Nandi Hills – An abode in clouds

26/06/2011

God is conceived as the Supreme Being and principal object of faith. The concept of God as described by theologians commonly includes the attributes of omniscience, omnipotence, omnipresence, omnibenevolence, divine simplicity, and eternal and necessary existence. God has also been conceived as being incorporeal, personal being, the source of moral obligation, and the “greatest conceivable existence”. Many people, many religions perceive his existence is different ways.

Nandi is the name for the bull which serves as a mount of god Shiva and as the gatekeeper of Shiva and Parvati. In Hindu Religion, he is the chief guru of eighteen masters including Patanjali and Thirumular. Temples venerating Shiva display stone images of a seated Nandi, generally facing the main shrine. There are also a number of temples dedicated solely to Nandi.

Our previous weekend was at its ultimatum. Hope & Expectations were higher. It was all ruptured by the dwell of poor weather. Due to high winds and dullness because of clouds we had to cut short our trip to a single day. Although our adrenaline was at its peak, we somehow had to figure out a place for a day’s trip. Trip was primarily meant to satisfy our vigour. We had a lot of places on our list that we wished to be visited (list included – Devanarayanadurga, Nandi Hills, Hampi, Bheemeshawari). But the odds were in favour of Nandi Hills as it was more closer compared to the rest. Nandi Hills also known as Nandidurga is an ancient hill fortress of southern India, in the Chikkaballapur district of Karnataka state. It is approximately 60 kms away from the Tech City. The hills are traditionally held as the origin of the Arkavathy River. It is a 1300 year old temple. Nandi Hills route is said to be a biker’s paradise. A lot of bikers in and around the Tech City prefer the Nandi hills route to have mountain ride. It has almost 10-15 hair pin bends.

We all got up at 7am in morning and left for Nandi Hills. We stopped at place near Hebbal for breakfast. The food at the place was pretty decent. International Bangalore Airport is located on route to Nandi Hills. We decided to stop by the airport on our return journey. This time around I decided to the hilly road instead of my bro. It was one of most dangerous decision. As the road connecting Nandi Hills from highway (Bangalore-Hyderabad Highway) had hair pins which were quite narrow. From highway it was around 35kms to the hills. My bro took some really good pics on route.

The connecting road was really exquisite. It really looked green. I hadn’t seen so much greenery after my visit to Wayanad. It is hard believe there exists a place like Nandi Hills within the limits of the Tech City. The place is a real paradise for people who really prefer riding bicycles. The roads were really narrow and I had honk the horn for every single turns we made. Most of the hair pin bends were narrow and steep. We finally reached the destination after an hour of driving from the highway. The parking at the top was really difficult due to the fact that availability of a parking spot. We somehow managed to find a parking spot. We crosschecked the car to ensure that we locked it properly or not. The reason was that there were lot monkeys roaming around the hills which were really cunning. They were cunning in the sense they will cheat you by taking your food, so we had ensure that our food was safe inside the car. Since it was a hill and the monsoon was not quite far away, there were high winds and dark clouds at the top of the hill.

We initially paid our visit to the main temple at centre of the hills. There are many stories behind the creation of the temple. In the period of Cholas, the hill was called as the hill of Happiness or Ananda Giri. Another story is that Yoga Nandeeshwara performed penance here, and so it was named after him. Nandi is also commonly called Nandidurga (Fort) because of the fort build here by the ruler Tippu Sultan. It is also perhaps called Nandi Hills because the hill resembles a sleeping bull (Nandi).

Another theory holds that the hill gets its name from an ancient, 1300 year old Dravidian style Nandi temple situated on this hill. An ancient, lord Shiva and Parvati temple also adorns this hill. The Bhoga Nandeeshwara Temple in Nandi village is one of the oldest temples in Karnataka dating back to the ninth century. The temple hewn out of rock consists of two complexes. While the first complex houses three deities, the second complex consists of a huge and majestic kalyani pond. The foundation of the temple was constructed by the Banas of ninth century. The Chola rulers of the 11th century constructed the roof of the temple. 

Kalyani Pond....

The marriage hall was built by the Hoysalas in the thirteenth century and a wall of the second complex was built by the Vijayanagar kings. Beautiful stone carvings are a popular tourist site and are a source of inspiration for students of art and architecture. 

Stone Carvings at the exterior of the temple....

Main Temple....

Marriage Hall...

The temple was special of its own kind. We then moved the exterior of the temple which was a sight to watch. There were really beautifully cut out rocks on the side of the temple. There was fort extension constructed by Tippu Sultan on one end of the temple. There was another interesting place called as Tipu’s Drop, where Tipu Sultan threw his condemned prisoners to death. There is a secret passage situated on the west of the hills which was used by the Kings to escape during unforeseen attacks. We took some amazing pictures.

Its me near the Tipu's Drop...

View from Tipu's Drop...

Bro standing near the cliff...

This is the passage through which hot oil is passed to kill the invaders...

Escape Passage...

Bro, Dad & Mom standing near the Tower of Guards...

The most highlight of all is the children’s playground which is been constructed by Karnataka Horticulture Group. It is a sight to watch as there were really a lot of flowers in store for us to watch. There was lilies, roses, jasmines, lotus etc. My bro took some really good pictures of the flowers which became the highlight of all.

One of the most awesome pics taken by my bro at Nandi Hills..

By the time, we took pictures of flowers and the garden; it was time for our lunch. Initially we thought it would be normal lunch but, we were in for a surprise. There were two monkeys guarding our car. One of them was sitting near the windshield of the car and other one was patrolling the car. 

Our food was inside the car. The task seemed to be near impossible. The monkeys were patrolling like the Vietnamese soldiers in the movie ‘Rambo’. Our mission was getting our food and supplies from the car without alerting the little soldiers. Dad and bro decided to take care of the mission as one of them decided to take care of the monkeys by force and other one would sneak and grab the prize. Dad decided to fend off the little soldiers from the car using a stick. As the soldiers were wasting the time and concentration on my dad, my brother sneaked behind and grabbed the food box from the car. He then, had to run for his life to not to be caught by the little soldiers. Our mission was success.

Dad guarding the food..

But we knew that we won the battle but, not the war. One of us had to guard the food and supplies while the rest were having food. It was like Cold war II. We were lucky that none of the monkeys showed up. We completed our lunch and moved to the car for our next destination on our cards, which was the airport.

Near the pond we found something interesting and we decided to take the video of it.

Bro decided to take the return drive from Nandi Hills. The route was special on its own kind with various flora and fauna.

On route we stopped at a place near a rose garden farm. We took some pictures of the farm. The farm looked so lively.

We started moving on from the rose garden to the airport.

The international airport was about 15-20 kms from the rose garden. The airport road was really good. We reached the airport at around 5pm. We parked the car and waited for witnessing some flight take offs. We took some videos of the flight take offs. First it was Fly Emirates – the one to UAE. We took the video of its take off. 

We then, took some pictures of the airport. 

Parking Lot at the Airport....

We decided to head back to the Tech City as it was getting late. The road from the airport to Highway was glowing with street lights. It was glowing like the necklace road in Mumbai. We reached home at 9pm. We decided to have small dinner. Our vigour was satisfied and felt really worn out.

It was our last weekend in Tech City. Our next weekend was our journey back home. Will it be normal ride like the one we headed into the Tech City for the first time or will it be a different one considering the weather statistics? The ‘Venture continuessssss.........