Panchamukhi Anjaneya cave temple, Raichur District

"Jai Hanuman Gyan Gun Saagar" outsets Hanuman Chaalisa.

During our visit to Mantralaya, we do not miss a chance to visit Panchamukhi Anjaneya temple situated in Karnataka-Andhra border. The place is said to have mythological importance and lord Anjaneya believed to be wish granter. The usual way is to travel via Auto-rickshaw along newly built dam across Tungabhadra river. This auto is a mass transit system and charge Rs.30/head (to & fro, a year back). The distance is around 25kms from Mantralaya. If there is sufficient water in Tungabhadra river, the best way to reach is to cross the river with coracle and later board Tata Sumo (again mass transit and tightly packed). The coracle ride is bit expensive but joyous. All along the journey, don't miss to enjoy the lush green meadows filled with fertile paddy fields. Also the landscape of river canal is soul soothing. Beware of chili plantations in between. You may sneeze persistently if you do not mask the nose. Also the blockages created by bulls and cows is one more enjoyment factor. Sometimes the driver inevitably has to dispel the adamant cattle.

THE TEMPLE

THE ENTRANCE

FOOTPRINT OF LORD ANJANEYA

The temple maintenance is quite average but has serene surroundings. Do not miss to savor the coconut burfee here! Also beware of nasty monkeys. They exhibit their power to the fullest. You may need to rush back since the transport owners force you to return ASAP! Better to have own transport system if you wish to spend more time here. At last, dont miss to enjoy puffed rice with little bit spice!

CORACLE RIDE ALONG TUNGA-BHADRA RIVER

AERIAL VEHICLE

THE TRANSPORTERS

Fable:

Sri Raghavendra Swamiji carried out penance for 12yrs in the cave around 16th century. Admired by the intense devotion, Panchamukhi Anjaneya, kolhapura mahalakshmi, Tirupati Venkateshwara and Sri vishnu in Varahaavataara appeared in front of him. As per guidelines, it is believed that Swamiji resided in Mantralaya. The main priest Anantachar believed to have installed idols of Rudra, Ganapathy and SheshaDevaru. The original fable falls back to Ramayana era which I am not aware of.

What to look out for:

1. Gudi of Hanuman's footprint in front of temple
2. Naturally formed aerial vehicle behind the temple
3. Nearby the aerial vehicle, one can spot naturally formed bed and pillow which Hanuman used during mythological days
4. Towards north, temple of village goddess Erakalamma

Temple timings:

Fore noon - 6AM to 1PM
After noon - 3PM to 8PM

Shri Chamundeshwari Palayam

Welcome to the energetic days of Navaratri. Goddess Durga is considered as symbol of energy and destroyer of evil. Just as when I was hearing beautiful composition of Sri Mysore Vasudevacharya, "Sri Chamundeshwari Palayam" in Bilahari Raaga, a thought sparkled into my mind to collate some of the Durga temples I have visited over the years. I guess many of you have visited the places but still sharing mine too. Hope you enjoy the virtual tour of the temples. Most of them are from nearby my hometown and few belong to Malnad areas. Ganesha and Durga are the prominently worshiped in coastal karnataka and hence one can find many of them. All of them have mythological importance. This post is dedicated to Goddess Durga and I pray the mother to bless people on earth with prosperity

Kamalashile Durgaparameshwari Temple

Situated beneath the beautiful evergreen western ghats, this temple draws crowd all through the year and heavily crowded during Navaratri days. During torrential monsoon season, the river Kubja swells towards the idol of deity soaking her with pristine water from western ghats. This day is considered auspicious and locals throng the temple to garner blessings during this occasion wading through swollen river. Do not miss to savor tasty lunch in the temple :). One can hire guide to visit Suparshwa cave in midst of dense western ghats where King Suparshwa believed to have carried out penance.

More info: http://www.kamalashile.org/temple/AboutUs.html

SUPARSHWA CAVE

INNER GLIMPSE OF CAVE

Kollur Mookambika Temple

The highest visited temple only next to Kukke Subramanya. One more temple situated right beneath the western ghats. This place is heavily crowded and it is strenuous to visit during Navaratri days. Devotees throng here prominently for Aksharabhyasa. Beautiful Souparnika river flows nearby temple and if you have energy, trek to Arishinagundi waterfalls 6kms from here through dense jungles!

