Halebid Belur Trip

Plainly Speaking ,

The world can be divided into two sets of people.

Those who have visited the temples in Halebid and Belur and
Those who have not visited it.

Lots have been said about other monuments in India , especially Taj Mahal.
But everything will become false when compared with the temples in Halebid.

To compare , most of what you find in Taj Mahal are engravings , meaning its twodimensional.
But in Halebid and Belur you have a additional dimension .
All sculptures are Three dimensional , meaning that all sculptures , from the smallest one to the biggest one are as perfect in the back side as they are in the front.

If you have never heard of the Hoysalas , it is time that you heard about them.
The Hoysalas were Hindu kings who ruled over parts of karnataka for some centuries .
The Hoysalas were talented enough to grab a place for them in history due to their various contributions to art and architecture .
They perfected a distinct style of temple architecture that is clearly different from anything you would have seen till now.

Their temples had no super structure , means the temple itself was flat on the roof , there are no gopurams.
Most of their temples are star shaped and the entire temple itself was placed on a high surface.

The temples I had gone were

1. Hoysaleswara Temple , Halebeedu
2. Kesave Temple , Halebeedu
3. Jain Basadihalli , Halebeedu
4. Chenna Kesava Swamy Temple , Belur

The entrance to the Old city. Halebeedu means Old city in Kannada .



The Hoysaleswara temple as the name signifies is a temple dedicated to shiva.

Front view



Left Side view



As with all shiva temples , before the deity you have to go thru the vahanam .and it will be Nandi for Shiva.
This temple also has a Nandi statue , to say correctly 3 Nandis,.
We will look at the Nandi statues in this temple .

Nandi -1
This Nandi statue is the most polished Nandi of all. In its good times ,it must have been fit to serve as a mirror.



Nandi - 2



Nandi - 3



Dwarpalaka

All Hindu temples , if you have noticed properly , will have dwarapalakas , on either side of the entrance to the sanctum sanctorum or the garba griham.



Hoysalaeswara , Halebeedu

Usually in Hindu temples the deities are not allowed to be photographed , but since this temple is not being worshipped now , we can have a photo of the deity.



Interior





After having a look at the interiors of the temple , we will look at whats on the outside.

Dancing ganesha



Lone Ganesha



Brahma , Shiva , Vishnu , Paarvathi



Shiva Paarvathi



Vishnu , Lakshmi



Shiva inside a Elephants belly

This sculpture depicts shiva as inside the belly of an elephant.




krishna



Narasimha



Lady with the Mirror



Lady with the Drum

The temple had many statues of ladies , apsaras , sundaris , maids , whatever you call them .
And all of them are said to display a different "bhavam" in their face.



Elephant Chariot



Archer



Men fighting an elephant



Crocodile-Elephant
This is a mystical animal with the jaws of a crocodile fitted to the body of an elephant.



Most of the people leave Halebeedu after visiting the Hoysaleswara Temple, but there are more ruins in Halebeedu .
You have to take the road on the left of the temple and go some distance and you will reach a pair of small temples .

Kesava Temple , Halebeedu



Jain Basadihalli , Halebeedu

The Jain Basadihallis were supposed to contain Pillars that were so polished , that they could serve as mirrors.
But now they are damaged due to vagaries of time. But I was able to see a shadow of myself in the pillar.




Belur :

Belur is the home to Chenna Kesava Swamy (vishnu) temple, another fine example of Hoysala Architecture.
The Original temple consisted only of the main temple and the walls surrounging the temple and the gopuram were built later .
The gopurams have been built in the dravidial style of architecture.

Belur Temple Gopuram



The Vahanam for Vishnu would be Garuda .



Chennak Kesava Swamy , Belur



Maid in the Pillar



Base of Temple





As was the norm in those days each empire had a royal emblem and for the hoysalas it was the lion.

Lion



Exterior



Mysore

Mysore was our next stop enroute to Bangalore.

The places we visited in Mysore were

1. Mysore Palace
2. Lalita Mahal Palace

Mysore Palace :

The Mysore palace was at its best when we visited it.It was Dussehra and Dussehra festival was the most celebrated one in Mysore.



The palace was built on a huge piece of land , had lots of rooms filled with treasured items , had a golden throne displayed in it.
But all of these was NOTHING compared to what we had seen in Halebid and Belur.

Places I Missed out on this tour.

