BELLURU UNCROSSED

To begin with :

“ Bellur Cross “ is one of those ‘you-are-here’ kind of pins on the

Highway, a reference point for giving direction/ location:  'Left/Right of

Bellur Cross .... so many Kms from Bellur Cross .... take turning

after Bellur Cross '…..Everybody who takes that Highway out of

Bengaluru  towards Hassan knows Bellur Cross . 

But Belluru ?

We had also crossed Bellur Cross that very morning to get to our

destination of the day , without giving Belluru or the Cross any

thought. But on return journey , late noon , Belluru beyond The Cross

beckoned . All because Google Maps showed a temple icon above the

name and we were on an ancient monument ‘collecting’spree .

And so, into Belluru we rode , without knowing the second thing about

it , after its name .

A jaunt of discovery it turned out to be !

Belluru:

A quaint little town where few are out and about . We follow the

motorable road , keeping eyes peeled for the sight of any gopuram

None to be seen and we are already in the heart of town , in a narrow

bylane and Google insisting we are close to destination . 

All we see is a tall sthambha apropos  nothing.

An old lady , sitting on the jagali of her whitewashed , tile-roofed

house, has been eyeing us curiously as we go hither and thither .

‘Better old lady in situ than Google in cyberspace’ we decide and seek

her help . She gives us an odd look and points ‘just over there !’

Getting down from the car, we walk but a few steps beyond her house

and turn right . Lo and behold ! There stands the handsome Hoysala

edifice of Madhavaraya , bright and large , right before our eyes ! 

How was it hidden from sight in that town without high-rise buildings or

groves ? Wonder , wonder .

We enter from a side door in the compound . The grey , sandblasted

walls rise clean and beautiful from an unkempt undergrowth of grass

and weeds .

The temple is locked and three men are resting in the cool, high

ceilinged front yard . Surprisingly , they are speaking in a dialect ,native

to deep south Tamil Nadu . It turns out they are temple builders hired

for renovating Madhavaraya temple . The priest , they say, will come by

presently for evening puja .

We wander around the accessible areas . The many pillared front yard

forms a patalankana from which a short flight of steps , flanked by two

chubby, be- jewelled stone elephants, takes one to a porch with perforated stone screens.

Further on is the Mukhamantapa.

The massive cylindrical pillars  here are of  the signature

lathe turned design . And they are painted gold . Did they have to do it?

Who conceives such ideas! For a moment , there is sheer terror at the

thought that had there been sculptures of divinities and madanikas on

the outer walls , they would have been painted too ! By some miracle ,

the two elephants have been saved .

But the outer walls of the trikuta edifice are totally bereft of sculptures .

There are only lovely pilasters, crowned with the design of the tiered

pagoda.

The painted wood vahanas are parked haphazardly along with buckets, ropes , plastic sheets etc. Perhaps some festival is due or just done. 

A  roll of vastram is stored on the head of alwars ! 

Presently , the priest arrives , a friendly man eager to show around . He

also allows photography, quite cheerfully !

The shrine is east facing , with three sancta . The main sanctum houses

Madhava , all dazzling in polished kavacha and new brocaded clothing,

standing on a tall pedestal , flanked by two small sized consorts .

In the sanctum to the left is Varadaraja and to the right is Venugopala . 

The dwarapalas of all three are small in size.

The navaranga also has squat cylindrical pillars , mercifully unpainted . The

deep bays of the ceiling are decorated with the lotus motif .

Just by the door leading in are two huge dressed stone slabs bearing

inscription in minute font . One of these is kept turned , face to wall .

The reason given is curious –“to save it from invaders” ! What of the

other , displayed properly ? The priest has no explanation to give

except that ‘the one turned to the wall may have some important

message engraved on it .” Some mystery to ponder upon there !

Coming out , the Priest unlocks two small store rooms by the mukhamantapa,

to show us two beautiful images, not in worship, stored there : a

Lakshminarayana Steele and a Venugopala, reportedly salvaged from a

ruined Shivalaya and moved here for safety . We take our time

admiring the intricacies of the sculptures , from close quarters. 

Temple visit done , we drive down Jain Street , apparently an

arterial road judging from its width , where a Jinalaya is being

renovated/ rebuilt .

The street is lined by residential buildings still retaining the vintage

style of architecture . Altogether , too lovely to pass by without

photographing .

When we get down to get our shots , ladies of some houses come out

to chat us up. One of them spontaneously invites us , total strangers ,

into her home to see the heritage interiors ! We gather that her very

picturesque home has been used as location for TV Serial shoots . 

And some local gossip -

that the present generation of the ‘yonder house had sold the carved

Burma Teak pillars of his home for four lakh rupees'.

The lady in the biscuit-coloured house tells us we should not miss the

Ishwara Temple, just a street away …..it is half sunken , she tells us with

a gleam in her eye .

Ok, not missing it then , even if daylight is fast fading and there are no

street lights in the lonely dirt lane , leading away into a patch of untilled

land . Soon we see a vimana jutting out from street level to the left of

the lane . And the Hoysala Symbol at ground level !

Never seen the ubiquitous icon of Sala slaying the tiger so upclose ! It is

quite huge and so well worked . Sala looks very young, almost a child,

and full of vigour . It is so frustrating that light has faded and he does

not photograph well .

The temple is sunken alright . But the earth around it has been

excavated and some restraining stones put in to hold it back . A

narrow flight of steps leads down to the small temple . Door is locked,

the porch is flooded and frogs are leaping  about. 

There are large inscribed stones against the wall and a broken veeragal . 

It is a protected monument and is named as Moola Sindheshwara in the signboard.

The brimming tank right behind the temple is the source of its grief ,

as even a little rain causes flooding of the shrine . 

On the other bank of the tank is seen another temple , modern or modernized , standing well

above the water level . There are lights and the sound of bells and people's chatter there.

Perhaps it is the Gaureshwara temple which was mentioned by the old

lady who had directed us to Madhavaraya .

But, time to leave .

Perhaps , some other day , with enough time on hands , Bellur, once again, will not

be crossed and the pretty little town will welcome us to discover more

of its delights .

Post Script :

Since return , some info has been gathered about the sunken Shiva

temple from various old sources . 

The older Gazettes call it Mule –Singeswara . 

Reminded of the same Moola ( ‘Original’/ ‘Source’) and

Mule’ (‘Corner’/ ‘edge’)confusion in the name of the Shivalaya at

Turuvekere ( MoolaShankara -MuleShankara). This Bellur Shivalaya was originally a Trikuta , but only one vimana remains now . Reportedly, in

the navaranga inside are two beautiful images of Ganapathi and

Bhairava . Two other icons , a Gopala and a Lakshminarayana , were

removed from here for safekeeping  elsewhere.

Realised that the two icons in the storerooms at Madhavaraya temple

are from this temple .

Both Madhavaraya and MulaSingeswara belong to the 13th Century .