Turuvekere-02

I Continue From Here.....

Our next stop was Tandaga (From Turuvekere to Tiptur take left at Doddagatta). Here a Venugopala temple stands midst a crowd of houses surrounding it, carelessly like one among them with the Hoysala architecture being the only saving grace to distinguish it from the settlement. Two old ladies who watch us observe the exteriors, inform that the priest and his family have gone out and hence they did not have the keys to open the temple for us. So we watch the architecture from the outside before driving away.

We reach Turuvekere and visit the Sugarcane juice vendor again to verify about a good vegetarian hotel in the vicinity. He promotes us to the only Vegetarian hotel in the town that served rice-Sambhar, Pulav, Chapathis and other breakfast items.

After lunch we drove to Sampige (From Turuvekere to Chikanayakana Halli take right towards Sampige) where a beautiful idol of lord Srinivasa resides. The temple was opened by a priest who performed pooja and offered us Prasad and demanded something in return for it, we handed over Rs20 (Only, I presume), so he requested to pay the lady who offered flowers also (Which should be his wife I assume since they walked in together and said that they had just finished their lunch),the whole episode was a little strange.

Kanchiraaya Swamy temple is on a hill near Neeragunda. (From Turuvekere to Chikkanayakana Halli take left at Manchenahalli cross). Several hair pin bends and almost 90 degree elevation roads lead you to a quite the quiet and deserted temple. The view from the hill is very nice but the temples are not very neat. A little walk down the hill on the other side leads to a small Shiva temple.


After a little relax, we drove back to Turvuekere and then to Nagalapura. 4 Kms on the road from Turuvekere to Yediur is a right deviation to the village where two temples – Chennakeshva and Kedareshwara temples quietly await humans to admire them. When we reached the village and asked for directions, a small boy named Shankar offered to join us and guide us and so began a journey of its own that made the whole trip a memorable one.

Shankar knew everyone in the village. He went to a neighboring house and collected the keys to open the Chennakeshava temple for us. He even turned guide to narrate us some stories that had some truth, some exaggeration and some mistakes such as – Chola’s built this temple. But other stories like – Temple was covered by mud when there was an attack, temple was built in a day, Chola’s came from other state, threw stones from a hill several kilometers away etc had a source in his grandfather, so he said.


After admiring the architecture and his talent of attracting people with the power of speech, we drove to Kedareshwara temple. Unfortunately it was closed. But he said that the watchman lived in a neighboring village about few kms away. So I agreed to drive there with him. On our way he told stories from his school, his bicycle, his interest in Kannada language and the marks he scored in his subjects.

In this other village, again he walked to the watchman’s house, introduced himself but found out that the watchman had gone to another village for an “Aradhane” (death ceremony). But to our luck, there was another key in the same village, one that waits in a house for the priest who collects it every morning at 5:00 AM. This time Shankar wanted me to join him, as he predicted it would be easy to obtain the keys with elders around and he thought his request could be discarded being thought less of importance due to his age. At this house the villagers were uncomfortable to give the key that belonged to the priest. I convinced them that I could return the key to them within an hour. They agreed but wanted us to check with the watchman first. They requested us to call him and find out if he was around.

We walked back to the watchman’s house were ladies informed that his cell phone would not connect either. They requested us to go to the village he was visiting. So we drove again to track him down. But luckily we did not have to go any far; at the temple he sat waiting for us after receiving a call from his family. He informed us that he had come down from the Aradhane just for us as he received the call from his family stating our desire to see the temple.

We observed the temple with a torch light from the cell phone as there is no electricity here. The watchman showed us the roofs with several designs with twisted and turned rocks carved masterfully. My camera flash captured them. Shankar showed the sculpture that he believes resembles Queen Victoria with a British gown but we thought that the gown was fine but the loin cloth showing did not seem very British. :-)

We offered some money to the Watchman and thanked him for coming over just for us on a Sunday. We took Shankar to a shop and bought him whatever he wanted – Chocolates, juice, sweets and chips. The shopkeeper was also happy with boy who had actively interacted with us and had also brought business to the shop. Shankar asked us our names and registered them in his mind.

The Hero Of Nagalapura!

We waved good bye to the boy and drove back to Bangalore content with the entire trip especially the final episode that completed all that I look for in a travel!