Kateelu Durgaparameshwari

Situated 30kms from Mulki, this temple too attracts heavy crowd throughout the year. Similar to Kollur, it is strenuous to visit during Navaratri days. The temple lies exactly in mid of Nandini river. The sight is beautiful to watch during monsoon season surrounded by roaring river. Yakshagana offering is prominent in this temple where "Devi Mahatme" Yakshagana is performed as offering to Goddess Durga. There is long streak of queue for the offering. If you book now, it may take 2yrs from now for your turn. This is also due to the fact the offering is stalled for 6 months every year.

NANDINI RIVER

Sri Chamundeshwari Temple, Mysore

This well known for most of Indians and does not require any introduction. Here is a picture for you.

Kunjoor Durgaparameshwari temple near my village :)

Not prominent one however is surrounded by beautiful nature and paddy fields

These are few temples nearby Udupi. Not as well knows as above ones but worth mentioning due to mythological importance

MahishaMardhini Temple, Kadiyali

Durgaparameshwari Temple, Puttur

Durgaparameshwari Temple, Kunjar

This temple is located atop a small hillock. It is a fantastic vantage point even, where one can enjoy landscape 360degrees. This temple is recently renovated. One can also climb the steps to reach the temple (about 1000). The priest of temple draws water from well beneath the temple and brings it all the way upwards via steps for daily poojas!

Durgaparameshwari Temple, Mundkoor

 

Horanaadu Annaporneshwari Temple

Situated in middle of beautiful Western ghats, the temple also attracts huge crowd throughout year. Read a short post here.

Shringeri Shaarada Temple

This temple is also situated in middle of beautiful western ghats along with majestic sweet Tunga river flowing beside it. Read my past posts here

1) http://paadooru.blogspot.com/2013/10/drive-to-shringeri-and-sirimane.html
2) http://paadooru.blogspot.com/2013/05/a-brief-visit-to-teerthahalli.html

SWEET TUNGA RIVER

Bappanadu Durgaparameshwari Temple, Muki

The temple lies between beautiful paddy fields of Mulki also draws huge crowd during Navaratri days. The shambhavi river nearby adds more glory to temple's beauty. I do not have much information on this temple. Will gather when I find time.

There are many more which I will cover whenever I spare some time to visit. Hope you enjoyed the short post.

Also today I am happy to announce 50k views on my blog. I am indebted to the readers on achieving this milestone and will continue to write blogs whenever I find time. Never dreamt of blog reaching to such height. Once again I thank all the readers and also google for increasing page rank of my blog posts (98% traffic is from google search :) )

On this day, I share few beautiful musics based on Goddess Durga. There are many beautiful songs on Goddess however my favorite lies in three compositions of Sri Muthuswamy Deekshitar in Ananda-Bhairavi, Bhairavi and Dwijavanti

1) Kamalamba Samrakshatu (sung by students of Wesleyan University): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zKMJx8g27Ig

2) Aaryam Abhayambham (Composed exclusively in Dvitiya Vibhakti. Read its review here): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jsZ8CIruyiY

3) Akhilandeshwari Rakshamam (Hear from beautiful voice of Maharajapuram Santanam): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lNFRr5R-dUA

4) Do hear Sri Chamundeshwari Palayam in Bilahari: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rvZw70p4XPY

Shri Vishwanatham Bhajeham

Shiva is sign of energy, simplicity and unpredictability. One needs energy to move on during unpredictable times and simplicity to lead peaceful life. These are  qualities which I learnt from the almighty. Today on auspicious day of Mahashivaratri I would like to share some of HDR and panoramic pictures from Yana visit known for surreal rocky landscapes. I wanted to write detailed blog on Yana but due to lack of time could not commit. This is the only day wherein devotees are allowed to enter sanctum sanctorum of temple. The place will be heavily crowded today with myriad of pilgrims visiting to have darshan of Lord Bhairaveshwara. The post is dedicated Lord Bhairaveshwara of Yana who is residing deity of the place.

