Had been to beautiful Western ghats again. Third time in less than 2 month span. And each time it was a different experience. Earlier two times in Western ghats were during summer. And this time it was mid-monsoon. I got to see leeches for the first time in my life and donated lot of blood to those blood-suckers.

I had been trekking to Kumara Parvatha a.k.a Pushpagiri with four others. And that’s where we encountered these leeches. Bad execution of our trek plan made us to return half way and we were not able to reach the summit :(. But it was an amazing experience trekking in rain, donating our blood. Though we did miss the camping at the summit, we got to see the majestic Mallalli falls the next day instead.

Kumara Parvatha, I’ll be back again. Soon, very soon.

Here is a glimpse of our legs - before, during & after the trek -

  And I’ll be back with full story of this unaccomplished trek. Soon, very soon.

Random photos taken during trek in Kuduremukha National Park 2 months ago -

March ahoy!

Beautiful mountains

Flowers!

Stone seats

Detailed log to come soon. Blame my hectic schedule at office :(

Saturday was gone. I didn’t want Sunday to go wasted like the previous day. Stuffed my camera to my bag, on the steeds and started towards Kambadahalli, a little known Jain pilgrimage around 140 KMs from Bangalore, 70 from Kunigal and 18 KMs from the Jain Kashi of South, Shravanabelugola. It was a pleasant climate & NH48 was almost empty. Rode non-stop and reached Kambadahalli taking an hour’s time.

About Kambadahalli:

Kambadahalli in Kannada translated to English means village (halli) of the pillar (Kamba). The name is due to the manasthambha (the pillar in front of temples) with statue of Brahmadeva Yaksha atop the pillar. The place is in Nagamangala talukm Mandya district.

And here are couple of links which give more information about the place -

Kambadahgalli on Wiki

An ancient site connected with Jainism - An article in The Hindu

Historical places means, one get to hear wonderful stories. I heard two such stories when I visited the place -

First one goes like; the village got the name because of the pillar and the bells tied at the top of it. The bells at the top of the pillar tell the villagers about the bad news to come. They don’t make noise without a purpose, when they do that means someone in the village is going to die in a day or two. Those bells doesn’t ring even during storms and sometimes they ring even there is no slight breeze. Spooky! Elder people in the village who are around 70-80 years confirm that!!

Another story goes like Kambadahalli was a prominent place & a Jain pilgrimage around 10th century. It’s claimed that there were 72 Jain temples in & around Kambadahalli, and now there is just one. As time passed what once was Jain dominated place started losing their domination. And other community gained momentum. There is a water body to the north-west of village and is main source of water for irrigation for the surrounding places. One year there was heavy rain which damaged the tank bund of the water body. It was damaged to such an extent even after repairing the bund, even a small rain damaged it and resulting in loss of crops. This cyclic process - repairing the water body and getting damaged due to rain went on for years until one day the village head dreamt of a solution. In his dream, the God asked him to demolish all the Jain temples and use those pillars, stones to repair the tank-bund. And villagers followed the head’s order. End result, number of Jain temples came down to one from 72 and tank-bund problem got resolved.

I don’t have any proofs for above stories. I heard them during my visits.

How to reach there from Bangalore:

Bangalore – Nelamangala – Kunigal – Bellur Cross – Kadaballi – turn left – Bindiganavile – Kambadahalli
Or
Bangalore – Nelamangala – Kunigal – Bellur Cross – Nagamangala – Kambadahalli

It’s been a long time since I updated Payniga. And it’s high time for me to shed the laziness and write.

Above photo was taken during my short ride to Kambadahalli in May.