0 Kittur Fort and Palace

Saturday morning, I decided to explore Kittur fort again. Probably this was my 5th visit to Kittur fort. Driving towards Kittur from NH4, I turned left towards Choukimatha. I had visited once few years ago. The place has a peaceful ambiance. Choukimatha is connected to Shri Guru Madiwaleshwara of Garag and also Rani Chennamma's family. It seems infant Madiwaleshwara was found in a banana plantation close by to Choukimatha.


Below these stone platforms are the graves of holy men of this Matha. Each of the graves had one Naga-Linga-Pushpa on it, surely placed on it earlier in the morning.


Naga-Linga-Pushpa never fails to fascinate me. It's shape, color and fragrance are unique. It's one of Lord Shiva's favorite flowers.



Close by is a Naga-Linga-Pushpa tree with it's trunk full of buds, flowers and round fruit the size of a shot putt. The air surrounding the tree was saturated with the sweet fragrance.


The place is a typical Matha... ancient temples and tombs, an open well, plenty of coconut & other varieties of trees, and surrounded by fields. This matha houses a students' hostel for college going boys. Except for a couple of them most were gone for the day.


A little Shiva Linga on one of the tombs.


About a kilometer and half from here is Kittur Fort.


A - Western gateway, present main entrance
B - Museum
C - Palace
D - Eastern gateway
E - deepest part of the moat

The fort wall facing the West...


and the wall facing North. A moat runs right around the perimeter of the wall. Probably the moat was fed by water from a lake close to the Eastern wall.


View of the palace ruins from atop the fort wall.


The eastern gateway as seen from outside.


Bastions flanking the gateway are restored... plastered with a thick layer of cement-sand mixture!!


I was suprised to see the palace courtyard dug up, looks like some sort of excavation in progress. Walking through the array of rectangular pits I picked up few pieces of broken pottery as souvenirs.


Palace Durbar- conference hall.


View of the dairy in the foreground.


Kitchen Garden.


Water storage facility.


Secret Well


Swimming pool.


Pole Star viewing shaft.


You can see many interesting parts of the palace such as the pooja room; kitchen & it's stoves and chimney; wash basins; pipelines built into walls, bathrooms, drainage system, etc.

I went around the wall... a portion in the Southern wall has collapsed.


Just opposite the museum is this structure probably used as a watch tower. If I'm not mistaken, I remember seeing a big tree close by, it's missing now.


I went to check out the collection at the museum. The open air part has a couple of cannons and stone sculptures from various villages in the vicinity.


Mahasati, Location: Honnidibba, Belgaum District, Kalyana Chalukya, 13th Century AD


Gajalaxmi, Location: Auradi, Belgaum District, Kalyana Chalukya, 10th Century AD



Basavanna (Nandi), Kittur

On inquiry a local suggested me to check out Gadarmaddi near Kalmath, seat of a local pontiff.


Gadarmaddi, an ancient tower similar to the one inside the fort is atop a hillock. It offers a good view of Kittur and surrounding plains. Unfortunately five cell phone towers stand on this hillock... better to spend as less time as possible.


Done with Kittur sight-seeing. The same person who suggested Gadarmaddi asked me to check out Rayanna's statue at Sangolli. I decided to drive down 15 kilometers to Sangolli, birth place os Krantiveera Rayanna, one of the trusted lieutenants of Rani Chennamma.

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Detail: Kittur Fort and Palace

0 Kalgudi of Degulahalli & Parshwanath of Kasamalagi

A short drive from Devgaon is Degulahalli. Village people guided me to Kalgudi ...a Shiva temple in ruins.


The temple's on the village outskirts, beyond it is just fields.






I climbed up to the terrace to get a better view of the lion faced sculpture. It's a wonderful piece of art work Nataraja with ten hands. The lion face has a real scary look.




I remember seeing characters similar to this in movies and video games.




A 3 feet tall Basavanna facing the Shivalinga. Of all the Nandis I've seen all are calves except for this one. This is clearly a grown up ox.


Stones throw away is the Madivaleshwara Mutta. It is believed that Madivaleswara of Garag established this Mutta.


I happened to meet one of the locals and was offered tea. We had tea together at the Mutta. I happened to notice that Jain community makes up a good percentage of the population in this region. I bid bye to my hosts - Jinappa Majgavi, Shankrayya Hiremut and his son. There was another person Sunil Bajannavar who had to leave on some urgent work. I drove towards Kasamalgi.


Kasamalgi is about 6km from Degulahalli. I was expecting to see a large statue but to my surprise it was a small one ...about three feet tall. The statue was found buried at... not sure if it's Devgoan or Kittur. It seems the worker digging away happened to hit the buried statue and the pickaxe bounced off with a loud noise. Work was stopped and the statue was discovered. Later it was installed at a small temple located in one of the narrow lanes of Kasamalgi.


I tried all possible angles to get a decent shot... Anyway, I saw the statue with my own eyes. One has to see the statue in real. I have no words to describe it.


From here I went towards Bidi, my next destination was Halasi.

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Detail: Kalgudi of Degulahalli & Parshwanath of Kasamalagi

0 Kamalanarayana Temple, Devgaon

Devgaon, Degulahalli, Kasamalagi and Halasi. Even though these places are close to Dharwad, I'd never heard people mention these places. A colleague who'd been to Halasi on a research project to take impression of an inscription at Narasimha temple. Directions I got; Halasi is close to Bidi. I knew Bidi is near Kittur.

I left Dharwad at 6AM, drove on NH4 towards Kittur. Few kilometers before Kittur, I saw Karnataka Tourism board with a list of tourist place in the vicinity.


I decided to visit all places... possible since they are all close by and roads are in pretty decent shape. At Kittur I turned off NH4 to my left towards Bidi.


About 5km down the road I turned left towards Devgaon. It’s a little village and anybody can direct you to the only temple- Kamalanarayana Gudi.


The temple is small but looks solid, lot of intricately sculpted stone art works.


Even though the side with sloping roof is the front portion the main entrance of the temple is on the right side.


This is the temple's main door.




As you step in and look up you see this wonderful wheel hanging from the ceiling. There are two such domes with delicately carved stone wheels.


Move in further, you can see two sanctum sanctorum.



Inscription in Halegannada (old Kannada) and Devanagiri.


I spent about 45 minutes looking around. I struggled to take pictures in here (I do not like to shoot with flash), either they would blur or turn out too dull. I shot a short video walking around the temple.



It's an interesting place to visit. If you are visiting Dharwad do not miss this monument. Make it a point to visit Kittur fort and Devgaon. If time permits you can visit Degulahalli, Kasamalagi and Halasi also.


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Detail: Kamalanarayana Temple, Devgaon