[kirantp]

Folks,

Here is a short write-up on the quick dash that we made on the weekend of 10th Oct.

Route: Bangalore-Kolar-Mulbagal-Bangalore

Places of visit:
1) Sri Lakshmi Venkateshwara Temple (Bangaru tirupati) at Guttahalli
2) Lord Hanuman Temple at Mulbagal
3) Lord Ganesh temple at Kurudumale
4) Anthargange at Kolar (Kashi Vishwanatha Temple)

Stored the planned places of visit mentioned above in my CASKA HU MMI navigation the previous night itself. Started from Marathhalli at 8:00AM after having breakfast at home. Time for testing my newly installed headrest monitors to the fullest as it was my 1st long drive after installing them. So, we packed DVDs of Mr Bean Holiday and Spiderman3 so that both my kids could watch these movies on their headrest monitors and I can drive peacefully .

Headed towards NH4 and after reaching Kolar, took right towards Bethmangala road and reached Bangaru tirupati at 9:45AM. There was not much crowd being a long weekend since most of the crowd would have vanished out of Bangalore .

All of us had a good darshan of the deity, took some snaps and headed towards the famous Lord Hanuman temple at Mulbagal which is about 26Kms from Bangaru tirupati.

We reached the Hanuman temple in no time (11AM) where we had a good calm darshan of lord Hanuman who is known as "Veera Anjaneya" (this Hanuman is holding a sword in one hand and Gadha in another) considered to be very powerful.

The day was quite pleasant and not so hot due to the overnight rain that we had making the ride very enjoyable.

We headed towards Kurudumale to visit the century old Lord Ganesh temple built by Vijayanagar kings. The idol is huge approx 14ft built of single saligrama rock which is considered to be very auspicious. A strange thing happend while we were attending the pooja at the temple. The priest all of a sudden came near us and started the archana pooja by asking our star and gothra even though we had not purchased any archana tickets. We considered this as a blessing from the lord himself and left the place after having a good darshan of the lord.

There is another Someshwara temple just a stones throw away from the Lord Ganesh temple. This temple is older that the Lord Ganesh temple cosidered to be built during the Chola period. The carvings and pillars are very good (unfortunately, we left the camera in the car and were not able to take pics).

After visiting these temples, it was time for lunch and we headed straight to Woodys on NH4 towards Kolar and reached there at 1PM. We started again at 2PM and headed straight to Anthargange, a beautiful rocky hill range situated at about 1226 Meters (4021ft.) which is approx 3Kms from inside proper Kolar.

We were welcomed by an army of monkeys as soon as we reached the entrance. The temple is located atop a hill where we had to climb a lot of steps. One can imagine our plight of climbing the hill just after lunch. Atlast, all of us made it to the top and were glad to see Anthargange (a sacred stream, that pours sweet water from the mouth of a bull) where a lot of people were filling their bottles and cans with this holy water.

We sprinkled this water on all of us and then visited Lord shiva temple where we were able to take good pic of Lord Shiva. We spent some time over there and started our descend back to the car.

With this, we had covered all the places as per the plan and we headed back home and reached in no time around 4:15PM.

Trip Summary:

Car: All New Honda City (ANHC)
Distance Covered: 238KMS
Fuel: 15Ltrs (Filled the tank up to neck and more than half tank was remaining after the trip)
Avg Mileage: 15.8
Road Conditions: Very good all along.
Navigation: MMI (Very good without any break in the signal)
http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/produc...on-review.html
ICE: Worked very well without any interruption and the kids enjoyed their movies.
http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/sound-...ut-beauty.html

Here are a few pics of the trip:

Spotted this car hosting LTD sticker on NH4 during our onward journey. Honked twice but he did not bother to respond and I wonder whether he is a TBHP member.



Bangarutirupati - View from the top.



Anthargange - Water flowing from bull's mouth.


Anthargange - Lord Shiva


Anthargange - The descend


View of the cloud on our return journey.

[Karthik1100]

Hi Kiran. Finally I see a travelogue on places around kolar.

Kurudumale happens to be my Dad's home town and my family, along with Govt, takes care of the Temple.

The Ganesha Idol is more than 800 years old and is 18 ft tall. There is a belief that the Idol has grown over the years. But the temple around the Idol was built by the Vijaynagar empire.

This Ganesha temple was recently renovated by Dharmasthala Veerendra Hegdeji. During the excavation around the temple, they found many statues buried in the ground and also pieces of gold.



In the Someshwara temple, did you notice the 5ft Ganesha at the entrance surrounded by a cage? The specialty is, the idol when knocked with your knuckles, produces different sound across different place on the idol.

[kirantp]

Originally Posted by Karthik1100

Hi Kiran. Finally I see a travelogue on places around kolar.

Kurudumale happens to be my Dad's home town and my family, along with Govt, takes care of the Temple.

The Ganesha Idol is more than 800 years old and is 18 ft tall. There is a belief that the Idol has grown over the years. But the temple around the Idol was built by the Vijaynagar empire.

This Ganesha temple was recently renovated by Dharmasthala Veerendra Hegdeji. During the excavation around the temple, they found many statues buried in the ground and also pieces of gold.

Attachment 830681

In the Someshwara temple, did you notice the 5ft Ganesha at the entrance surrounded by a cage? The specialty is, the idol when knocked with your knuckles, produces different sound across different place on the idol.

Attachment 830682

Attachment 830683

Karthik, Thanks for providing more inputs and pics of the temples. Glad to know that your family is taking care of this historic protected monument. I was not aware of this peculiar phenomenon with the Ganesha idol at Someshwara temple so did not try it. Shall definitely make one more trip there and experience it.

Regards,
Kiran

[gkveda]

Originally Posted by kirantp

Folks,

Here is a short write-up on the quick dash that we made on the weekend of 10th Oct.

Places of visit:
Lord Ganesh temple at Kurudumale

Kiran
We are planning a trip to Mulabagal on 25th Feb along with elders (65+ years age)
It would be great if you can clarify the below queries

1. How is the route from Mulabagal to Kurudumale?
2. Can the car(Qualis) go upto the temple gate? Or Is there a hillock which needs to be climbed to reach temple?
3. If there is a hillock, How many steps are there? Can aged people climb them(65+ Years)
4. What are the hours during which the temple is open?

Thanks in advance

[Fauji]

Nice one!! Thanks for sharing.

How did you miss out Avani near Mulbagal? A lovely place to explore temples from 10th century and a small hill which has one of the few temples for Sita!!

Possibly you should do next time. Plan it immediately after rain to cover Avani, Devarayasamudra and come back after seeing Kaigal falls near VG Kote.