0 Giant Eshwara statue, Shiv Giri, Bijapur

January 2011

Bijapur, the city of fort, palaces, mosques and tombs has other attractions too. Among the ancient temples are Narasimha temple and Siddarameshwara temple. A recent addition to the city's attractions is the giant Shiva idol just outside the city, off Bijapur-Shindgi road, about two kilometers from Gol Gumbaz.


This idol was created in less than a year by four young artists from Shimoga- Prashant, Acharya, Rajshekar and Raju.


Small details are taken care of nicely; third-eye, Rudrakshimala, snake, Moon, Trishul & Damaruga... except one thing, Ganga is missing.


I went around the statue clockwise while most of the visitors went anti-clockwise. I guess many people saw the place as another tourist spot rather than a temple.


A bus load of school kids on a trip were running around noisily. A smaller group of little ones from a local nursery were sitting in a circle picnicking in the lawn close by.


There are other attractions for kids like slides, merry-go-round, etc. The place also has shops selling pooja items, snack, soft-drinks and souvenirs.


Do visit Shivagiri if you are Bijapur. It's worth the time.

Mahashivaratri will be observed coming Monday. I often hear people refer to this festival as Shivaratri. The fact is Shivaratri occurs every month and the one occurring during this time of the year (usually February) is Mahashivaratri. Shivabhaktas fast and pray through the day and stay awake all night. I remember hearing that Shiva stays awake through out the year and sleeps one night, that's Mahashivaratri. So while Shiva sleeps men stay awake :)

You might want to read- ಶಿವನಿಗೆ ಬಿಲ್ವ ಏಕೆ ಮತ್ತು ಹೇಗೆ ಅರ್ಪಿಸಬೇಕು?

Shivgiri Coordinates: 16°49'3"N 75°45'25"E

Namah Shivaya

Detail: Giant Eshwara statue, Shiv Giri, Bijapur

0 Shri Mallayyaswamy Gudi, Togarsi

August 10, 2011

A colleague had told me about Togarsi. I was passing through this pilgrimage village and decided to visit the temple situated on a hillock. The temple is ancient, probably 800 to 1000 years old. The tiled structure is recent addition, it serves as a mini hall for religious functions. Morning pooja was in progress, I could see the deity while poojaris did Aarati. As a part of the pooja, visitors present were allowed to do Aarati to the diety.


Kalyani, temple and the Gopura.


Togarsi Mallayyaswamy temple is managed by two Mathas; Malehiremath and Panchavanigematha. Normally temples are managed by one matha but Togarsi temple is managed by two mathas.

This is Malehirematha


...and Panchavanigematha. The two white elephants guarding the door could be of stone plastered with a thick coat of lime.


I'm not sure if this Gopura was newly constructed or an existing one was renovated. Construction activities were still going on.


The person in white shirt is a poojari in the temple. Houses of temple staff flank the path leading up the hill. The temple is just halfway up the hill. Beyond the temple is jungle. An early morning morning walk in the jungle could be an interesting experience ...fresh cool air, a soft sun,light, sounds of birds singing, peacocks calling some far away.



The temple street is a straight line flanked by tiled roof houses with teak wood columns. I wish I had seen Togarsi 10 years back, it would be like seeing a part of Dharmastala. In this age of mobile phones, glaring boards mars the peaceful ambiance of this village.

Togarsi Coordinates: 14°27'7"N 75°12'15"E

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Detail: Shri Mallayyaswamy Gudi, Togarsi

0 Varavi Siddeshwara Temple and Waterfalls, Yekkeri

I was not sure what to expect when Ningappa suggested Varavi Siddeshwara Kolavi but I felt I would see something special. Shankrappa Megappa Kumbhar the pot-maker of Hooli agreed to accompany us. The drive was a short one- Hooli > Hoolikatti > Yekkeri -less than 10km. The last one kilometer was dusty dirt track. As we neared our destination the path was just wide enough for one four-wheeler flanked by Honge trees (Derris india, Pongamila pinnata), rock hill to our left and a stream on the right. The road ended where it met the stream, we left the car under the tree and went by foot.

