Visit to Devarayanadurga and Namada Chilume

This is my second visit to some noted places nearby Tumkur area. First one was Goravanahalli Mahalakshmi Temple. This time I had decided to visit Devarayanadurga and Namada Chilume. There are many places which are worth watching however I did not have own vehicle (car is at native place). As usual I planned to start early Sunday morning, however some pending work and breakfast preparation took some time. I took the bike till KG Road since there are no buses to majestic from my place. I parked at Kempegowda Maharaja Complex. They were charging Rs.25 for 12 hrs.

After reaching Majestic bus stand, I enquired a bus conductor about the buses to Devarayanadurga. He guided me to take buses destined to Pavagada and get down in between at oordigere. From there I can get autos which take us to temple. The bus was ready and started towards Dabaspet. The fare is Rs.53/-. There was no traffic at all. It was around 10:10AM the bus started. Surprisingly there was traffic jam in Jalahalli Cross and Dabaspet toll gate :-(. This may be because of high traffic density and people not tendering exact change. The jams near toll gates added almost 25 minutes delay. After 90 minutes of journey I reached Oordigere. As soon as I alighted, autos were calling for passengers towards Devarayanadurga temple. I asked auto guy to dedicate the auto to me for the day and show me all the places nearby. We agreed upon a fare and started towards the temple.  Some pictures enroute to temple

YOU CAN START FROM BOTTOM OF HILL

THE YOGANARASIMHA TEMPLE VIEW

The temple is around 6kms from Oordigere. There are two temples. One below and one above the hillock. The below one is known as BhogaLakshmiNarasimha temple while the above one YogaLakshmiNarasimha temple. There is an entrance fee for private vehicles too! First he carried me to hillock temple. The hillock temple is open till 5PM only while the below one I believe 7:30PM. The vehicle has to climb the hill through steep turns and can reach until a point. From there on one has two step towards the hill for about 200 in number. Watch out for monkey herd in between. Do not dare to hold any food items open. They will easily snatch without any hesitation. They did not bother about DSLR. Probably they know in advance the publicity they get from DSLRs ;-). One can also step into the hill from bottom if wished. But it may be more than 1000 I believe. The steps are pretty well renovated. Enjoy the scenic rocky mountain view in between. I took many pics but cannot post everything here ;-). Some pictures

HANUMAN IDOL CARVED ON THE BOULDER

WE ARE READY TO CLIMB!

ROCKY HILL VIEW IN BETWEEN

ONE MORE VIEW OF AMAZING HILLS!

The deity was very well decorated at the time I went. The temple premises seems to be recently renovated. Small sevas are also conducted here. However may be due to lack of space, they do not undertake larger ones. There are magnificent boulders in between. They are so well balanced too! Near the temple a small pushkarini can be seen and also Anjaneya temple. While stepping towards temple also one can visit Anajaneya temple. Do not miss the tasty cucumber and churumuri at the entrance. The churumuri just costs Rs.10/- with so many ingredients! They are really so tasty [I had around 5 cucumber pieces at a time with lime+salt+vegetables ;-)]. Also do not miss tender coconut water. Some people in their blogs had cited these eatables as unhealthy, however they are not atleast for me may be because I was grown up in village environment. We had enjoyed such things a lot during our childhood including churmuri in beach side despite the sand movement. So after so many pics taken, we moved towards the temple below the hillock.  Here are some pictures from hillock

HERE WE ARE FINALLY IN TEMPLE

VIEW FROM INSIDE

HUGE BOULDERS!

