Melukote re visited

Mysore has always been a favourite holiday destination. I love the city

where I have spent most of my childhood holidays. We were there

recently for a day to visit a relative. It was just an overnight halt and

we intended to return to Bengaluru the next morning. 

We started around ten from Mysore. There was no  hurry to return to

Bengaluru.  So, we decided to take a detour and visit Melukote in

Mandya district. Melukote is famous for the thousand years old

Cheluvanarayana Swamy temple.  The idol is said to have been

installed by Sri Ramanujacharya in 1099.  It is probably the head

quarters of Shrivaishnava community (Iyengars) in Karnataka.  

A kilometer away is the temple of Sri YogaNarasimha swamy,

on a hill. The idol here is believed to be  much older.  Installed

by Prahlada, son of Hiranyakashipu ! 

 

Melukote happens to be the birthplace of Late J Jayalalitha,

ex CM of Tamilnadu and Late Sri Pu Ti Na, - Pu Ti Narasimhachar,

well known kannada poet. 

It was an enjoyable detour. I love the interior roads. The traffic is

thin, and the road  passes through an appealing landscape. It is a hilly

terrain. You find hillocks, green fields, small ponds and bigger lakes.

You have the freedom to stop anywhere you fancy, look around, walk

up to a lake or to the top of a hillock and enjoy the scenery. The trouble

with these roads is that they are usually not well maintained and sometimes

they can be a pain to drive. But this route was a pleasant change. The

landscape was beautiful and the road was good! 

CheluvaNarayanaswamy lives up to his name ! ‘Cheluva’ in kannada

means handsome and the idol is really handsome. I liked the small

temple town, especially the old streets around the temple and the

‘Subbanna mess’ from where we could buy ‘Puliyogare’ and

‘Sweet Pongal’ - our packed lunch. We ate our lunch  in a

beautifully shaded patch on our return journey and returned to

Bengaluru in time for tea !

I have posted some pictures above to entice my friends to visit the place. 

It is not Kashmir but it is a pleasant landscape within reach ! I think the

pictures need no caption. It is easy to recognise the rooftops of the new

Melukote town and the surrounding landscape - as seen from the Yoga

Narasimha temple hill.  The recently painted and neat looking house is

the house of Sri Pu Ti Na, which is now a memorial and the other one is

just a random old house on the temple street. The white and red pillared

structure is another old structure from the same street which has seen

better days and you see yours truly, standing in the outer corridor of the

temple.