25 August 2006

Trip to a mysterious Ganesha temple.

Ganesha is unarguably the most loved God amongst all the Gods. Shaivas, Vyshnavas, Shakthas and anyone would love to worship Ganesha. In fact, it is a mandatory that we take blessings from Ganesha before starting anything afresh. He is considered to be Vighneshwara, one who surmounts the obstacles in one’s path.

A concept of some one removing the suffering from one’s life, no wonder this God is so widely worshipped. He has a strange shape also to add to his popularity among the children. He has an elephant’s head, a big belly, a snake around his belly and happily traveling on a mouse!!

Because of our love to Ganesha, we give him all sorts of new fashionable looks like KBC Ganesha, cricketer Ganesha, Titanic Ganesha, Veerappan Ganesha… My God!! He loves to be like us all. We know he doesn’t mind our childish giggles; He always blesses us with protection, prosperity and success.

Ganesha is also a unifier..! I mean he bonds the people with an everlasting friendship. For this reason, Balagangadhar Tilak selected Ganesha chaturty to unify the disturbed Indians that proved to be a boon for the national struggle for freedom. Ganesha has helped us in times of troubles and emergency.

How about celebrating the festival by visiting a Ganesha temple? Excited with the plan? Come, I’ll take you to a lesser-known Ganesha temple this time… Yes you guessed it right, just like my previous posts, I’m taking you to a forgotten place with a huge heritage, located in Kolar district.

During Ramanavami, we went to Yeldur,
On Aug 15th we visited the martyrs of Vidurashwatha
And now, its Vinayaka chaturthi, lets go to Kurudumale and seek the blessings of the destroyer of all the evils.

Kurudumale was actually ‘Koodu-Malai’, a Tamil name meaning ‘meeting hill’. This once supposed to be a meeting place of Gods for the purpose of recreation. It’s a beautiful place with rocky hills all across and an un-attached village in between. A small village which has, like any other village in the area hard working worker-class people who strive hard for their two-meal-a day life at other’s fields. Work hard, eat well, watch a few Telugu serials and be ready for next day’s routine is the life of these people. As usual, we tend to shy away from expecting anything apart from ordinary in this kind of environment. But be prepared to get yourself treated with an unusual sight. Just at the roots of the hill there is one half constructed temple with great calmness and with highly addictive sacred vibrations.

Yes, we’ve reached Kurudumale Maha Ganapathi temple. As we enter the premises, we will be filled with a divine feeling that gives us a blessed notion. Come in…! Can you believe your eyes? It’s huge!! Bigger than our Dodda Ganesha in Basavanagudi!! It’s in fact, 18 ft in height. As huge as it gets..! Some one says, bigger is not beautiful; but here, Ganesha is beautiful, solacing, embracing, and making you forget the world. He’s our God. See he’s come to life before us…! The feeling of standing before a statue of this statute itself is a blessing!!

It’s believed that Brahma-Vishnu-Maheshwara, the Trimurthis, themselves installed Ganesha here to bless the land with prosperity. It’s said that the Trimurthis performed the pooja for Ganesha here as well. The belief gets life in the fact that there’s no evidence of the installer of the statue in Kurudumale.

Vijayanagara emperors built a temple around Ganesha; its evident from the construction technique and emblems embedded on the walls.

Surprisingly, this is not the end of the story here. There’s one more temple, that is of Hoysala architecture, across the road, a few furlongs afar. Biggest co-incidence is, this temple is half constructed too!!


This is Someshwara temple, with a powerful Shiva linga being worshipped daily. The temple premises also contain some ruined small shrines across the main temple body. The temple is completely in Hoysala style of construction, but there is a point to be observed. Half of the temple has carvings of one type on the walls, and the other half has carvings of another type, more sophisticated and intricate. Legend says that the former half was built by Jakanachari and the later half by Dankanachari, Jakana’s son. Mysteriously enough, there’s no proof supporting this argument. However, this temple looks beautiful and mysterious. This is an example of architectural beauty, which, our ancestors good creating at.

One major engineering marvel about this temple is that this is a temple that is carved out of stone without a foundation!! Believe me..Its true.


There is one more masterly work not to be missed in this temple, a Ganesha statue, sadly, which is in ruins today. Interesting thing about this Ganesha is that this is completely a stony miracle that is hollow inside and upon gently hitting the surface produces a kind of musical note!! Unfortunately, our people, without the knowledge of what they’re doing, spread a rumor that one who visits this temple must hit this Ganesha with stone.. and so did our poor illiterate people…and sadly we’ve lost that mega wonder just in front of us. After the loss, archeological department finally came to the rescue of this Ganesha and have now banned stoning it and have now included it in a protective cover. There cant be a better example to show how irresponsible Indians can get in saving the heritage of the country.

The whole place seems divine, beautiful and mysterious for a serious visitor like me. How did the visit feel like to you? Did you enjoy the trip?


May God Ganesha bless one and all. Happy Gowri-Ganesha festive season.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Great work srik but one correction - Vyshnavas worship Vikshwasena who is the lord of obstacles.
Cheers
Srimathi

Anonymous said...

Hi Srik,

I visited Koodu Malai a couple of years ago. What I liked most there other than Ganesha was that the whole place was full of parrots! Hordes of them...I had never seen parrots before and I can never forget the green color of the parrots' body with the red beak. Awesome.

Srik said...

Thanks Srimati for the info.
Welcome to my page here.

Yeah Vani,
Since I lived in the surrounding there, it might've not seemed special, for parrots would be a natural and usual visitors to my home. Yeah I've observed parrots in the abode of Kurudumale Ganesha.

Anonymous said...

lovely post, srik.
i have visited KOODUMALE (it is not kurudumale) with my wife (her hometown is close by, so she is very familiar with this and other temples across kolar).
liked koodumale's peaceful atmosphere very much. the someshwara temple is also very nice.

Srik said...

RK,
Oh! is it? Which is her homee town? 'coz I belong to the same area as well :)

Anonymous said...

Her hometown is Mulbagal.
I hope you must have visited the Anjaneya, Someshwara temples and Nrsimha Thirtha in Mulbagal. :)

Srik said...

Yeah I've visited all those places and also Purandhara daasara aaradhane in Mulabagal :)
Good to know about ur Kolar connection. I grew up in that beautiful country side.

Chandra said...

Hello Srik,

Realy Appriciate for your great work.

may I know the first picture is old half constructed Ganesha temple.

May Ganesh bless you.

Regards
Chandra