The stream, at this time of year barely flows but there is enough water for cattle to take a midday dip. We were entering a gully between two rock hills, packed with trees, mainly Honge trees. We were greeted by a herd of cows, buffaloes, few boys and women.


Buffaloes are pretty sensitive and were alert at the sight of strangers, especially urbanites. The honge shade relieved us from the heat radiated by the blazing Sun.


Do watch the video.



A waterfall would dominate this place between June and December and we would have very less place to walk in this valley-stream bed.


That's the temple, right next to the falls. The temple is actually a narrow gap in the rocks. Walls with a gate were made to keep monkeys away from the temple. Surely they would relieve pilgrims of their pooja stuff like coconuts and bananas.


Lord Ganesha.


This little cave temple has three Shivalingas of which two are definitely ancient and the third one looks new to me. This one is enclosed in four walls.


Aum Namah Shivaya.


Its rare to see twin Basavannas.


Outside, we look at the way we came. It's a paradise!


Walking on the rock strewn stream bed demands effort.


Shankara climbs up a rock face and I follow him up. Ningappa is worried about me, kept warning me that the rocks could be slippery. There we are; bird's eye view of the valley.


And that's where water from the hills dives down. My mind is made up to visit again sometime August or September this year.


Ascending is easy but descending is dicey. With my two cameras, it was a circus, I had to squat down couple of times.


We approached a herd of sheep. As I was trying to get a shot the herdsman offered to show his best ram and sheep.


The one holding the ram is Sangappa Bhimappa Yergatti, the boy in white is his son, the man in all white is Sangappa's brother and boy in blue shirt is Sanpappa's nephew.


When I promised to send this picture, Sangappa said "please send the picture, we'll frame it and display it at home. We'll remember you..." It'll be a crime if I did not keep up with the promise.

One last look at Onge before we leave Yekkeri.


Varavi Siddeshwara Coordinates: 15°49'6"N 75°9'37"E

May first week I posted two copies of the picture, I hope they've reached Sangappa and his kin.

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Detail: Varavi Siddeshwara Temple and Waterfalls, Yekkeri

0 Ramteerth revisited Part 2

We climbed a shikaraless temple's stone walls to get a better view of the surroundings.

The Shiva Linga within the walls. The circle looks perfect and design symmetric. I wonder how artists of those days achieved such precision. We got down and Veeresh got busy looking for something ...he would not tell us what.


South-eastern view of the temple.


I was lucky to even get this shot ...would not rest for more then a second at any spot. Kept fluttering around.


Life in a row ...these holes could be for breaking the rock into pieces with straight edges. Probably to be used for the half done smaller temple on which we had climbed.


While i was exploring, Veeresh was busy scribbling away on the rock. He must've spent a good 20 minutes writing... I got curious.


"Art work by Veeresh" was added below the date. It's a work of art indeed. Looks like J is about to swallow O. :)


From here, the surface sloped downwards and then a sudden 20 feet drop, and slopes down again towards a jungle covered valley ...that;s on the right.


Towards the left; more paddy fields. We went back up to the lizard face rock where Veeresh was leaving our team signature. We climbed it, being the highest point of the hill, we got a good view.


Temple from top of the rock. We must've stayed up there for about ten minutes. One by one we climbed down...


but Veeresh was still there. We asked is we should send him kaavi and kamadalu. He can stay up there and become a Swamiji chanting Om Namah Shivaya. I think it was Chetan who remarked he can say Ojoino Namaha instead!


Chetan and Neelaknt were brave enough to stand on loose rock on the overhang.


We took a different way back to the temple ...south-western view.


Colors and texture of dragonfly and rock match so well. Here we spoke about dragonflies' similarity to helicopters. How you could make them lift pebbles when you hold them by their wings.