1. Sravanabelagola.
2. Somnathpur
3. Chamundeeswari temple.


Cheers
Megarajan

Guntur Trip

Date : 24,25,26 Jan 2004
Places : Guntur , Narasaraopet , Kotappakonda , Kondaveedu ,Vijayawada

You people need to know Kota. He joined with us in HCL as an already experienced person. He had worked in the IISC lab where PARAM is kept , where Abdul Kalam had worked. He even showed us a photo that he had taken with Abdul Kalam . He was a very innocent character but very much talkative.

I still remember how Kota used to say to us that "Mama , I am getting old , but my parents are not at all worried" :-). We wished him that he would get married soon. soon our wish became true and Our beloved Kota was getting married. He was getting married in his hometown in Guntur District.

We had made big plans to attend his marriage and then do a short trip of the surrounding places. As the in-house guide , I prepared a list of all the places near Guntur to see and we were all set. The person who booked the train tickets for the journey dropped out in the last minute and he has been missing ever since. He was Sandesh Singh Sodhi .

The trip started with we starting from Chennai and landing in a obscure railway station , the name I dont remember . From there we travelled by bus for 3 hrs to reach Narasaropet . We passed many villages and one of them , we were told was the birthplace of many of Andhras politicians.

Guntur:

The town of Guntur was the headquarters of the Guntur district and the Guntur town wore a very clean and neat look .

Marriage :

The marriage was a regular Telugu Marriage and the only thing I remember now is that we were offered food in round paper plates and not in Banana leaves. I never seen it any other marriage.



1. KotappaKonda

Kotappakonda was a small hillock with a shiva temple in it.



On top of Kotappakonda



There was also a small collection of animals housed near Kotappakonda . It included a large variety of birds .

Love Birds in KotappaKonda :

The Photo credits for this goes to Senthilraja .



View of the Plains from Kotppakonda :



2. Varsham - Telugu Film:

Our goal was to effectively spend a evening in Narasaropet , the hometown of Kota . So the thought of seeing a film came . Thiyagu was the person who staunchly voted for seeing a Telugu fim and that too Varsham. I believe , To really enjoy the culture of any state , you need to see a local film in that state. So we decided to see Varsham in Andhra .



It was just then released and we didnt have any Reviews in favour of it. but we went in and at the end did not have a big grudge against it. The HERO looked like a villain is a different matter. But all of it was erased by the fact that the film starred Trisha and had used her beauty fully to its advantage.The film had good melodious songs , good picturisation and a cute heroine to top it .


3. Kondaveedu :

Kondaveedu was supposed to be one of Aurangazebs forts. As soon as we descended at the bottom of the mountain one question raised in everybodys mind. Do we need to do this. And Some barve soul started it by walking towards the mountain .Everybody was sure by the looks of it that this was going to be one hell of a trekking seesion . The fort had a small village at its bottom , where Aurangazeb's soldiers descendants have settled now. We got the company of an old man who told that he would act our guides if we agree to pay him 100 RS .After deciding its ok , we started the climb guided by the old man who trekked like he was a teenager.

I really lost count of how many times we had stopped during the climb, with many people begging to be left .Maadesh was the worst affected ,but was helped by Srijith who carried his bag and Maadesh's bag throughout the climb.



4. Amaravathi Temple :

Amaravathi was nice little town on the banks of Krishna river .It has a special importance in Hindu Mythology being home to one of the Shiva temples where the lingam is one among the 5 lingams which represent the five forces of Nature . It is said to have one of the tallest lingams in india that is still being worshipped.



5. Managalagiri Temple :

Mangalagiri has a old and interesting legend attached to it. The deity here is the Narasimha and the specialty is that whatever the quantity of panaga theertham the devotee offer to the god, he will drink only half ... You give a glass full , he will drink only half glass , u give him a "kudam" full , he will drink only half of that.



On Top of Mangalagiri



Another temple in Vijayawada



6. Kanaga durga Temple :

Kanaga Durga temple is one of the most popular Durga temples in Andhra .It was situated in a small hill in Vijayawada .



6. Prakasam Barrage :

Prakasam Barrage is a dam constructed across the Krishna River in Vijayawada . It was nice picnic spot in Vijayawada.

Krishna River :



It was a tiresome 3 days of travel and enjoyment.

All tired , On the banks of Krishna River .



The guy who missed all the fun in this was Bala , who had to return to Chennai immediately for handling a customer case. I am glad that I was not in the "MOST WANTED" lists.