Yana is one of those beautiful treasures of coastal Karnataka located in between spectacular rainforests of Uttara Kannada district. One needs to travel in order to feel region shrouded under dense canopy of western ghats. Amidst this magnificent nature lies Yana which has almost 61 limestone rocks stamped on its surface. Of them, the prominent are the two large peaks namely Mohini Shikara and Bhairaveshwara shikara. Lord shiva is self formed under Bhairaveshwara shikara and water drips from top of shivalinga all through year. Precisely the Lord is described as "Ganga Chandika Bhairaveshwara". The reason behind such a name will be described in my detailed blog (or you can google it!). The environment beneath the monolithic rock is natural AC :-). It is so cool under the natural air cooler of western ghats! There are plethora of streams which run besides thick tall woods finally merging with Aghanaashini river near Kumta. If you ever visit Gokarna or Kumta, don't ever miss to visit this alluring natural splendor. Here are pictures after boring narration ;-).

PANORAMIC GLOWING PICTURE :-)

CLOSE UP PANORAMA

 This one is not so well composed. Just posted for archive.

PANORAMA WITH TEMPLE

The below picture is not composed with RAW files. Nowadays I compose HDR in RAW and I can see difference from JPG files. One can tweak resulting image to vast extent without losing quality or infusing noise. Eventually I have corrected myself :-).

MOHINI SHIKARA IN HDR

Even though trajectory of Sun starts to change around Makara Sankranthi, Shivaratri signifies the end of winter and beginning of spring. Usually a week or two before Shivaratri, strong breeze pervade the region signifying end of winter. It is also period of sickness too due to significant transition in weather!

On this day, I would like to share one of my favorite composition "Sri Vishwanatham Bhajeham" by Shri Muthuswamy Deekshitar, a Sanskrit rendetion with blend of 14 raagas. The beauty of Shri Deekshitar composition is the aligning tint of raaga with song literature. He describes the majestic shiva in 14 raagas with fabulous literature. The song starts with "Shri" raaga and ends with "Bhoopala". The song is divided into two sections. The first section comprises of Shri, Aarabhi, Gowri, Gowla, Naata, Mohana and later follows the reverse path. The second section comprises of Saama, Lalita, Bhairava, Saranga, Shankarabharanam, Kambodhi, Devakriya, Bhoopalam and later goes all the way reverse path of 14 raagas with spectacular progression :-). The depth of Shri Deekshitar's scholarship is evident from this  masterpiece.

If you admire carnatic classical music, do hear this bautiful music sung in chorus in two parts.  The delightful rendition is of this song goes to Smt. M L Vasanthakumari however not finding link anywhere :-(.

1) Sri Vishwanatham Bhajeham Part-1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=73BKPMkNWgg
2) Sri Vishwanatham Bhajeham Part-2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yxS9uMP1T3g

Annapoorne Vishalakshi

During holiday season, we had been to few places nearby hometown. I have lot places to wander around 200kms radius of my hometown especially towards UttaraKannada direction [except the westwards where I can only trace water ;-)]. The pictures were shot during our recent visit to Horanadu Annapoorneshwari Temple situated nearby Kuduremukh. This beautiful Malnad temple is surrounded by equally beautiful hillocks which makes it delightful place to visit. Also the pilgrims of temple are fed with free lunch and dinner prior to MahaPooje. It is to make sure none of pilgrims have darshan in hunger. The temple is neatly maintained too! Also you can buy wide variety of indigenously grown spices and dry fruits. Along the Kuduremukh-Horanaadu stretch, one can spot many tea & coffee depot and stop by to savor them with natural aroma. It would be great experience to sip it during heavy monsoon rains of Malnad. Here are some HDR and panoramic shots composed during my visit. The pictures are not so well composed but uploaded here for archive.

On this Friday, the day of Mahalakshmi, I dedicate this write-up to goddess Annapoorneshwari of Horanadu. Let's pray the goddess to bestow people on earth with sufficient nutritious food.

HDR of TEMPLE

PANORAMIC VIEW OF HILLS

If you appreciate carnatic music, do hear beautiful Sanskrit composition of Muttuswamy Deekshitar, "Annapoorne Vishalaakshi" in "Saama" Raaga rendered by Smt. ML VasanthaKumari. The Raaga "Saama" is also one of my favorite Raaga which embodies great devotion.

