PAYANIGA

Do you long for the feel of the rain brushing against you? Do you relish being out when it rains? And would you enjoy a dose of history to go with the freshness of the monsoon?

Then come and join us for the rainy-season edition of the tour of ‘Less Known Hoysala Kingdom’. We are heading to the fringes of Malnad. See the only Hoysala Temple that has not one but four shrines. Visit the beautiful tank with small shrines all around the water, surrounded by coconut trees in a quiet village. See the remains of the ancient town of Dwarasamudra strewn with carved rocks in a large open space.

It’s not me who’s travelling on the Hoysala trail, but Arun & Lakshmi, fellow travel bloggers are organising a two day tour to less known temples of Hoysala Kingdom on July 4th and 5th. For more details on the tour & registeration, click here.

On day three we gave rest to our steeds & hired a car as Srik’s aunt & cousin accompanied us for the trip. And third day turned out be more of a pilgrimage with visits to plenty of temples – most of them in Kasaragod district. Our first stop was Ananthapura. Few weeks before our ride plan, there was a news article about the place & it’s uniqueness.

Ananthapura, the place is well known for the temple of Lord Anantha Padmanabha. There are two specialties of this place – one, the idols of Lord Anantha Padmanabha, Goddesses Sridevi & Bhudevi are not made of stone/wood/metal, but are made of a mixture of more than 60 extracts from herbs/plants & other natural materials. The temple is built in the middle of a small pond & there is no external source of water to the pond except rain.

Second unique/strange thing of the place is, a crocodile lives in this pond where temple is constructed. It’s said that the crocodile is living there for years. During lunch time when called by priest, the crocodile comes out of the water & receives the ‘prasada’ from the priest. The legend says that – In 1942, the crocodile was shot dead by a British soldier. And the very next day appeared another crocodile which is present now. It’s said that the same crocodile is living in the temple pond since then. It was truly a ‘Believe it or not’ moment for us.

How to reach Ananthapura:

From Mangalore travel south towards Kasaragod to reach Kumbala (39KMs). Turn left & after 4 KMs you will be at Naikap. Turn right to reach the temple.

Our next stop was Madhur – temple of Srimadanantheshwara & Ganapati (siddi Vinayaka). Though the main deity here is Lord Shiva, his son Ganapati gets more importance/devotees. Our visit was brief compared to Ananthapura. From Madhur we started towards Bekal fort.

The Story so far:

Bangalore – Kunigal – Hassan – Belur – Yagachi – Chikkamagalur – Balehonnur – Jayapura – Sringeri – Agumbe – Hebri – Udupi – Malpe – Bengre – Udupi – Udyavara – Kunjarugiri – Pajaka – Kaup – Surthkal – Mangalore – Ananthapura – Madhur

Two months after my bike trip to Coorg, I was back in that beautiful district. But this time the visit was for half day & restricted to Namdroling Monastery at Bylukuppe. Being Saturday Monastery was buzzing with activity, but inside the Golden Temple it was complete silent and peaceful.

A student monk. He was more interested looking out of the class room instead of listening to the lectures.

Paintings inside the temple are huge, beautiful and very nicely done.

My visit was of very short duration. Just touch and go. This place is still there in my list of places to be visited :)

Also read:

• Bike trip to Coorg
• Kumara Parvatha
• Mallalli Falls

River Tunga. We had to cross the river. And we had three options –

1. By bus over the bridge.
2. Using a hanging bridge which was half a kilometer away.
3. By walk through knee deep water

And we chose the last option.

Place: Hariharapura, 15 KMs from Sringeri in Chikkamagalur district.

People were busy washing their clothes, bathing.

He saw me. Stopped his work for a moment. Smiled at me & continued with his chores.

Crossing the river was quite an adventure. Trying not to get our clothes wet & along with carrying the camera. Though it was knee deep, currents were pretty strong.