Nearing to end of the year, i wished to have one last road trip ,Though we had many options we freezed to visit Somanathpura.Where we can find one of the Perl belonging to Hoysala Dynasty, Me and my friend are so fascinated by Hosyala works that we wish to explore all the works of Hoysala.
Let me brief you about the location of the place, This place is quite near to Mysuru,from Bengaluru you can either take the kanakapura road or Mysuru road to reach this place.we chose the Mysuru road for the same.
It was December time, The dominant chill had fully positioned itself to throw all the might for our ride.we started on the dawn of the day,it was around 6:30 a.m we started our jouney by the time we exit the city traffic it was around 7:30 and we had to take a break for tea as it was extremely chill and our hands was freezing , indeed the king of cold was ruling us. i could see that even Sun was having a tough battle with king Cold to show his prominence .After a quick Tea we continued our journey.we didnt stop anywhere thinking that we can have our breakfast on the way , after maddur we took a detour and we realised that the good place for breakfast if all left behind, some how we settled to one of the sagar enroute and finished our Breakfast with hot idli and vada followed by a yummy coffee. The road leading from Maddur to Somnatahpura is under construction so you will encounter the dust and narrow roads, but in some time it will be a very good road for travellers.Just a word of caution these roads are deserted so make sure u r travelling with your vehicle in good condition.The Beautiful thing to mention is, the way is full of paddy fields and till your eye stretch you can see the paddy fields accompanying you throughout the journey.There are enough sign boards to guide you on the way.It was 10:30 A.m the sun slowly started to show its might and we reached our destination "SomanathaPura".
SomanathaPura is famous for "Chennakeshava Temple" the place got its name as this temple was built by Commander somanatha working for Hoysala dynasty.This temple is about 750 years old, dating to 1268.The Temple has lot of beautiful Architecture , The temple is enriched with 194 statues with 164 Vishnu statues and there is around 6000 small statues.This temple took almost 68 years for completion.The Architecture has a uniqueness is the elephant carving, there is almost 547 unique elephant carved around the temple.As every other Temple even this temple is in star formation which is called as Hoysala style.To obtain the star shaped architecture there should exist 36 corners.There is 18 pillars and 16 ceilings and all ceilings have been depicted with the stage of blooming lotus.Each pillar is made of 5 pieces which is called Panchashilastamba. The whole temple is built on interlocking system.The temple is completely built with soft soap stone, the beauty of this stone is the stone remain soft till the carving and when exposed to natural light,wind and rain this stone attains the strength which helps in interlocking mechanism. You can spot a unique "Yoganarayana statue" which is one among few appearance, one you see here in somanathapura, the other is only in Badrinath.With so much richness in the temple we do have a painful story attached, This Place was been invaded by Malikafar in 1311 and by mohammad bin Tuglak in 1326 , due to invansion all the statue inside and outside the temple is been hampered due to which there is no godli activities carried out in this temple anymore.
After the glance and with heavy heart we started our journey to Talakadu which is 45 kms from somanathapura.This place is also known for its panchalinga darshana(5 lingas darshan) , The temple was built by Chola and Ganga dynasty.The main shrine of the temple is lord shiva which is called as Vaidyanatheshwara temple.The temple is built with granites and there is lot of carvings around the temple ,but the carvings is not as precise as we see in Hoysala dynasty .When asked for the reason on the same the guide stated that getting the precise carving on granite is too tough as compared to soap stone.
Talakadu is full of very soft sand, when searched for the reason, the same is depicted about the curse which talakadu got from Alamelamma on the wodeyar dynasty (i) Talakadu, city will besubmerged under sand dunes and (ii) the Mysore royal family have faced a problem of having a rightful heir.i also see that there is lot of temples been damaged while excavation from sand dues and also it is seen very dominantly when u visit the temple, and few of the gopuras is been rebuilt .It is been belived that the entire city which belongs to Gangas is still submerged in the sand dues and if they are able to excavate the same there will be tremendous valuables will be available .we visited the 3 lingas and all is said to be swayamboo (which has emerged with itself).By the time we complete the visit of all the shrines sun was already warning us on the time, we started from talakadu at 5 PM , with lot of mythology stories and also with lot of heart filled moments of somanathapura we started our journey back , when i was glimsing all these moments i realized knowledge of history deepens your attachment to the place and also provides you the contentment of the visit of the place.With a view of visiting the next hoysala dynasty and thinking on the next destination we drew back , sun bid a good bye and we also bid a heartful good bye for this wonderful journey.
