Nithin Kamath's Weblog

Antarganga also known as Dakshin Kashi (or Kashi of the South) is a popular pilgrimage place close to the city of Kolar. Kashi Vishweshwara Temple is also one of the main attractions of Antarganga. One more attraction is the Bull (Basava) carved out of stone which has water flowing out of its mouth, the water is considered to be from the Ganges, and no one knows the source or origin of this water source.

Since my friend has already posted the details of the trip in his blog with all the details I would not want to rewrite it.

Below is his writeup….copied from top to bottom from his blog:

Last weekend I visited a place called Antaragange, popularly known as Kashi of South India. This post gives a briefing of the wonderful and adventurous trip. Antergange is situated in Kolar district of Karnataka state. It is just about 4 Kilometer from Kolar Bus Stand, and 70 Kilometers from Bengaluru.

How to Reach

There are plenty of Buses which connect Kolara, district headquarter with Bengaluru. Both KSRTC and private buses will go to Kolara. Private buses, will depart from Majestic as well as from KR Market. It will take one and half or maximum of two hours to reach Kolar depending on the bus. From Kolara, the destination is near. It is approximately 4 kilometers. You can go by walking by enjoying the side scenes and nice environment (just like me) or you also have an option to opt for a auto rickshaw. The fair is Rs.30/-. But before getting into the rickshaw, please clarify about the fair with the driver. This route won’t go to the top of the hill. From the enter ace you have to climb approximately 350-500 steps. There is another way which is constructed recently, which will take you to the top of the hill.

Its Rocky

The hills of Antergange provide an ideal location for Outbound Training and Excursions. Scattered thorn scrub forests amidst volcanic rocks and boulders present an irresistible landscape, where different adventure activities can be undertaken. Activities include · Nature study, · Trekking & rock climbing, Over night camping, Night navigation, Cave exploration.

Main Attractions

Kashi Vishweshwara Temple is also one of the main attractions of Antargange. The name ‘Antaragange’ means “Ganges from deep” in Kannada language. There is Basava (bull) made out of stone, water streaming out from the mouth of a stone bull Nobody knows the source of water or the place from where it originates. Water is seen streaming out throughout the year. It is been said that the source of this stream is from the holy river Gangaa. There is small Kalyani (pond) near the temple. The main deity of the temple is Kashi Vishveshawra(Lord Shiva). The temple is made out of rock. There main Shiva Lingam in the temple. Along with the Main Lingam, there are around 4 to 5 Lingam in the side of the main mantapa.

Trekking

Behind the temple there is way to the forest. From this point you can start the trekking. You will find some stairs at the beginning of the trekking, but it will disappear as you go further. The path is full of stone, scattered cactus, thrones and Bushes. Ideal place for adventure. If you follow the pylons (power cables), it would be very easy to climb the hill. There are a lot of trees such as Nilagiri, Akeshiya, Amla. There are various spicies of cactus are available in this region. As you go to the top, you will find a nice view of Kolara city. There are volcanic rocks of various size. Some rocks are laid in such passion that it appear like natural caves.

Antergange is overpopulated by monkeys. They are wild monkeyss. They literally grab anything from the visitors. It is very dangerous to leave our belongings from our hand. Some monkeys are so clever that they grab the things from our hands. One should be very careful while transacting with the monkeys.

This has been the easiest post to write…..thanks to Harish…..keep up the good work…..

Located just about 30 Kms from Bangalore is a popular tourist location ‘Dodda Alada Mara’ which in English is the ‘Big Banyan Tree’ (BBT). It is spread over three acres and is over 400 years old.

This place was chosen since I was in no mood for another long travel this weekend. So since BBT is just 30 Kms away it was a short trip. Started reasonably late and reached the boarding point ‘K R Market’ bus stand (the one near the Fort). From this point there are plenty of BMTC buses on route 227 which go to BBT. The nearest village is ‘Ramohalli’ which is about 2Kms from BBT.

