Iyengar Trail

Decided to take a day's break and guess what - Ginger hotels were offering a 50% discount - so booked a room at Mysore and off we went on July 9th and 10th to Melkote and Srirangapatna.

July 9th 2010 - Left home after a hot cuppa at 6.15am and drove slowly towards Mysore enjoying the cool weather and drizzle listening to old movie songs. Absolutely delightful! We stopped for breakfast at Kadambam, a restaurant which has opened after Chennapatna just about 9 months ago and specializes in Iyengar cuisine. Do not miss the Pongal and Menthe Gojju - its scrumptious!

Sated, we continued, marvelling at how the sky looked angry and grey and in contrast the earth beautifully green! We were in no hurry as the temple at Melkote opens after 9.30 only, so we drove at a sedate 70 - 80kms speed and just after Mandya took a diversion to the right. You are likely to be confused as the distances displayed vary from 27 to 33kms, well, on clocking it, we found it was exactly 36kms, 6kms from Jakkanahalli (hometown of the famous sculptor-mason Jakkanacharya) which is a gentle climb up. Roads are good except for a couple of blemishes and the toll collected of Rs.10 is worth it if they can maintain the roads in this condition.

Melkote is a temple village/town with 2 main temples - one of Chelluvanarayanaswamy and Yoga Narasimha (atop the hill) with a beautiful Kalyani at the base of this hill. A diversion to the left takes you to the Kalyani and the hilltop shrine. So we finished these before we went to the main shrine.

The temple of Cheluvanarayanaswamy is of prime attraction for tourists and devotees visiting Melkote. The temple, built in the Vijayanagar style, has some of the most intricately carved pillars and is one of the four most sacred places of Vaishnavism in South India. The temple was consecrated by the Vaishnava saint Ramanujacharya. When Muslims raided the temples during that period, Ramunujacharya was instrumental in restoring the deities. It is also believed that one Muslim princess joined the saint and merged with the idol. Hence the temple also has an idol of Bibi Nachiyar.
Apart from the temples, this place has been a haven for Sanskrit scholars. There is a century old Sanskrit college and 28year old Academy of Sanskrit Research. In this premises lie the two 30 feet pillars, Rajadwara, a classified monument believed to be 1000 years old. Legend behind this is that the famous sculptor Jakkanacharya challenged his rivals to build an enterance to Melkote in single night. His rivals cheated by sounding the gong just past midnight when it was actually supposed to sound at 5 am. Upset by this, Jakkanacharya left the place leaving an unfinished pillar. To this day the pillars look unfinished and ravaged by time. Kings of Mysore from Raja Wodeyar to Krishnaraja Wodeyar have patronised this temple and given crowns of gold studded with precious jewels and are subsequent to the 1000 yaer old "Vairamudi" which is brought out for public viewing in April/May annually.

On the top of the hill is an impressive temple of Yoga Narasimha. It is believed that the image at Yoga Narasimha temple was installed by Prahlada (son of the demon king Hiranyakshipu). Next to this temple are some caves which are supposed to have offered refuge to the Pandavas during their Agyathavasa.

A visit to Melkote is unique in the sense that it gives us a first hand experience and knowledge of our own cultural heritage in its living form. Historical studies have shown relatively little change in the plan of the town, the type and character of the dwellings and its cultural practice. This is a major difference I have seen in traveling in India or abroad; every place has stories to say, villagers have interesting information about their ancestors and I think this is what makes it so good to be in these places and to be part of history. The continuing civilisation of India is unique and something to be proud of.

After getting some home made puliyogare, sakkare pongal and curd rice packed for lunch and picking up a couple of packets of Puliyogare Gojju (Iyengar, I may be - but why pass up a chance for a shortcut to Puliyogare preparation?!) we started our trip back to Mysore. At Jakkanahalli, take the road straight to Pandavapura and Srirangapatna to join the main Bangalore - Mysore highway. Reached Srirangapatna and drove through an ancient gateway (the doorways to Tipu's fort) with the Hindu lotus design arch on one side and the Islamic arch on the other.

Visited the Ranganatha Swamy temple . Photography is prohibited so no photos of the temple except this long shot of the gopuram. The Ranganathaswamy temple in Srirangapatna enshrines Lord Vishnu as Ranganatha. Lord Ranganatha is shown reclining on the bed of coils of the serpent Aadi Sesha. (in fact that is my Ranga's favourite posture too - something to do with the name, maybe?)! This temple is part of the triumvirate of temples at SriRangam and Shivanasamudram. On the way to the temple is the beautiful large mosque - the Jamia Masjid built in 1787, and the place where Tipu's body was found after he was betrayed by his own men and the remanants of his fort.

Also en route is the first temple of Ayyappa Swamy temple in South India (now this bit was news to me!). A little after the temple turning is the cannon which rolled down from the roof and is lying there to this day at the place called Col.Bailey's dungeon. By this time it was nearing 1pm and we decided to go to the hotel. Checked in, had all the Melkote goodies and a siesta. Ginger is a good option for a stay for a day or two - clean, wallet friendly yet has all the necessary modern amenities. Evening soaked in Mysore, visited my uncle and returned to the hotel for a long night of rain.

July 10th 2010 - Woke up around 7am and checked out by 8.30am, Ranga was not feeling too good, so had a simple breakfast at Hotel Siddhartha and left for Bangalore. The weather was bright and sunny and the traffic was for some reason light - so even with the mandatory stop to pick up Maddur vadas for son and my parents, we made it back to Bangalore in just unedr 2 1/2 hours. Met with appa and amma, gave them the Maddur vadas and Puliyogare Gojju from Melkote, had lunch and then reached home around 3pm. A beautiful 1 day trip! The car gave us 20.3 kms to the litre.