Annapoorne Vishaalakshi: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=amzIKIX50Ak

Drive to Shringeri and Sirimane waterfalls - Part 1 - Shringeri visit

21 Sep 2013

Traveling and driving has been my favorite pass time for many years. Nowadays I am even used to drive 600kms a day as a consequence frequent travels. That gives me immense happiness and an opportunity to meet new people and explore new places. The next day of our travel to Murudeshwara was focused on visiting Shringeri temple but Sirimane waterfalls was not in picture at all! I brought it to picture ;-). We wanted to start early but usual hiccups delayed journey by an hour and we finally started around 9AM. The morning was exactly mirror image of previous day :D with heavy rains pounding our village till 8:30AM. We started our journey in mid of heavy rain itself :-).

Shringeri is 90kms from our village. The same route as I visited HanumanGundi last time. The only problem was deplorable stretch from Belman to Karkala. Other than this stretch, the road from Karkala to Shringeri was well paved as per my past experience. As we traveled interior towards Karkala, the rains started receding. It means, the rains were pounding only coastal belt but not the interior parts. We were getting ready to travel through the craters of Belman-Karkala stretch. Voila! what a surprise ;-). The road has been patched up recently :-). Even then roads were uneven and few small pot-holes were present which were resistible! We could reach Karkala in 20 minutes. Had it been the similar situation as last time, it would have taken 45mins or more. The road after Karkala is simply majestic :-). Even our car enjoyed too! Also dense forests and clouds added more glory to our journey. The distant rain forests were looking so pretty :-). The same scene as I visited last time except for less rains. Last time, it was raining tremendously heavy which was typical pounding rains of western ghats. Shringeri is around 58kms from Karkala and it takes 90 minutes to cover due to narrow roads and up-hilling of western ghats!

Few kms after Karkala, we entered Kuduremukh National Park gate where actual western ghats starts. One has to take pass to enter national park premises and same has to be handed over at the other end. The authorities make note of each and every vehicle that pass through the park jurisdiction. Authorities have printed many rules and regulations on the pass to follow the guidelines in park limits. Majority of them are not to litter the park and maintain sanctity of place by preserving peace of wild animals.

I was enjoying the uphill of Kuduremukh ghats with beautiful nature and powerful pull of CRDi engine made it easy to climb the grades. Western ghats driving is mesmerizing experience by itself especially during monsoon season provided roads are healthy ;-). Rains and clouds are pretty much easy to manage unless it is not  cloudburst :-). In middle of ghat section, we took small break in one of the water springs and my father offered to drive. I shot many videos till Shringeri :-). All through the journey it was the pretty western ghats which filled our soul and made us forget everything rest. Of-course we were attentive while driving ;-). Despite presence of feeble people, the problematic part was adamant cattle and crazy dogs :D. The cattle were mainly cows which used to cover entire road. At-least there used to be 8-10 minimum in number :D. They rest happily in middle of highway taking role of break inspectors ;-). Due to rains, most of the land surface was wet. The only warmest portion was the highway due to plying of vehicles. Hence they used to occupy entire width of road. At times we had to park vehicle and dispel the cattle manually :D. When we neared them to dispel, they were pleading for food :-). That was cute sight to watch. At some places we fed them with bananas too! Next is crazy dogs resting on the road for same reason. But they used to get out very soon but some of them lethargically used to wake up and move away cursing us :D. Some of them pose like heroes standing profound at the edges of road :D. Overall great entertainment despite adding delay to our journey! Apart from these sights, at many places there were landslides due to recent torrential rains. Also retaining wall of the highway had collapsed at some places. At these places it is impossible to glide the vehicle out of road or else you will end up in one of the gorges! Watch out for rushing trucks along the curves and blind spots. Even they are adamant to avoid slipping down the roads due to heavy load :-(. A note in Kuduremukh pass also requests drivers not to honk in park jurisdiction but inevitably you need to honk at each and every curve gently to get rid of such surprises. The truck drivers rush downhill to gain sufficient momentum for climbing the uphill. Recent newspaper reports cite that forest department has cleared hurdles to widen such narrow highways.
The same pictures as shared in one of previous blogs.

