Day 1 - 15th July 2008

Getting up early to begin our day at 7:00 AM was bit of a challenge. We had logged in the lodge only at 2:00 AM and heavy rains during most of our drive didn't help either. We left for our first destination - Koravangala only at 9:23 AM


Koravangala:

Koravangala is a small village located 10 kilometers north-east of Hassan. Our guide is from Koravangala and we were to meet him at Koravangala. We reached Koravangala at 9:45 AM. Our guide is patiently waiting for us at the gates of the temple.

The temple at Korvangala is called Bucesvara. It is a dwikuta temple with the two shrines facing each other. The main shrine has a Shiva Linga and the other shrine has mythological Surya. The temple was built in 1173 AD (during the reign of Veera Ballala II - 1173 to 1220 AD) by a rich officer named Buci. However, according to our guide the temple was built by king Buci. Whether Buci was an officer or a king? The locals may believe him to be a king as he was wealthy and commanded authority.

According to our guide the Hoysala temples follow principles of Atharva Veda. He explained me why but his explanation remained elusive to me. May be not enough information. He further shared with us some folk tales associated with the temple. And how the Cholas were defeated by the Hoysalas in a tug of war somewhere near the temple.

In addition to the beautiful Shiva Linga, the temple has some more interesting pieces like...

-The temple is beautiful and the sculptures on the outer walls of the main shrine are average when compared to scultures of other Hoysala temples. However some of them are unique; like the one on the left which is depicting survival of the fittest (more powerful killing and eating the weaker).

- Inside the main shrine there are several bays in the wall (this is true for some other Hoysala temples as well) hosting some Gods and Godessess. One of them has an interesting stone slab that contain 9 images. 7 of these are 7 incarnation of the Goddess Parvati. The sculpture begins with an image of Ganesha and ends with Shiva. According to our guide, if the sculpture would have began with Parvati as the first image, it would have Kartikeya in the end.

- The Nandi, vehicle of lord Shiva, is very peculiar. It rotates 360 degrees on its axis. Our guide advises us to make a wish to lord Shiva and rotate the Nandi. If Nandi rotates smoothly, lord Shiva will fulfill our wish. We diligently take his advice and bingo, looks like lord Shiva granted all our wishes. I believe such small things are important part of temple visits in general. If one has faith these things are more fun and rewarding.

- This is one of the few temples which still has the Kalasa and the emblem intact. In most of the Hoysala temples the Kalasa is an after fit as the original one has given away.

We spent around 2 hours and 45 minutes at the temple and were then ready to leave for our next destination - Arsikere.


Arsikere:

Arsikere is around 40 kilometers North East of Hassan. It is around 35 kilometers from the Koravangala temple. Arsikere is a popular town for the Coconut trade and has remained a important city during the Hoysala rule.

We reached Arsikere at around 1:00 PM and decided to have lunch first. Our guide carefully selected a restuarant but the food was really awful. But we were happy to have our stomach filled.

After completing our lunch we reached the Shivalaya (also known as Iswara Temple) at 2:17 PM.



Arsikere temple was built around 1220 AD (during the reign of Vira Narasimha II) by some local rich merchants. It is a ekakuta temple having a Shiva Linga. Today the temple is flocked by the local population (mainly lingayats).

The Shiva Linga is nice and this temple sees regular prayers by the priest and devotees. The temple has a beatiful open hall in the shape of 16 pointed star. It had started drizzling and as we sat in the hall, cool breeze greeted our faces. I am missing that wonderful environment as I write this blog. One more thing that I feel is worth mentioning about the temple is the idol of Goddess Chamundeswari inside the temple sanctorum (it is located in the closed hall). Our guide once again advises to take blessing from the Goddess as he believes that many of his wishes were granted by the Goddess. We pray and pay our obeisance to the Goddess and quickly make wishes that we would like to be fulfilled.

We finally leave Arsikere at 3:10 PM after spending some 50 minutes. Our next destination is Haranhalli. Haranhalli is around 8 kilometers from Arsikere on the same route back to Hassan. Yes we came past Haranhalli to reach Arsikere but we wanted to have lunch first and Arsikere was a better place (among available options) to have lunch.