Continue to explore few photos of the place by visiting the below link
https://www.facebook.com/pg/PhotographyVasanth/photos/?tab=album&album_id=1781642605381068
Let me brief you about the location of the place, This place is quite near to Mysuru,from Bengaluru you can either take the kanakapura road or Mysuru road to reach this place.we chose the Mysuru road for the same.
It was December time, The dominant chill had fully positioned itself to throw all the might for our ride.we started on the dawn of the day,it was around 6:30 a.m we started our jouney by the time we exit the city traffic it was around 7:30 and we had to take a break for tea as it was extremely chill and our hands was freezing , indeed the king of cold was ruling us. i could see that even Sun was having a tough battle with king Cold to show his prominence .After a quick Tea we continued our journey.we didnt stop anywhere thinking that we can have our breakfast on the way , after maddur we took a detour and we realised that the good place for breakfast if all left behind, some how we settled to one of the sagar enroute and finished our Breakfast with hot idli and vada followed by a yummy coffee. The road leading from Maddur to Somnatahpura is under construction so you will encounter the dust and narrow roads, but in some time it will be a very good road for travellers.Just a word of caution these roads are deserted so make sure u r travelling with your vehicle in good condition.The Beautiful thing to mention is, the way is full of paddy fields and till your eye stretch you can see the paddy fields accompanying you throughout the journey.There are enough sign boards to guide you on the way.It was 10:30 A.m the sun slowly started to show its might and we reached our destination "SomanathaPura".
SomanathaPura is famous for "Chennakeshava Temple" the place got its name as this temple was built by Commander somanatha working for Hoysala dynasty.This temple is about 750 years old, dating to 1268.The Temple has lot of beautiful Architecture , The temple is enriched with 194 statues with 164 Vishnu statues and there is around 6000 small statues.This temple took almost 68 years for completion.The Architecture has a uniqueness is the elephant carving, there is almost 547 unique elephant carved around the temple.As every other Temple even this temple is in star formation which is called as Hoysala style.To obtain the star shaped architecture there should exist 36 corners.There is 18 pillars and 16 ceilings and all ceilings have been depicted with the stage of blooming lotus.Each pillar is made of 5 pieces which is called Panchashilastamba. The whole temple is built on interlocking system.The temple is completely built with soft soap stone, the beauty of this stone is the stone remain soft till the carving and when exposed to natural light,wind and rain this stone attains the strength which helps in interlocking mechanism. You can spot a unique "Yoganarayana statue" which is one among few appearance, one you see here in somanathapura, the other is only in Badrinath.With so much richness in the temple we do have a painful story attached, This Place was been invaded by Malikafar in 1311 and by mohammad bin Tuglak in 1326 , due to invansion all the statue inside and outside the temple is been hampered due to which there is no godli activities carried out in this temple anymore.
After the glance and with heavy heart we started our journey to Talakadu which is 45 kms from somanathapura.This place is also known for its panchalinga darshana(5 lingas darshan) , The temple was built by Chola and Ganga dynasty.The main shrine of the temple is lord shiva which is called as Vaidyanatheshwara temple.The temple is built with granites and there is lot of carvings around the temple ,but the carvings is not as precise as we see in Hoysala dynasty .When asked for the reason on the same the guide stated that getting the precise carving on granite is too tough as compared to soap stone.
Talakadu is full of very soft sand, when searched for the reason, the same is depicted about the curse which talakadu got from Alamelamma on the wodeyar dynasty (i) Talakadu, city will besubmerged under sand dunes and (ii) the Mysore royal family have faced a problem of having a rightful heir.i also see that there is lot of temples been damaged while excavation from sand dues and also it is seen very dominantly when u visit the temple, and few of the gopuras is been rebuilt .It is been belived that the entire city which belongs to Gangas is still submerged in the sand dues and if they are able to excavate the same there will be tremendous valuables will be available .we visited the 3 lingas and all is said to be swayamboo (which has emerged with itself).By the time we complete the visit of all the shrines sun was already warning us on the time, we started from talakadu at 5 PM , with lot of mythology stories and also with lot of heart filled moments of somanathapura we started our journey back , when i was glimsing all these moments i realized knowledge of history deepens your attachment to the place and also provides you the contentment of the visit of the place.With a view of visiting the next hoysala dynasty and thinking on the next destination we drew back , sun bid a good bye and we also bid a heartful good bye for this wonderful journey.
Continue to explore few photos of the place by visiting the below link
https://www.facebook.com/pg/PhotographyVasanth/photos/?tab=album&album_id=1781642605381068
