Hoysala Temples - First Day

One of the things that I prefer to have is to have a breakfast option during my hotel stays. This one did not came with that option but certainly had a restaurant to eat. 

First stop was going to be 29 kms away from my hotel. The temple that I was visiting was in Javagal. Kind of reminded of our former fast bowler Javagal Srinath who also hails from Karnataka. He was not born here though.

It was the month of Dec 2024 and still the rain would drizzle now and then. The road was covered with greenery on both sides. Nature is best experienced during the rains. 

I reached my first temple for the day, the Sri Lakshmi Narasimha Temple. The temple entrance is greeted by two beautiful small elephants. The temple is a trikuta (three shrines). 

When I reached there, a pooja was being conducted adjacent to the temple. As I entered inside the temple premises, the temple was relatively smaller in height compared to the ones that we often come across. There were hardly any people on this side of the temple. 

I find it strange that I do not even visit the local temples in my area and here I am fascinated by a temple hundreds of kms away that is said to built in the 13th century.

One of the fascinating part of the Hoysala architecture is the way the temple exterior is considered as a canvas for depicting the revered gods  Its almost like walking through art inside a museum. Every wall with gods and others depicted had a story to tell. 

The good thing was that they were in good condition, takes one back in time. The detailing and the intricacies of those sculptures were mesmerizing. I entered inside the temple, it was dimly lit and I was the only one inside. There were three statues i.e., of  Lakshminarasimha, Sridhara and Venugopala on all the three directions. 

The foundation of the temple had the circular lathe-turned pillars and is so fine that it felt almost machine cut. Its a wonder how the know-how of this work has been lost on us.

Paying my respect to the gods and admiring the inner sanctum, I exited the temple and moved to the next hall where the pooja was being conducted. There was also a goddess idol shrine over there. Offered my prayers, stood for a while attending the pooja and made my exit from the temple. 

From there, I headed towards Sri Veeranarayana swamy temple in Belavadi which was around 30-32 kms away. It was again a secluded place with hardly any tourist/people around. 

The Hoysala architecture was evident here too. This temple is dedicated to Vishnu.  As one walks towards the main shrine, the walls of the temple adorned with beautiful carvings makes its presence felt. Even the ceiling had Vishnu playing the flute.  

I bumped into the priest who informed me not to take photos of the idols, something that I abide by.

The approach to the main deity' room was almost dark with hardly any lights. I said my prayers and decided to explore the exterior of the temple which was similar to the earlier one in terms of the sculpting carved.

From there I went to visit my last temple of the day, Ancient Hoysala Shri Doddagaddavalli Lakshmi Devi Temple. This place was another 30 kms away.

Its always a good practice that when one is away from the toll free highways and all, a biker should always choose the car mode to avoid any kind of surprises that good map might come up with in terms of best route.

I almost ended up in someone's house but thankfully there was a way out and I was able to reach this temple from a less traveled road trail. As I was parking my bike near the temple, it started raining, more of drizzle. As I was making my way to the temple, a couple also entered the temple premises.

This temple is said to be built in the 12th century by a wealthy merchant Kalhana Ravuta and his wife Sahaja Devi during the reign of the famous Hoysala King Vishnuvardhana.

The highlight for me in this temple was the two demon shaped sculptures outside the shrine of Kali goddess who was hidden behind the open top half closed doors, with the face of goddess carved above it.

There were few local villagers here along with the security women who were doing pooja for the lord Shiva deity. The couple who had entered before me were taking pictures and when I started taking them, I was told no photos still I managed a few but not enough for my liking.

The temple complex consisted of the main temple and the entrance hall which also had a seating arrangement. One could see the main temple with the Hoysala emblem on the top from the entrance hall. There were also small temples within the complex but there were no idols in it.  

After the pooja was over, prasadam was distributed which I took with me. It was still raining and I decided to find a space for myself in the entrance hall. The villagers too joined along with their kids and of course the security guard whom I hated for not allowing me take pictures inside the temple.

