A Visit to Avani Betta

One peculiarity of being in Bangalore is each road going out of the city leads you to a different countryside after a journey of an hour or two (assuming you are not stuck in a traffic jam). Last year around this time on an early morning I, with a couple of friends, took a road leading towards the Sun. I mean to the east, the road leading to Kolar (Old Madras road). As you move out of Bangalore and beyond Hosakote, the countryside changes completely. The density of trees reduces, and dry lands welcomes you. Further down the road, trees get replaced by boulders – heaps and heaps of boulders. Small hillocks scattered on either side of the road with more rocks than trees on them, but each one having their own story to narrate. Of so many hillocks, we stopped at Avani betta near Mulabagilu for a few hours. And we weren’t disappointed.

Avani betta, gets the name because of the village Avani at the foot of the hill. The place has its roots linked to Sage Valmiki, Ramayana, and the legendary war between Rama and his sons Lava-Kusha. A legend says that sage Valmiki’s ashrama was at the same hillock, and hence Avani betta is also called as ‘Valmiki Parvatha’. The story which is linked to Avani starts after Ravana gets killed and Rama and Seetha move back to Ayodhya. It is said that the story after Seetha is sent out of Ayodhya to forest (referred as ‘Uttara Ramayana’ happened here) – the birth of Lava and Kusha, defeat of Rama’s army by his own sons and then the legendary war. For each place described in Uttara Ramayana there is an equally comparable place here at Avani betta – to name a few are the place where the horse of Ashwamedha yaaga was tied, the place Seetha and her sons lived and the place where Seetha witnessed the war between her husband & her sons. The cave which is said Seetha gave birth to Lava and Kusha is considered as sacred. And now the cave is a huge ditch, as every devotee who visits the place grabs a fistful of mud while leaving.

On top of the hill there is a small temple of Goddess Parvati, which makes devotees & few monkeys are the only visitors to the hillock, barring people like us. Another common sight at this place is one gets to see stacks of small stones, usually three in each stack. There is a general belief at this place that if the brides stack stones, the newborn baby will be a healthy one.

Though Kolar and surrounding area is dry and devoid of greenery, there are many interesting places nearby – Antaragange, Kaivara, Kurudumale, Markandeshwara betta – to name a few.