Along the highway, one can spot small Ganapathy temple. Bus drivers stop at this place to have brief blessing to uphill without obstacles. During my childhood days, up-hilling western ghats were considered tough and risky task due to narrow roads. Many travelers used to seek blessings before starting up-hilling. As a result many ghats have small temples just before actual ghat starts. Even broader shiraadi ghat has chowdeshwari temple :-)

Kuduremukh National Park jurisdiction ends 7kms before Shringeri and one needs to hand over the pass obtained during start journey. Around 11:30AM, we reached Shringeri temple. Rains had receded but there was thick cloud cover. There was normal flow in Tunga river. Slightly larger crowd due to weekend. We also visited the protected monument temple where shiva, durga and ganesha are deities. The mahapooje at main Sharada temple concludes at 12:10PM and later we had lunch in temple itself. I had hefty full meals and it was tasty too :-). My father wanted to visit the centers maintained by math authorities but we realized it late. Unfortunately it is closed for public visit by 12PM and would open only by 5PM. We had no choice to leave for the day since we had to pack for our next day travel to Bangalore. After brief purchase of books by father, we started back to our native village.

THE PRESERVED MONUMENT

THE BIG COW! SEEMS TO BE INDIGENOUS

TUNGA RIVER BASIN

ONE MORE VIEW!

The write-up turned out to be bit lengthy again and part 2 of the post is covered here.

Drive to Aanegudde, Murudeshwara and Apsarakonda

20 Sep 2013,

It has been year long since we visited Aanegudde siddhi-vinayak temple near Kundapur. We do visit the temple every year. There were so many hurdles which prevented us to visit the temple. This time, father was adamant to visit and seek blessings of Lord vinayak. I requested him if we could extend till Murudeshwar :D. He agreed under condition that I alone would be driving. Thats fair deal except for I cannot shoot landscape while driving. We planned to start around 8AM from Kaup but as always turned out be late by an hour. Murudeshwara is 115kms from my hometown and really great place to visit. I love the ambiance, landscape, shiva statue as well roaring Arabian sea of Murudeshwara.

It all started with heavy monsoon rain early morning 6AM. It was so thick droplets and I enjoyed the rain with raincoat ;-). Also visited full flowing streams down coconut plantation. Good thing is myself and father are both experienced monsoon drivers and wipers of ritz add smoothness to journey by clearing windshield perfectly. Around 8:30AM, rains started receding but when I looked at Satellite pictures, thick clouds had covered entire coast which indicated further rains. Even father was OK to drive despite of heavy rains. We started exactly around 9AM and drove towards Kundapur.

Anegudde temple is around 40kms from our hometown. Wonderful temple site with beautiful nature. Also shiva temple beneath the hill is constructed around a lake which makes it delightful to watch. The journey was smooth however the uneven roads added delay. 10:30AM, we were in Anegudde temple and unexpectedly there was crowd despite being odd time. This temple is visited by many people from all over Karnataka and consequently is crowded most of the times. We had darshan of Lord Vinayaka and it started to rain heavily again. We also visited the Shiva temple beneath. Not many people are aware of this temple but it is really worth visiting the lake temple. Here are some pictures from both the temples.

AANEGUDDE VINAYAKA TEMPLE

LAKE TEMPLE BENEATH

We started our journey towards Murudeshwara around 11:30AM. There comes bad roads after Kundapur. They were really craters. It seemed like recently some meteor hit the highway :(. Also water filled pot-holes made it difficult to judge their depth. Still drove carefully and most of the time 1st or 2nd gear (too much fuel consumption). After nearly 5kms of hell, there starts the heaven :-). The beautiful rivulets along the highway were magnificent to watch. We could not stop anywhere due to time constraints and heavy traffic. Especially I missed Mabukala bridge and Hatti kudru. Both the rivulets were flowing with full vigor. Those sites were absolutely stunning to watch with full muddy water :-). Thats the real indication of heavy rains! After sometime, we reached Maravanthe beach :-). I requested father to drive till end of beach and he agreed to drive :-). I shot some videos and many pictures including panorama bracketing. It was also drizzling and Arabian sea was fully showing off with great energy. Also powerful winds tended to push us off the road to river :D. It seemed like Sea wanted to take revenge on river for teasing it ;-). Never dedicated time here, some day will spend full evening in this marvelous site. Enjoy some pictures!