I had a good conversation with a little girl who could speak in English but not Hindi and the mother had no clue what we were talking about. I finished my prasadam but the rain did not look it was going to stop anytime soon.

After spending sometime, I decided it was time to make a move. Put on my rain gear and walked towards my bike to head back to my hotel. 

It was time to call it a day. 

 

 

Hoysala Temples

 

I have to say that in the past two years I think I have done a lot of traveling which I dont think I ever did in my life. That too solo.

 Its interesting how things open up when you decide to travel on your own and not wait for anyone to join in. Another side effect is that seeing one travel so much they also decide to join you in your coming trip which actually happened when I had decided for the Bhimashanker trip on the bike. 

That trip was supposed to be a stepping stone for another trip of mine that I was planning, again on a bike.

 I have to say that growing up I did believed in God, in fact as a child used to do aarti also after taking a bath and all, visiting local temples and all. Nobody told me to do that but I used to do that on my own. 

For me as a child, God was a friend who helps the good people and thrashes the bad people. Then I had a fight with god and I simply stopped doing what I used to do. That would include visiting the local temples too. Even now I hardly visit the local temples.

That did not meant I gave up on our friendship but yes I was angry. As a child sometimes one does not understand the turns life takes nor one gets the answers they are searching for.

I am very much invested in the Indian mythologies especially Mahabharath and do wish to read the Vedas or Upanishads if I can. I find it very odd that foreigners found inspiration in our ancient texts and built something that could end the world. Yet here we are being independent for over 75 years as a country and a majority of Indians are pretty clueless about the contributions that India has made in the world or how advanced our ancestors were. Its a pity.

 When I decided to travel, visiting temples was certainly not on my list. Yet here we are and I have already visited a few in places like Hampi, Tripura, Bhimashankar, Gujarat and others to name a few.

I realized that its the temple architecture that has my attention. Those beautiful carvings carved out, the detailing and intricate designs speak so much of ability to tell stories out a stone.

I also have to state that Instagram scrolling also enabled to know more about such places of worship which have been built beautifully but I had no clue about.

They Hoysala temples were one of those reels that I would come across and would be mesmerized by the beautiful carved statues and the mandanikas. Also who can forget those perfect polished granite pillars and its complex designs, when there were no machines around.  

Wondering how did this trip happened? Well, I needed a break. Its so strange that within a couple of months from my Tripura trip. I went ahead with this one.

More on that I did this trip on my bike. That was not the first choice but given the transportation concerns, I thought it would be better to ride on my bike and it certainly did not disappoint.

 Doing a bike ride on the highways has its own fun.

 I would be sharing the travel details in my upcoming posts. If its more than one blog posts then I would link it below for easy reference.

Lucky to Be Alive!!!

I thought this would be my last trip. If you have traveled in one of those "Super Express" buses plying in the state of Karnataka/Kerala, you would know what I am talking about.

This is not the first time that I was riding on these buses. The experience this time was definetly terrifying though. It looked as if the driver had made his mind up to live up to the name of "Super Express". For once I felt that the BEST buses in Mumbai was a smaller evil in front of this monster, but then you don't have so many open roads in Mumbai where you can really make your vehicles go faster.

Down here in Kerala, private buses form the crux of the road transportation. As there are many players involved, competition is tough. A case of who gets the passengers first at each stop and they would do anything to out do each other even if it means speeding, making dangerous manevours and overtakes.

The bus in which I was traveling had almost knock down a biker who made a wrong pass. The bus driver even went ahead and tried to make a U-turn without slowing down so as to reach the bus stop in the first position. His efforts did not pay off, but he did made me realize how one would feel if the bus is on a two set of tyres. There was a moment when I started chanting GOD's name when standing in a position made it possible for me to look outside the same glass the driver was looking through. The way he was driving, you too would have started praying. I am pretty sure that some of these 'maverick' drivers might have ended up in accidents. I wished not to be a part of it.

I am not sure if the people of Kerala find this amusing, but something should be done about this. For me, the bus ride was one hell of a journey and I feel Lucky to Be Alive!!