Enchanting Devarayana Durga

Picture this:
Beautiful shades of green around you, the bright green leaves, the dark green leaves, the rain has just stopped and cleaned the environment thoroughly, absolutely no vehicles around, no people around... just you and mother nature. Just the way to spend a weekend, isn't it? Well, this place is just 75 kilometers from Bangalore, Devarayana Durga.

Maddy and I set off on a Saturday to explore Devarayana Durga, very near to Tumkur. We decided to have our breakfast on the way in Kyathsandra which is very famous for 'tatte' idly. We left Bangalore at around 8:30 AM from Maddy's place. The traffic was horrible in the so called 'National Highway' number 4 till we went past T Dasarahalli. The climate was just perfect for a long drive, no sun, no wind. I did the driving all the way till we reached the destination. Even without being serviced, my Pulsar cruised at 100kmph easily, what a bike! I just love it.

The first pit stop was at Kyathsandra's Ravi Darshan Hotel for the breakfast. Times have changed; so has the hotel. What used to be a very old looking hotel with typical wooden seats and tables now is a plush hotel on the highway serving the customers seated on cushion seats and a separate family room. I fail to understand the concept of these Family rooms. No A/c, no special ambiance, no better taste but the rates are high. The steaming bisi bisi tatte idlies were served within minutes. The taste of the chutney was very different from what the usual hotels serve. The big fat and flat idly had a ball of butter on it which started melting right away. The taste of the idly chutney along with the butter was the typical-Kyathsandra-taste. Ah! superb. Though we were somewhat full, our greed ordered a Masala Dose each. The crisp Masala Dose was smelling full of ghee and was loaded with the aalugadde palya inside. The idly and dose filled our stomach beyond the usual capacity.

We took a deviation from the NH4 just beside the hotel and proceeded towards Naamada Chilume, which is just about 20 kms from the hotel. The roads are really very good. There were absolutely no vehicles around us, full greenery on either side of the roads. We felt really close to mother nature. We in fact got so close to mother nature that we stopped the bike, got down and just walked towards the trees to relieve ourselves in the arms of Mother Nature! After hanging up the nature call, we spotted beautiful small birds atop the tree which were giving nice Bose (Pose) to be framed in his Olympus camera.

Naamada Chilume has an interesting story. It seems when Rama and Sita were on exile, they were passing through the forests in this area and it was time for Rama to pray for which he had to apply the naama (tilak). Since he could not find water around, he pulled out an arrow and shot it on a rock. This created a hole out of which water started flowing. Even to this day, the water has been flowing continuously. Many people have tried to find out the source of the water, all in vain.

The entrance fee to get inside this place is Rs 3. I wonder what purpose it serves for the government to collect just 3 rupees as the entrance fees. We were greeted by our ancestors, monkeys as soon as we entered the gates of Naamada Chilume. Seeing their antics for a while, we spotted the deers taking rest under the shade of the trees far away. A couple of photos of the monkeys were shot by the upcoming photographer, Maddy.


The hole from where the holy water flows out has been protected with grill around out so that no one can pollute the water or do something unwanted. The water that flows out is collected in another man made hole for people to sprinkle it on themselves and consume it as theertha. We sat on the rocks for a while when admiring the beauty when a few skinks (haavu raaNi) creeped up the rocks.

Maddy shot this beautiful photo of a big skink. It was really difficult to get this angle, a brilliant effort I must say.

We then started off towards Devarayana Durga which has 3 temples all near to each other. The uphill ride was truly an enchanting experience. We just saw green hills around us everywhere with very few vehicles passing by. There is a viewpoint on the way to the temple, we got down from the bike and spent about half an hour gazing at the beauty of Karnataka. Maddy shot another very good landscape even with the lighting not being photo friendly.


Both of us were not interested in going inside the temple and hence, we did not seek the darshan of the Lord. While climbing the stairs to the temple, Maddy spotted a very small bird lifting off from a wall adjacent to us. He also noticed that this small bird was the parent of 2 baby birds that were residing in their nests within the gap between the stones of the wall. Both of us wanted to watch the mother bird feed its children and waited for about an hour sitting near the wall. Though the mother bird came near the wall, it did not risk feeding its children fearing if people discover them.

We then moved away from the wall and let the parent bird feed its babies with small worms. Maddy climbed the wall till he got a clear view of the babies. It was really difficult to stand still with the little support that he got from the stones. I switched on the camera, took off the lens cover and gave it to him.

He stood there for about half a minute and this is what he could get. What a beauty to see these innocent ones which even haven't opened their eyes.

People passing by were giving suspicious looks at us wondering what we were doing standing by the wall and not going inside the temple. One gentleman asked us where the birds were, we said we did not know and that we were waiting to see if any.

It started to drizzle and we thought it was time for us to head back to Bangalore. Both of us not hungry, courtesy - Ravi Darshan Hotel. We ate a couple of sliced cucumbers and had tender coconut water and started the ride back to Bangalore. The ride back to Bangalore was pretty slow with both of us discussing all possible things and also singing a few of our favorite songs, praising the composers of the songs, the singers and we reached Peenya by 4:30 PM. I was tired of riding for about 150 kms and gave the charge to Maddy to complete the journey to his place which took about an hour because of the heavy traffic.

Expense wise, it was a real cheap outing and one of the best ways to spend a weekend.
Fuel : 250 Rupees
Breakfast at Kyathsandra : 70 Rupees
Cucumber and tender coconut : 20 Rupees
Entrance fees at Naamada Chilume : 6 Rupees
Admiration of nature : Priceless!

Route taken from Vidyaranya Pura : Tumkur Road - Kyathsandra - Siddalinga Mutt - Devarayana Durga - Tumkur Road - Vidyaranya Pura.