I was going to visit the famed Chennakesava Temple today in daylight. The temple was at a walkable distance from my hotel. I had already visited the place yesterday in the night during one of my walking strolls.
The day started late due to delay on the breakfast front. The town of Belur is a quiet one and the place where I resided was near to a market place. In terms of exploring the town there was not much to do. I used to stroll the roads of this town and come back empty handed. It was like any other town in India which was finding its footing in the urban India.
As one reaches the steps of the temple, its lays protected behind the walls tall enough to make it disappear on the outside. As one enters the temple complex they are greeted by the tall golden pillar that stands in front of the temple.
The Chennakesava Temple is a 12th century temple and was planned by King Vishnuvardhana and took over three generations or 103 years to complete. The temple was repeatedly plundered and damaged but repeatedly repaired and built over the years. One look at the temple complex and its indistinguishable that it was damaged.
Instead of entering the main temple, I decided to see the other places within the complex. On the left side one would find the deepa sthambha that stood tall. To the south is the Kappe Chennigaraya temple. The name is said to be drawn from a tale that once a frog (also known as Kappe in Kannada) was found on its navel. The other temples found in this complex are Saumyanaki Temple, Ranganayaki (Andal) Temple & Viranarayan Temple.
A pillared corridor surrounding the main temple houses numerous smaller shrines, with several single & double shrines. There is also a water tank on the right side of the main entrance of the temple complex which is not visible as a wall boundary has been built around it.
On the entrance of the temple, one is greeted by the Hoysala symbol. This temple is not very different in terms of its architecture but the highlight of this temple would be Madanika. Its said to be around more than 80 such idols in various poses in the temple complex. The artwork inside this temple is immersive, even the ceiling has its tale to tell.
One cannot get enough of this place with its soapstone carvings. They are one of the finest sculpting that I have come across.
As I exited, I decided to get some kind of souvenir in terms of fridge magnets but sadly they do not have that many options, I still found one of my liking and bought it. Nearby there were women selling all kinds of carvings in stone. As I checked I found one turtle and a Shiv ling idol and got them. Buying them almost resulted into a fight from another women selling her wares who got upset when I did not bought it from here. Surprising part was they all had the UPI scanner available with them to make payment. Talk about digital India.
Belur is also known for its coffee similar to Chikmagalur and got some for the home.
From there, I decided to visit the Ancient Hoysala Shri Pathaleshwara Temple which was nearby but it was locked.
My next stop was to visit the Yagachi Dam and the Yagachi Water Sports which was around 5 kms from the hotel. Hopped on my ride and went to the dam first. The experience was ok and there was nothing much to do over there. I moved on to the water sports place and I believe with the right kind of people around this could be fun. As for me, there was nothing much to do, I enjoyed the view and left back to my place.
Since I had the rest of the day off, I decided to get my bike washed and that I think caused problems for during my return to Mumbai. Stay tuned, all will be revealed in the next post.
