Sringeri, Horanadu, Belur, Halebid, and Shravanabelagola

So my amazing trip to all these places began on Friday when I took the bus to Bangalore. By the way, never take SHAMA SARDAR Travels to Bangalore. Its horrible. The drivers are totally drunk and very customer unfriendly. They let people sleep on the aisle for half the money and some of them would just walk away with your luggage. Lucky, my luggage was safe.

At around 9am on saturday, we (myself, Abhinav Shankar - my frisbee mate and his mom) left Bangalore on NH4 and took the road to Hassan via Nelamangala, which is NH48. On the way, we made a stop at Chennarayapatna (CR Patna). There is a Kamat Restaurant just after the town on the highway. Next to that is a Cafe Coffee Day as well. After about 3 hrs of driving, this place is perhaps the best place to make a halt.


Our next stop was Belur - an important city of the Hoysala times. We spent about an hour there taking photos. If you have more time to spend, then best take a guide. We hit the road again to this place called Baalehonnur via Mudigere. We took a tea break here and then started again to Sringeri.

Sringeri is a temple town at the banks of the river Tunga. Adi Shankara selected this place to stay and teach his disciples. This place is of great importance for people who follow the Yajur Veda. We reached Sringeri around dinner time. There are very few hotels in Sringeri that provide accomodation. Most people stay with the Mutt's lodge. Very basic accomodation and just enough for one night. Advance booking is always appreciated. Now that a lot of people have taken to religion and belief in God, its better to play it safe. We showered, had food at Hotel Guruprasad and attended the Chandramouleeswarar Puja. The Puja was done by the Acharya himself. After that, we had a quick darshan of him and came back. Next day morning, we visited the Mutt again for a Paadha Puja (Feet Puja). They have a sandal made of silver worn by the Acharya, rather several copies, and the disciples do Puja for the same. Once that was done, we proceeded to Bhikshavandanam, where we get to meet the Acharya and seek his blessings. Remember, for all of this, you have to get tickets at the temple's desk at around 10am in the morning. Next stop was the Thorana Ganapathi (Its a Ganesha on a silver door frame. There is no temple, but its just on a door and frame.), where we did another special puja. Yes, you have to get tickets for this as well.

Next was photo time. We came back and took pictures of the temple and the surrounding areas of the Mutt. At the banks of the river Tunga, the devotees keep feeding the fishes. That's almost customary these days. The fishes were HUGE. Each one should have weighed like atleast 5kgs. Also, on the steps is the place where according to history, Adi Shankara noticed the cobra giving shelter to a frog. Then we had lunch at the Mutt. The Mutt provides free food to all devotees and let me tell you, the lunch is amazing. You should never miss it.

Post lunch, we left Sringeri and took the road towards Horanadu. Horanadu is about 60kms from Sringeri. The road is scenic (you can spot many lakes and waterfalls) but very bad for your car. An SUV is a better choice. Annapurnaeshwari is the main deity at Horanadu. She is made completely out of gold and her smiling face gives you such a blissful feeling.

From Horanadu, we took the road to Kalasa and then drove straight to Chikmagalur. This town is an estate town, dominated by coffee growers. We stayed the sunday night at an awesome place called the Kadur Club. Next day, after English breakfast, we headed towards Halebidu. The route was first to Belur and then 16kms to Halebidu. This city was also part of the Hoysala kingdom. Architecture is very similar to what we saw in Belur. Some of the important statues that we noted here was Krishna carrying Govardhana Giri and Ravana carrying Kailasa mountain.

Shravanabelagola was our next stop. We drove from Halebidu to Hassan and then stopped at the Kamat Hotel before CR Patna for lunch. We parked at the foothills and walked to the temple. A steep walk of about 650 steps leads you to the top for a view of one of the worlds largest monoliths. A view of the town surrounding this hill is brilliant.

From here, it was just back to Bangalore. We took the road to Kunigal and then to Nelamangala.

Trip to Rameswaram - Part 1

On a Friday evening; especially when the saturday is a no-moon day; you definitely don't want to take a train to Rameswaram from Chennai. The average age of the passengers is 50 or even more. All through the train, you get the smell of onion or tomato chutney. Let me not forget to mention the amount of home cooked food as well. These are some routes where the railway catering probably makes no money. And then you have a bunch of people singing songs in the name of God.

And fortunately or unfortunately; a bunch of us, office friends, boarded the Rameswaram Express at 5pm from Chennai Egmore station. 12 hours to reach the temple town. What a painful journey! And guess what, everybody on that train is going to be at the temple in the morning. Thats like a lill more than 1200 people. Dont forget the people who are going to take vans, buses and all other forms to transport to the town. Moreover, this weekend was after the no-moon day when the eclipse was also around. So according to some priests, there is more reason to crowd around Rameswaram.

At 5 in the morning, the typical smell of a fisherman's town woke me up. At that time, the train was just going to enter the Pamban Bridge. In about 25 mins, we reached the station. Our rooms were booked at the Tamilnadu tourism hotel which was near the sea shore. There arent too many hotels here. Only a few good ones. If you plan to be here during a festival or any important weekend like this one, you better book rooms. Otherwise no chance!

Agnitheertham is the point to start your tour of Rameswaram. This is the spot on the sea right opposite the east tower of the temple. You need to take a dip in the sea and then walk to the temple. There are 22 sacred wells inside the temple where you have to shower as well (not really shower, but a guy will pour some water from a bucket on your head). If you take the standard temple queue for this, then the rates are very nominal, around Rs.17 i think. If you use an agent; of course, they will come and find you, then it varies between Rs.50 and 75 a head. Definitely, an agent does a good job. So, dont mind the money at all. Once this is done, you have to get back to your room, change into dry clothes and come back for darshan. Ramanathaswamy (Lord Shiva) is the main deity here.

After darshan, you can go around the hallway of the temple and see the architecture and paintings. There is also a shrine for Parvathy, Lord Rama and Hanuman. This temple is one of the 12 Jyotirlingam temples in India. Some of the other things about this temple is the Palliyarai Darshan you shouldnt miss. At around 8.15pm, the puja for the Lord ends and the lord is brought by the priest to the Palliyarai near the Devi Shrine. The Palliyarai has a golden cradle where the lord and the goddess rest. A special puja happens and then sandalwood paste is given as prasadam to every devotee present. At a Shiva temple, its usually Vibhuti (ash) and never sandalwood paste. So this is also different. Next day morning (5am to 6am) is the Spatika Linga Abhishekam. This is the only time when the Spatika Lingam is taken out and bathed with milk. Just before this happens, you can watch the priest bringing the Lord back from the Palliyarai to the main shrine.

This temple also has a nice legend associated with it. Click here to read about that.

After completing our morning dips, we went back to the lodge. I had my breakfast at a hotel near the temple. The roads on the east and west side of the temple are the only ones that have decent hotels. Don't expect great service. They serve good vegetarian food. Thats all.

Our next trip was to Dhanushkodi. We hired a jeep. A jeep can take 5 people and it will cost you Rs.950. This place is about 20 kms away from Rameswaram and its the point of confluence for the Indian Ocean and Bay of Bengal. The ride was extremely tiring, but the views we got of the seas was amazing. On this picture, you can see one of the islands. Jump a few of those islands and you are in Ceylon. On the way back, we visited the Kothandaramswamy Temple - the place where Lord Rama crowned Vibhishana.