Places I wished I could have seen in this trip

1. Guthikonda caves : These are natural caves which are thousands of years old and our plans to go to it were destroyed by the fact that heavy fighting was going between Naxalites and CRPF in the caves that time .

2. Amaravathi Buddhist Stupa :

During the last part of our trip we were left with nobody speaking telugu and hence we could not find the way to this and missed this . I regret very much for this. I have never seen a buddhist stupa till now .

3. Amaravathi Museum :

The Museuem is supposed to contain good buddhist relics , but as fate would have it , we reached the town of Amaravathi after 5.00 and by that time the Museum was closed.

Content : Megarajan
Photo Credits : Senthilraja

Cheers
Megarajan

Wayanad Trip

Places : Kalpetta , Mananthavady .
People : Mega , Parames , Saravanan , Vijayan ,Senthil , Mohan .

Wayanad is the northern most region of Kerala and is a great place to do trekking with many number of temples and mountains.I had gone to Wayanad as part of HCL's Annual tour Programme. We went by train from Madras to Quilondi and then from there by bus to Kalpetta via calicut.

Landing in Quilondi Railway Station



The places we visited in Wayanad.

Chain Tree :

Once upon a time there was a British Engineer who found the way to Wayanad with the help of a Tribal from Wayanad. To take the credit of discovering wayanad ,he killed the tribal who showed him the way. The ghost of the tribal haunted travellers who travelled by the way . After some time the ghost was reportedly Chained by a Priest to a tree . The Chain tree is the place where the ghost was chained to a tree and you can still find the chain tied to the tree there.



Soochipara Waterfalls :

Soochipara Waterfalls is a nice little waterfalls. It is also known as Sentinal Rock Waterfalls.



After this , we hired our own jeep and went to see all the places. Jeep travel in Kerala is a experience in itself.

Valliyoor Bhagavathi Amman :

Valliyoor Bhagavathi amman temple is one of the most famous amman temple in Kerala and is a very old one. It finds mention in the historic novel ( Cheraman Kadhali ) by Kannadasan.

The Temple :



Me and My Friends in front of the temple



Thrisilaserry Sivan Temple :

Thrisilaserry is home to one of the famous shiva temples in Wayanad.



Thirunelly Vishnu Temple:

Thirunelly is one of the famous vishnu temples in Kerala , with legends being that Parasurama himself built this temple.



The daily pooja which happens at 12.00 in Thirunelly.



The Nelly Tree in Thirunelly

All templs have a sacred tree associated with them and for this Thirunelly temple it is this Nelly Tree.



Tholpetty Wildlife Sanctuary :

Tholpetty is a small Wildlife sanctuary situated in Wayanad. We had a nice time travelling through it.

Tree in Tholpetty :



Road thru Tholpetty Wildlife Sancturary
This Photo was taken when we were going in the jeep and after looking at this photo I admire my stable hands.



Kuruwadweep Islands :

Kuruwadweep Islands are a set group of small islands formed by the Kabini river. The kuruwadweep though was important from ecological point of view , had nothing much to offer. We took a nice bath there .



Pazhassi Raja Tomb :

Pazhassi Raja , Lion Of Kerala was a local chieftain , who raised in revolt against the british and was killed fighting them . He was an equivalent of our own "kattabomman". His army wa supposed to consist of people who were trained in Kalari and were invincible by the british for sometime .The British on knowing that the strength of these people lie in kalari training , passed a rule that Kalari was against the government and was forbidden. This was the beginning of the decline of Kalari .



Edakkal Caves:

Edakkal Caves are supposed to be the oldest cave inscriptions found in India. Some of the inscriptions are in Tamil , a fact that every Tamilian can be proud of his language.

The trip to Edakkal Caves proved the most daunting and most tiresome. There was a steep trek of 2KM which can be covered only by walk.

Taking Rest while climbing the Edakkal Caves



The Entrance



Inside Edakkal Caves


Outside Edakkal Caves



At the bottom of Edakkal Caves



That was the end of a nice trip with lots of trekking .We came back to Madras by Train from calicut to our ordinary dull lives.

As a good traveller , I wanted more of Wayanad , but time was less .
Some more Places I wished I were able to see in Wayanad were

1. Glass Temple ( kannadi ambalam ) in Kootumundu. This is a private property and special permission a day before is needed to visit this.
2. Chembra Peak - A nice trek up the hill .
3. Muthunga Wildlife Sanctuary -

Cheers
Megarajan