Haranhalli:

Haranhalli has two Hoysala temples. One Vaishnav and one Shaiva. Both these temples were constructed around 1235 AD during the reign of Vira Someswara.





We first go to the Vaishnav temple. This is the first Hoysala Vaishnav temple that we are visiting on this trip. the Vaishnav temple is called Lakshmi Narsinha temple but some texts also refer to the temple as Chenna Kesava temple. This is a trikuta temple having three shrines. The main shrine has Vishnu but there is one more idol (of Vishnu) that is referred as Kesava and hence the name Chenna Kesava. The other two shrines have idols of Krishna and Lakshmi Narsinha. We find that the wall scultures are more elaborate here and some are really good. We also encounter the trademark friezes that are found in the new kind of Hoysala temples (the friezes found in Hoysala temples are unique and not all temples have adopted the concept; but as temple building gathered momentum almost all later temples have these friezes).

After spending some 30 minutes in this temple, we make a move to Someswara temple. Someswara temple is just 200 meteres away from the Chenna Kesava temple.



The Someswara temple has nothing to marvel about. It is a good piece of Architecture but nothing unique about it. After looking at the Shiva Linga, we felt that no priest has come to offer prayers for weeks.

I click some pictures and we are ready to leave for next and last destination for the day - Javagallu.

Javagallu is some 50 kilometers North of Hassan and 20 kilometers west of Haranhalli. There is a direct road to Hassan thru Halebid from Haranhalli. The road is like this - Haranhalli - Javagallu - Halebid - Hassan. There are deviations for Belvadi (before Halebid) and Belur (at Halebid).

The road to Javagallu from Haranhalli is purely country road and is wonderful. All thru the route we see Sunflower plantations, Coconut trees and the Wind Mills installed on various small hillocks that are around. As I drive on this road, I am having some of the best times of my life. They say a picture is worth thousand words. But here this picture describes only a fraction of the beauty that we experienced. I feel the picture is just not worth it.

We can't resist plucking one of those Sunflowers. We continue to drive and reach Javagallu at 5:10 PM.



Javagallu:




Javagallu is a Vaishnav temple and is named Lakshmi Narasinha. The temple was constructed around 1250 AD during the reign of Vira Someswara. The temple had a very quite atmosphere even though there were some people flocking to the temple. The temple is trikuta and has Vishnu in the main shrine. The other two shrines have Krishna and Lakshmi Narasinha idols.

The idols looked very refreshing and it appeared that the regular prayers are offered at this temple. The temple has some very fine wall sculptures. We took some time adoring the workmanship of the sculptors as we did our circumambulation.

After spending one hour marvelling at the temple, we are done for the day and are ready to leave for Hassan at 6:05 PM.

The drive thru the country roads continue to enchant. After driving around 8-10 kilometeres we see a diversion sign for Belvadi. Belvadi is just 7 kilometers but it is getting dark and we continue towards Halebid. By the time we reached Halebid, it was almost dark. I ask my guide if he can enquire with Mayura Santhala. This tourist guest house is adjacent to the Halebid temple and if it has rooms, it would be great to stay adjacent to the Halebid temple and also will help in reducing the travel time tomorrow morning. Luck is with us and the tourist guest house has rooms vacant (the guest house has just 4 rooms).

We book the room (pay advance) and continue our drive to Hassan as we want to have dinner in Suvarna Sagar restaurant as well as we need to vacate the Hassan lodge. We reach Hassan at 7:45 PM. It takes us around 30 minutes to pack up everything and vacate the lodge. The chosen restaurant for dinner - Suvarna Sagar is just a kilometer away from the lodge and we reach the restaurant at 8:35 PM. The food is nothing great and to compensate for bad food I treat myself with some ice-cream. We leave Hassan at 9:30 PM and are in our room at Mayura Shantala at 10:15 PM.

After dressing up for the night, I come out of my room expecting some romantic view of the Halebid temple under the almost full moon. My bad luck as it is clouded and the night is really dark. After roaming around the temple for 15 minutes, I decide to go back to the guest house for a good night's sleep.