Reached BBT around 10AM and there was no one there. The tree is really huge and the place is being maintained quite nicely under the aegis of ‘Bank of Maharastra’. There is a small temple in the vicinity of the BBT. While we were there we were able to about 6 cute little puppies play around and have fun fighting with each other. Since there was nothing much to see here, we wanted to head towards ‘Manchanabele Dam’ which was about 8+ Kms from the BBT.

We asked the people who were in charge of the place for details like the transportation facilities available to get to the Dam. We found out that there was only a couple of KSRTC buses which while going to Magadi go via the dam. We were also told that the area is not safe when in a small group as robberies are quite common. Also it would be best to go by private vehicle like a bike rather than bus, since they are quite un-dependable. Since only two of us were there, we heeded to their advice and skipped going to the dam.

The only place nearby which we would visit was the ‘Mukti Naga Temple’ which was just 1km from ‘Ramohalli’ and about 3kms from BBT. So we took one of the 227 route buses which were heading back to Bangalore and got down at Ramohalli. From here we walked till the temple. Located in the temple is world’s largest monolithic statue of Lord Naaga, about 16 feet tall and 36 tons of weight. After offering our prayers, while coming out we could see a lake quite near by.

So off we went to it, but as we came nearer we found that there was no actual point where we would sit and enjoy, since all the properties around the lake were fenced. We were not the ones to give up so easily so we trespassed into one of the large properties and tried to get close to the lake, but alas there was no place where we could sit and take rest. After spending some time here we headed back.

When we reached back at BBT around 2:30 pm, we were quite surprised as the place that was quite in the morning was now buzzing with people. And our good old friends whom we have meet on all our trips in and around Bangalore were here too. In case you were wondering who it is……the Monkeys of course….

This time the monkeys were in some mood for adventure, they snatched a lady’s handbag and clicked up the tree. Every trip in the book like giving groundnuts, tying a plastic bag on another branch with some eatables etc by the lady and her family to convince the monkey to drop the bag failed. After much playing around, the first object to come down was a mobile phone, and much to our amazement the phone did not break and it was working…..so much for the Classic Old Nokia models. Soon the bag came down, but fully torn in all the place….the handbag was now useless, so they threw it away.

So much for the fun we had watching all this happen….but it was time to head back…..we took the BMTC bus and headed back and reached Bangalore quite soon.

Talking about the expenses….it was quite low…..a Rs30/- daily BMTC pass took me right from the nearest bus stand to my room and back.

Date: 20th and 21st January
Places: Around Mangalore

On 21st of January there was a function of a office colleague in Mangalore, hence some of the other colleagues wanted to go and visit Mangalore. So off we went.

Since Mangalore is also my hometown I had to plan some trip for them. Shown below was what I had planned (the actual trip turned out to be quite different):

My colleagues reached Mangalore well and early at 7:40 am, and I was conveyed that they would be having breakfast at 9:00 am at my colleagues house (the one for whose function we had arrived here), hence I was optimistic of sticking to the planned schedule. But like always things don’t happen as would like it to happen. My colleagues were finally ready for breakfast at 10:30am, then had their breakfast and we were finally on our way at 11:30 am; a full one and a half hour behind schedule.

The first place on the list was “The Thousand Pillar Temple” in Moodabidri, which is about 38Kms from Mangalore and the journey took about one hour. A bit of details is as mentioned below (taken from some site, I donot know which):

A Holy Shrine of the Jains, the thousand pillar temple is dedicated to Shri Chandranath, a Jain Saint. Jains spread all over India travel to this place to offer worship at the several Basadi’s dedicated to different Theerthankaras The temple is intricately carved and has architecture that is peculiar to Nepal. This temple is around 569 years old and was built over a century. The history of the temple is carved on the walls and pillars of the temple. No two pillars in the temple are alike. It has got an elegantly carved wooden cieling and a wooden screen with intricate carvings. The Basadi is a treasure house of art and architecture. No where in Karnataka, a Basadi of so much grandeur and so much magnificence as this could be found.