Chetan spotted this butterfly and both of us approached it very slowly to get closeup
shots. The butterfly did not budge ...we guessed it's time must be up. Its wings look battered, may be it's just awaiting it's end.


This dragonfly reminds me of Rayban glasses with amber tint.


Veeresh becomes Manninamaga- son of the soil. I wanted few plants to take.


Chetan and Neel also joined. All set to become mannina makkalu. We stopped plucking when we had a handful.


This picture is a good picture for a birthday or love you card.


The sun was up and the soil had dried. it was so much easier walking now. We saw short and tall varieties of paddy.

The last leg of our trek back the car.



From here we drove to Sangolli Rayanna's memorial at Nandagadh. All we could see either side of the 4km drive was paddy fields. Rice seems to be a major produce in this part of Belgaum district.

Coordinates: 15°31'51"N 74°34'26"E

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Detail: Ramteerth revisited Part 2

0 Ramteerth revisited Part 1

My last visit was on Sankranthi, sometime January or February. It was my wish to see Ramteerth just after rainy season.

We met at my place by 5-30AM. Drive on NH4 was a breeze... At Kotur I mentioned about a dhaba popular with truckers. Veeresh wanted to stop there on the way back. He was already thinking about lunch! From Kittur to Bidi it was slow because of road condition. After Bidi the road to Halasi was in good condition. By 7-15 we were at the trial to Ramteerth. I parked the car under a mango tree and we were all set to go.


That's our destination... hill top temple amidst paddy fields and jungle.


Barely 100 meters into our trek, Veeresh said he was hungry. He wished we had brought guavas. I told him we had bread and jam, and we'll be having breakfast at the temple.


We were walking on narrow foot-paths which are actually mud retaining walls to hold water. We had to look before stepping...


Neel got a call from one of his relatives.


A farmer on his morning inspection round.


We found this butterfly... hmm.. is it a moth? Wings look so leathery.


Another farmer heading home with fodder for his cattle. We had to bend down to let him pass. Just behind him is the border between paddy-fields and the hill.


This leaf looked like a giant elaichi fruit.


An abandoned quarry... patches of red is some kind of plant grown in gaps in the rocks.


A spiderweb which held three leaves together.


I asked these guys to imitate poses in cinema posters.


A weaver bird nest. Just below this tress we found a foot long cucumber... Chetan had called it boodakumbalkayi...white pumpkin. Veeresh wanted to cut it open. We had to stop him... some farmer might have kept it here to take it home. I guess Veeresh was really hungry.


I found the color and texture combination irresistible. I just took a shot.


Check out the look in the myna's eye. It took off just after this shot. Did not give me another chance. Little further ahead, at a fork in the path, we took left. A furlong down the path, I had a feeling we were not on the right path... Veersh mentioned we were going down hill instead of climbing. We turned back, found the fork...


We were climbing again.


I let these guys go ahead and took a short break. The jungle seemed to stretch till the horizon.


These rocks looked like seats arranged for a meeting.


A colony of ant homes? Normally they live in one big home...


I wonder why paddy in one field are in different color ...green and cream. Green plants are still tender while cream colored ones are almost ready for harvest.


Temple Shikara... I was also hungry now.


Chetan spotted this butterfly. The most beautiful butterfly of the day.


That's Ugranarasimha watching over the hills, jungles and fields below. I washed my feet, plucked some flowers and kept them on the Shiva Linga in the garbhagudi. We settled down on the temple benches and spread out two loaves of bread and a 500g jar of mixed fruit jam ...Mala's. I actually liked the picture on the bottle and decided to buy it instead of Kissan jam. We had paper plates and a spoon. I spread jam over the slices and made sandwiches. We had a filling breakfast. We packed up and decided to go exploring.

...will continue next post. I had to split this visit into two posts because I wanted to share all 40 pictures selected out of 100 odd pictures.

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Detail: Ramteerth revisited Part 1