Narasimha Parvatha

What next?
Though I have been travelling on day trips or weekend trips, writing my experiences has been sporadic and sometime I’ve gone into complete hibernation for long periods. Thanks to my recent job change and other personal priorities, I am stuck & grounded with less time to travel & much less time to write. And I don’t see myself planning any bigger travel plans. But however, I’m hopeful of turning that around and here is my plan of action for next few months -

  • Write more and more frequently. And complete all the pending drafts.
  • Start with a that small project of a series of travel stories which I have in my mind for a long time
  • Explore Karnataka on day trips and weekend getaways as I used to do before.
  • Go on long rides – Cycle more and more
  • Revive the dormant Kannada version of Payaniga.

Here is a big thank you to everyone who has been part of this long journey – all the readers, friends who travelled with me, fellow travellers/travel bloggers who have inspired me and my family who are very supportive of all of my endeavours. Here is to more and more travelling. :)

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Landscapes of Narasimha Parvatha

April 13, 2013 by Prashanth | 2 Comments

I went on a trek after a long time, back to the beautiful western ghats. It was good to be back to the mountains after a long break. Though I have trekked in quite a few mountains of Western ghats, Narasimha parvatha was totally different. Almost three foourth of the hiking was in the shade below the giant trees and then we were let out into the bald grass lands and the blue sky. Here are few of those shots.

PAYANIGA - Landscapes of Narasimha Parvatha

PAYANIGA - Landscapes of Narasimha Parvatha

PAYANIGA - Landscapes of Narasimha Parvatha

PAYANIGA - Landscapes of Narasimha Parvatha

PAYANIGA - Landscapes of Narasimha Parvatha

PAYANIGA - Landscapes of Narasimha Parvatha