As can be seem in this description, this is a very elegant place, it almost looked like a fort, covered by all four side by high rise walls. The carvings on the pillars were really something to look and appreciate. But alas, we spent only 10 mins here before heading to Annapoorneshwari Temple in Kodyadka which was just 8Kms from here.

Though one would not find much about this temple; it is a fairly new one and apart from the temple has some pets housed (like Elephant, Horses, Peacock, Deers etc) in it environ. Since it was on our was to the next destination, we went here to. We has a qick cup of tea and by the time we left this place it was almost 1:30pm.

We reached Gomateshwara Temple, near Karkala at around 1:55pm. This is famous for the single stone 42-foot (13 m) statue Gomateshwara (Lord Bahubali). The Bahubali statue here is the second tallest in the State. This monolithic statue of Lord Bahubali was installed at Karkala on February 13, 1432 on the instructions of the pontiff of Karkala, Lalitakeerti. We could not go too near to the statue since the stones forming the floor was too hot to walk without footwear. Since the place was on a hill, the surrounding scenery was quite good and made a wonderful setting from a photo session. Since there is nothing much to see I expected to leave in around 10 mins, but contrary to that we only left at 2:40pm.

Our next target destination was Udupi Krishna Temple which was about a hours journey. We reached there quickly passing Manipal on the way. We arrived at the right time at the Temple since the crowd was less which increased quickly as the time went by. The details of the temple is as under (again a copy paste from some site):

Udupi Krishna Temple is a famous Hindu temple dedicated to Lord Krishna. The temple area resembles a living ashram, a holy place for daily devotion and living, founded by Madhvacharya founder of the Dvaita school of Vedanta. Legend has it that once Kanakadasa a worshipper who was not allowed into the temple was so piously dedicated, that one day the Krishna statue miraculously turned around to allow the disciple to gaze upon his heavenly form through a small window at the back of the mutt (matha). There are several temples here, the most ancient as basic wood and stone of 1,500 years origin.

After praying and looking around we went to have our lunch at 4:00 pm. Though again I had expected to leave this place by 4:30pm to have enough time in our hand for the beach, this didn’t go as planned and we left Udupi only at 5:00 pm.

Since we were already behind on the schedule, we had to skip a wonderful opportunity of going up a Lighthouse and seeing the beautiful view around of the Kaup locality. We decided to go to Pannambur beach where the International kite flying competition was going on. We reached there at around 6:00 pm….well amost…since such a major event was going on, it looked like the whole of Mangalore had decided to come over here….which resulted us in having to get down 2kms before the beach and walk the rest. Hence we took another 20mins to get there and we missed the sunset. The kites were still flying around. The variety , shapes and the very design of many kites amazed us. Finally after spending some time in the water we finally headed back to the Hotel.

We had to cancel the Kudroli temple visit since some of us had got wet and would have have been ideal to go to the temple in such a avatar.

Day two, most of the plans I made was throw out of the window myself, since the previous day my colleagues had mentioned they had planned to go for a film in a multiplex near their hotel. Hence I did not go ahead with the planned schedule. They went for a movie at:11:40am. And came back and got ready for the function at 2:55pm.

The function got over by 5:10pm and since everyone wanted to change into something more suited for the beach, we went back to the hotel and were finally on our way to Tannirbhavi beach at 5:35pm. We took a auto convincing the auto driver that we would also engage him on the return journey if he waited for a hour. He agreed for this with a nominal waiting charge.

We reached TannirBhavi, had loads of fun on the near empty beach. Then finally at 7:00 pm headed back to the hotel and left Mangalore by a KSRTC bus at 9:15pm.

It was a good trip but for some miss judgment on my part. For example on the first day since we were already one and half hours late hence I should have skipped Moodabidri and Karkala and should have gone only to Udupi. As they say we make mistakes, and this was one of them. I am sorry for my colleagues who were made to hurry at every place and missed out on a lot of fun.

Hope the future journeys would be a lot of fun