इक नये ऐहसास की खोज मैं ।
निकल पड़ा अंजानी राहों पे ॥
मिल बैठा कई अजनबी रिश्तों से ।
हर मोड़ पे इक नयी कहानी के संग ॥
(In the desire to experience something new, i ventured into the unknown roads. Just to meet up with unknown relations at every turn and to learn a new story)
India is a beautiful and mysterious place. With each passing time, there have been kingdoms and dynasties that have left behind a treasure trove of art and fascination. One such era was that of the Hoyasala kingdom spread in the western ghats…
My first visit was to a very less known place Doddagaddavalli (some 15 kms away from Hassan). Well must say that sometimes, when your GPS does not work, you could end up into some fascinating rural Indian place. That is exactly what happened, we took an early left turn and landed up in this beautiful village. I rolled down the car windows and could breath the fresh early sprinkled with water by the women in the house. Asked some of the local village girls where the temple was and they coyly responded stating where we could find find.
When we really ended up, after going through the inner village roads was this beautiful small temple well preserved by ASI. It took us to another era altogether. Thanks to ASI, the place has been kept clean and neat. As we enter the temple, we are greeted by this beautiful carved stone pillars, mounted just by clay, lime and egg shells. Wow, this simply marvels one that even after so many years, they are just intact. Lucky, we managed to get a farmer boy (Shibu) who helped us in explaining the place and the architecture in his broken hindi. He opened the sanctum doors and as the light filled into the dark spaces, I held my breath to see a disfigured grotesque looking figure. That when he says, that is the “Betal”. I do not think anywhere in India would you find a 6 ft tall “Betal” and not just one, there were two guarding the lord “Kali”. Along with the Betals you have “Vish Kanya” and “Naga Kanya” who guard the deity.
The inner sanctum, apart from having “Ma Kali” has a beautiful idol of “Ma Lakshmi”, “Kalabhairava” and “Lord Shiva”. They all are placed at opposite to each other. The inner pillars are so smoothly rounded and polished that they could cut your fingers off if one is not careful
The whole temple had been carved out of stone and each stone, did talk about a story that has been carved. They are so mesmerising that you could keep looking at them and create a story of your own while discovering what the creator would have thought. If you look at the below pic what is that you could think off. The story is that of praying and sacrificing to the lord if they are blessed with a child. The sacrifice has been depicted by the headless human bodies.
Now there are many such stories that have been depicted across the temple. They are fascinating. the place from where the offering water comes out is carved in the form of Yali, depicting that this was built during the Hoysala dynasty.
Nice
LikeLike