A trip to Melukote & adi chunchanagiri

Melukote is a historic place. The great guru Ramanujacharya stayed in this place for 14 yrs and has built famous temple called Sri Cheluv Narayanaswamy. Beautiful sculptures of columns and temple structure are really attractive.

There is one more Temple in the top of the hill called Yoga Narashinha swamy. It is said to be constructed in the period of Hoysala. The panorama of surrounding from the top of this temple is really breathtaking.

There are several water ponds in melukote in which one pond called Kalyani is really big and nice one to see to it.

The other two ponds are Akkan Kola (Elder Sister pond) and Thangiy Kola (Younger sister pond). It is very strange to know that the water residing in these two ponds is unlike although both ponds are located very next to each other as Akkan kola water is a salty one and thangiy kola water is sweet one.
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After noon we headed towards Aadhi chunchangiri. Temple Kalabairaveshwara in aadhi chunchanagiri is really a nice temple to visit. This Temple has been built with modern touch and is located on the steep hill. A well maintained place where all kind of facility is made available to devotees including arrangement of Prasad (meal).

Apart from main temple (Kalabairaveshwara) there are other small temples too on the hill going further. One has to be ready to climb steep steps to have a glimpse of panorama from the height. It was really a rare experience of reaching the peek and having a sight of nature's scene.
I suggest those who visit these two places (Melukote and Aadhi chunchangiri) prepare to spend more time.
Though there are more steps to climb as temples are in high hill, going up such a height, believe me one may not feel it difficult and tired. May be the magic of fresh air and the divine power of the place itself would not make you much tired.

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It was in the evening we travelled towards Yedeyuru, another famous holy place on the way.
We still had time in the evening after Yediyuru visit. It was on kid’s insistence we proceeded to Markonahalli Dam.
A small reservoir located few kilometers from the main road. Indeed it was good to experience a real village environment where people were returning home after their cattle feed. A greenery land along the road to reservoir was pleasure to watch.

North Karnataka side Marriage function rituals

It's called "Halagamba" (tying a small thorn tree to wooden pole)

One has to bind tiny thorn tree to "Halgamba" on whom in-laws pour color

We had a good marriage season this time attending 3 marriages, which were of close relatives. It was nice to attend this kind of marriages, where in all marriages traditional rituals were the highlights. Truly it was an occasion to meet elders and distance relatives and get to know new people. All it was like a get together occasion.

Pleasure being part of those functions held before marriage day and on marriage day. There is a belief to follow and perform traditional rituals as they are auspicious. Also these traditional practices are regarded and followed because of their significance with respect to marriages. It’s good that these practices are kept alive at least through village side marriage functions.

After long time it was an opportunity to taste again North Karnataka marriage party’s foodstuff, where all favorite items were being served in all 3 marriage places.

Village Fair

It’s been a good vacation to native this time, as there was a village fair.
Summer vacation wouldn’t have been better without village fair and family get together.
Samuhik vivah (Mass marriages in one roof) had been organized on this fair occasion to help those who cannot afford marriage cost individually.
They have been conducting group marriage ceremony from fast 5 years.

Really it is an appreciable effort by village leaders. It helps those who cannot afford marriage expenses. All village people and surrounding people voluntarily contribute for this event and make it successful.

This time there were 24 couples entered into marriage knot. This is not an easy task to handle, requires prepared plan to execute and control the crowd. Enough food was prepared but the serving of food was not managed properly.

Yamanuru - shrine: Symbol of Secularism

Yamanuru, a village located near Navalagund in Dharwad District. There is a temple which is indeed a symbol of secularism, where all religious people worship. Distant located devotees visit this place on every Thursday.
The temple attracts all kind of devotees, irrespective of caste and creed. Though temple looks like Muslim dargha externally, it has Hindu god idol (Ganesh) on front door. God name also resembles combination of Hindu and Muslim name. The tradition is that, most of the devotees take a dip in a small stream of water. Devotees don’t bother to take a dip in highly contaminated water. They call it as a tradition and belief to take bath before visiting temple. I feel it’s a height of belief to take bath and drink such impure water in the name of devotion.

Here I have uploaded some pics of this holy place.

Helavaru

This time when I had been to native, I could able to meet and gather some information about Helavaru.
Helavaru means narrator, they narrate history of a family.
Helavaru is a community name. They basically live in North Karnataka region.
Their profession is to maintain a record of family histories and narrate about family origin and its branches.

