ADHVAGATI

KEESARAGUTTA ( or, Kesari Ghatta  )  Did not  set out to see this place. In fact , had not even heard of it. It just happened to be on the way from somewhere to somewhere on a hectic, jampacked  itinerary ; so looked in , not really knowing what to expect. Just that it was a Siva temple, yes, with nice new, whitewashed towers and cement arches pointing the way. The usual pushing and shoving around for a darshan.....and then, they  direct you to the hillside.  Now, this was a discovery ! Hills and valleys around. And scattered all over, dozens of Shivalingams ! With daylight fading and no lights  behind the temple, it certainly was one eerie sight ! Round headed stones  emerging from the earth like dark , giant mushrooms in a godforsaken wasteland. Got the story from another visitor. The often heard one about Rama wanting to do a sivapuja and asking Hanuman to fetch him a lingam . The latter goes off all the way to varanasi , poor chap, and comes b...

Bhongir Fort . Bhuvanagiri, actually. Location : Nalgona District, Telengana. Built by the Western Chalukya King  Tribhuvanamalla Vikramaditya IV in the 10th. Century . It snakes up a 500 -600 Ft high bald monolith , ending in a modest sized citadel ( bala-hisar) at the summit. Since the hill is a lonely  outcrop standing in a flat  expanse , the view from the summit is amazing , reaching far into the horizon on all sides. Quite a strategic location for an outlook. And the fort is supposed to be impregnable as well, its entrances well hidden by boulders.  The climb up can be strenuous, often inducing vertigo. Thank goodness for those occassional railings.,  Water conservation and rain waterharvesting seem to have been thought of at that  early date, for deep natural gashes in the rock are walled and converted into reservoir tanks.  Some doorways  and arches in the bala -hisar  bear the stamp of Islamic influence ; it transpires ...

Unprecedented deluge in Karnataka and Andhrapradesh. And just the other day, the lament was about Drought. As they say in vernacular : "Athivrishti - Anaavrishti". The usual post crisis finger pointings are going on , full steam. "Avoidable tragedy" is the unanimous verdict. We do have Disaster Prevention and Management committees. Also, pertinently, Disaster Relief Funds......Even marmosets learn, at least by pavlovian reflex. We never learn. It was quite eerie to see images of the Tunga flooding the shrine in Mantralayam. Never have i seen the river there being anything more than a thin, sluggish stream, coursing well away from the bank . One always had to cross expanses of hot rocks to get the mandatory holy sprinkle. * .....Now I think of a little girl - is she safe ? Sadly, "Hungry and shelterless" may not be a new situation for her..... * All pilgrims to the Saint's Brindavana in Mantralaya are expected to visit the cave where he meditat...

We over estimated our trekking stamina . And misjudged the image attributed to Ahobilam. Of course we knew the basic facts about it before we set out. That there are these nine temples strewn around a hillside where Narasimha, the ManLion god mauled and disembowelled the demon Hiranyakasipu and revealed The Truth to Prince Prahlada . That there are no serviceable roads after a point and we'd have to walk up the hill. Ok, that was no big deal. 'Havn't we seen enough hill temples before!' We took our sweet time arriving there, expecting to find a holy hillock we could finish with in a couple of hours. We ended up spending the whole day there, returning to the vehicle, reluctantly, only when light had faded almost completely. Though the calf muscles were a bit wobbly and complaining, we were too satiated and thrilled to notice fatigue. We returned to the resting place at an ungodly hour besides not having found anything more than biscuits and tetrapacked ...