THE UNIQUE BEACH OF INDIA ;-)

THE DELIGHTFUL SOUPARNIKA RIVER

After nearly 20 minutes of delight, I started driving again towards  Murudeshwara. In contrast to what predicted, it seemed there was heavy overnight rain but not during day. It was only drizzling which was managable. After few kms of joyous ride along beautiful Uttara Kannada landscape, there starts one more stretch of hell :-(. The stretch between Shiroor to Bhatkal was completely tortured with craters bigger than the previous one. Our car again slowed down to 2nd gear most of the time. This time it was long tough drive which was around 12kms :-(. Both the stretches added almost 30 minutes of delay. After Bhatkal, the roads are once again smooth till Murudeshwara. At around 1:30AM, we reached Murudeshwara. The town is 2kms interior from main National Highway. We were aware that temple would be closed from 1PM to 3PM and hence I drove to apsarakonda waterfalls which is 17kms from here. The roads were again very good and we reached in matter of 10mins. It is believed that apsaras used to rest in this tiny waterfall site during mythological times. Last time we visited the place, it seemed like tap water but this time it was showing off with full glory ;-). The main source of water seems to be from nearby hillock and hence only alive during monsoon times. As we neared the place, the beautiful sight of Kasarkod beach attracted me. Few snaps here, we neared apsarakonda waterfalls. It started raining torrentially as we reached the waterfall site. Oh my god, that was so thick. I thought those droplets would pierce my old umbrella :D. I shot some videos under the heavy rains :-). After sometime, we reached the parking lot again. While downhilling, we came across many seasonal water streams which were beautiful to watch. This stretch of Uttara Kannada (Bhatkal to Gokarna) receives torrential rainfall during monsoon season. Despite the inclement weather, the sight looks so beautiful during monsoon season.

THE BEAUTIFUL KASARKOD BEACH

APSARAKONDA AT ITS BEST!

THE MILKY WAY ;-)

THERE ARE LOT SUCH EN-ROUTE :D

It is now time to head back towards Murudeshwara. There was fierceful rain for about 30 mins and I enjoyed the drive in heavy monsoon rains for sometime. The rains receded after some distance. On the way, we prayed lord vinayaka of idagunji from distance itself. We did not have time and hence skipped the temple visit. 2:30PM, we were in Murudeshwara town. We had lunch in one of the hotel and by that time temple had opened. The best thing during this time of year is absence of crowd. Due to heavy rains, people barely visit the place and people like me enjoy to full extent ;-). We easily had darshan of Lord Murudeshwara in matter of few minutes. We skipped walk to hill statue instead went all the way to 18th floor of pinnacle to have aerial view of town and shiva statue. A nominal fee of 10Rs is levied to reach the top floor of pinnacle. Having had good glimpse of aerial view, we started back to Udupi.

THE PINNACLE!

OM NAMAH SHIVAYA

VIEW FROM TOP OF PINNACLE

THE GLORIOUS MURUDESHWARA BEACH

It was required to start early due to bad roads. We encountered Mangalore-Mumbai Matsyagandha express near National Highway. I felt like boarding the train and travel all the way to Karwar :-). Konkan Railway as well as Sakaleshpur-Subramanya train journeys are the most beautiful train journey I ever had but I do not have snaps of former one. Never miss the mesmerizing Konkan railway journey from Mangalore to Goa during Monsoon season! My next target is travelling along the Briganza ghats from Castle-Rock to Panaji which passes through the Dudhsagar waterfalls. On the way we enjoyed the beautiful sight nearby shiroor where one could see Sea and western ghats closeby. Due to lack of time, I had to skip many places :-(. We again enjoyed energetic Maravanthe beach and rivulets nearby Kundapur. Also to our luck, the rains had receded completely but there was thick cloud cover. At around 7PM, we reached our home. We could not visit many places including Idagunji temple, the glorious sharavati river basin, top of apsarakonda hills as well as could not stop nearby beautiful rivulets all along. Still, a great day of travel it was :-).

The routes to these places are mentioned in my 2 year old blog.

There is bunch of HDR and panorama trials done which documented here.

There were lot things to capture as timelapse especially the storm raising from Kasarkod Beach. No time and no timelapse eventually this time :-(.

Two videos this time and full HD too ;-). One is aerial view of Murudeshwara temple and other is from apsarakonda waterfalls. Watch and Enjoy!