In the winter season they wander village to village and visit each house of village to narrate about that family history.
They always move along with pink color shawl, wrapping records containing books in it and basic necessities like tent materials, cart etc.

Basically they start reading origin of family and head of family from whom it’s been rooted to latest member of the family, maintaining it in a chart. Vary similar to one which we use in organization chart at office.

If there is any new member name to be added in the list (new birth in the family) will be recorded by them. It is a tradition that village people have to give them something like money, grains or any domestic animals like cow, hen, goat etc.

Above are the pictures of their records and their photo’s along.

Godachi Veerabhadreshwar

One of the ancient temple located in a village called Godachi, which is in Belgaum destrict of Karnataka state. A holy place of deity shree veerabhadreshwara, an incarnation of lord Shiva.
The temple is said to have been built during the period of Vijayanagar. According to a legend, Shivasharanas on way to Ulvi fought a battle here.

Many far distance devotees worship this god. Most of the devotees visit this temple on every purnima and Amavasya. Yearly once there would be a fair held to honor deity shree Veerabhadreshwar, more than 30000 devotees gather to mark the celebration. My native is located very near to this place. Its pleasure to recall those joyful day's of going to fair in a bullock cart.

Everyone enjoy and celebrate fair in thier own style, especially for kids lots of things would be there to enjoy like rotating swing, kids train, mini circuses and fun shows. Women would go on their own way of fair celebration by purchasing lots of house hold equipmets alongwith visiting stationery shops to purchase bangles and other adorning items.

Dramas are among the main attraction of this fair. Every year they put drama tents and play social and comedy based dramas. A good entertainment for those who love to watch drama. The shows run for months together.

I have an association to this place. I stayed here for 3 years during my higher primary education. This place is so pleasant because of divine atmosphere. I feel, the combination of spiritual and calm environment helped me to develop good study habits

Madikeri, a Heaven place on Earth

A place to enjoy full of greenery, mist clouds, beautiful blue sky, fresh air to breathe in, total awesome nature panorama and also some tourist places to visit.
It is nice to visit in cold season to this place.

Origin of River Cauveri

This place is called Talcauveri located in the midst of green mountains and blue peaks.
It is about 40 kms of distance from the city Madikeri.

It is a place where it is surrounded by many mountains and one can feel real heaven here. A forceful steady wind forces everyone to be cautious going beyond fenced area. Don’t forget to take sufficient snaps at this view point covering all directions.

It has become a holy place where the river cauveri has its origin.
There is a steep mountain adjacent to this holy place where one can go on top of the hill through steps. Here you get to see beautiful panorama of nature.
I never thought that this place would appear so pleasant to me.

Raja Seat Madikeri

Raja’s Seat, literally meaning Seat of the King, is located at the western end of Madikeri and is a well maintained.

This is where Madikeri Raja was used to watch a beautiful Sunset from this place.
It is really nice place to watch the nature’s beauty in the evening along with sunset.
It is a panorama of nature which will turn into rosy in the evening when sun began to set.
Very deep indeed and vast greenery at the far end overlapped mountains where sun immerses.

Dubare

Dubare is located on the bank of river cauveri.

Here Elephant training camp has been setup by forest department.
It was a nice experience to cross the river in a machine driven boat to reach other side of the river to watch the elephant training camp.
We got to see how wild elephants are being trained here. There is an option to participate in bathing of elephants and also there is a facility to have an elephant ride.

Nisargdhama

Cauveri Nisarga dhama is a popular picnic spot and is located 35 km from Madikeri
It is undertaken by government of Karnataka where all nature beauty is well maintained to feel the forest environment.

Ranganthittu

From Bangalore on the way to Madikeri there is a bird sanctuary called Ranganthittu located near Mysore.
It is a real bird’s heaven place. It is an extension of river cauveri where the migrated birds from different countries race here to stay in some season.
It is beautiful to watch different kind of birds and their good looks.

Musical fountain

There is a musical fountain at Raja seat to entertain the tourists.
It attracts people by its music and beautiful dance of water.
It is a real treat for those who have come to watch sunset with amusement of musical fountain as a supplement after sunset.

Golden Temple (Tibetan's camp)

There is a Tibetan’s camp and place of pilgrimage located near Kushalnagar. When I entered into this place, I never thought that I would feel entering into a different country. It is so nice to watch their prayer and monuments.