PUSHKARINI OF TEMPLE

FULL VIEW OF TEMPLE

It was already around 1:30PM when we reached the temple below the hill. This is BhogaLakshmiNarasimhaTemple. The deity looked similar to what was seen except expression on face. However crowd here was not so much or were they enjoying food? There is free lunch served near by temple in Anna Dasoha bhavan from 12PM to 3:30PM. One can even donate to this cause. This temple is also renovated and has more area too! I had lunch in Anna Dasoha bhavan and donated some money too! The lunch was very much simple and thats the way it should be. Rice, sambar, buttermilk and bit of payasam were the ingredients of lunch. It was tasty too since I was hungry :-). There are also monkeys and buffaloes near by temple.  Here are pictures nearby temple

BHOGA NARASIMHA TEMPLE BELOW HILL

VIEW OF HILL FROM BOTTOM

After my lunch which took some time, we moved to Namada Chilume. It has some mythology behind it too! There is small hole from where water spills out throughout the year. When I went it was not spillings but had water filled. There is fence around the point to protect from mangling by people. There are huge herds of nasty monkeys too. Also place belongs to Forest Department. Since it was spring, most trees had just shed their leaves. There are also lot of deers being fostered by forest department. You can also see lot of snack booths nearby. The entrance is Rs.3/- per head.  Here is a picture.

NAMADA CHILUME

It is believed that Lord Rama during vanavaasa had come here. He wanted to apply Tilak on his forehead. However there was no water nearby. Consequently he pierced the rock with arrow which resulted in water emerging out of the area. He used that water to apply Tilak. Since the water emerged due to reason Lord Rama wanted to apply Tilak, place is called Namada Chilume.

Two boys pleaded to take shot of theirs. I took some for their satisfaction. Seems like children of construction workers. They were really excited when I showed them pics. They asked me what would I do with pictures. I said will show it to many people so that they come here and shoot many pictures of you.

BOYS!

That's it end of my short journey. The rickshaw driver dropped me to Oordigere bus stop around 3:30PM. He was patient enough to wait for me all the time. I handed over him the money and my thanks! The buses here are infrequent and hence I went for quick tour of small town. Oh my God! Look at the fresh vegetables. They are so cheap and so nice! There were lot varieties too especially carrot, radish and green leafy vegetables. I do not require more so I bought only beans and carrot. My mother would have bought all of them I believe :-). Have a glance of oordigere market.

DO NOT MISS FRESH VEGETABLES IN OORDIGERE

I did not have much time since the bus arrived after 15 minutes. The bus was jam packed still managed a place to stand. I had to stand till Bangalore. Never mind, experienced it before too! Time for my DSLR to sleep for sometime before next journey. Unfortunately the bus got punctured near Dabaspet toll gate. Fortunately not within village limits which would have made us difficult for alternate transport. Driver was lamenting that roads past Oordigere towards Pavagada are in really in bad shape. Further to add to their pain, authorities force them to maintain time which compels them to drive with less care on those stretches. Finally we boarded alternate KSRTC bus to Bangalore and it was 5:30 when it reached Majestic bus stand.

There are many places nearby like Goravanahalli Mahalakshmi Temple, Siddarabetta, Shivagange, Siddaganga Mutt etc.. However you need have own vehicle. That is the best option to enjoy these places. It would cost less too if you can sum up many people! Despite so much physical stress, I enjoyed the journey to max especially my DSLR :-) which took some great shots. Due to severe sun, I used view finder most of the time rather than live view for focusing. All photos were taken either in Av or M mode. At times I bumped up ISO to 800 to get interiors of temple but forgot to revert for outdoors. Fortunately I noticed pretty early before most shots grained out! Few pictures are edited using GIMP.

The best way to visit these places is by private vehicles. If you are traveling by bus, take a bus destined to Pavagada and alight at Oordigere. You can find many rickshaws plying to temple. They take around Rs.30/- per head for below temple and a bit more for above temple. Note that this is applicable for one way journey only. If you are traveling by private vehicle, reach Dabaspet town and take right deviation beneath NH-4 fly over. Ask locals who are the best people to guide. 14kms after, you will reach Oordigere town (you can recognise by seeing huge stocks of vegetables road side!). After Oordigere town, travel 1km along the same route and you will find a welcome gopura which will lead you to Devarayanadurga. Free meals is served in temple below from 12PM to 3:30PM. If you do not want them, carry your own food since there are only good snacks but not restaurants. The nearest place is tumkur itself which is around 20kms. Near to Dabaspet, there is Kamath Upahar also!