A Devotional Trip in Kolar District with my best buddies

Location:
Kolar District
Karnataka State

Places visited, distance & estimated travel time from Bangalore if places are covered in the following order:
1. Kotilingeshwara Temple -   96 Kms - Two Hours
2. Bangaru Tirupathi -           106 Kms - Two Hours twenty minutes
3. Avani -                               117 Kms - Two & Half Hours
4. Virupaksha Temple -         124 Kms - Two Hours Forty Five Minutes
5. Kurudumale -                     136 Kms - Three Hours Fifteen Minutes
   1. Ganesha Temple
   2. Someshwara Temple
6. Mulbagal -                         146 Kms  - Three & Half Hours
    1. Anjaneya Temple
    2. Someshwara Temple

The distances from Bangalore for the above places if visited inividually are different from the above.
1. Kotilingeshwara Temple -  96  Kms
2. Bangaru Tirupathi -           106 Kms
3. Avani -                                95 Kms
4. Virupaksha Temple -          96 Kms
5. Kurudumale -                     104 Kms
   1. Ganesha Temple
   2. Someshwara Temple
6. Mulbagal -                           96 Kms
    1. Anjaneya Temple
    2. Someshwara Temple

Route:

Bangalore - K.R.Puram - Hoskote - Kolar - KGF - Sri Kotilingeshwara Temple (Kammasandra Village) - Bangaru Tirupathi (Gutahalli Village) - Avani - Virupaksha Temple - Kurudumale Ganesha Temple - Mulbagal 

Best Time to Visit:

Any Time during the Year

Stay:
The nearest places to stay are Kolar, Kolar Gold Fields (KGF) & Bangalore.

I and four of my buddies (Mr. Vinod, Mr. Harish Babu, Ms. Shrawani  & Mr. Nagaraj) planned for a devotional trip a week ago and waiting for Sunday. The entire team was excited about the long ride in bike for one complete day. As five people were there I was the one who was single without any company during the ride. On Saturday evening we planned for meeting near tin factory in KR Puram at 07:00 AM. However, we started our journey at 07:30 AM.

The road till Kolar is a National Highway and the ride was terrific with high speeds. There is a flyover on the left side of the Highway to get down to the road towards Bangarpet at the entrance of Kolar Town.

We took left towards Bangarpet after getting down this flyover and travel towards right after this flyover leads to Kolar Town. As we didn't have any breakfast, we were very hungry and we went to have a heavy break fast in a hotel shown by Shrawani. The taste was very good and each one of us had three to four varieties as breakfast. This place has a function hall and small park to relax.

We got good energy to continue the journey and we reached Kotilingeshwara Temple without taking any break. The travel after the flyover was little bit slow as it was single road and a single bus occupies 3/4th of the road and it will be difficult to overtake the vehicles.

1. Kotilingeshwara Temple:

This temple is situated in Kammasandra village situated at a distance of 6 Kms from Kolar Gold Fields & consists of millions of "Shivalinga" installed by many people. It is constructed by "Swamy Sambhasivamurthy". Shivalinga with different sizes are spread over the entire temple. There are seven shivalinga installed by the family members of Shrawani.

Shivlinga installed by family members of Shrawani

Shivlinga installed in memeory of great Indian film actor Mr. Rajnikanth by his fans

The temple hosts Asia's largest Linga which is 108 feet tall. Infront of this huge linga there is 35 feet tall Nandi installed over a platform which is 60 feet in length & 40 feet in width. We heard that this linga will get decorated by garlands with the help of helicopter.

108 Feet Shivlinga

35 Feet Nandi

Upper part of Linga missing

As the entire place in the temple is filled up with shivlinga, the place adjacent to the temple is also taken up for installation of shivlinga.

New place for installation of Shivlinga under development

There is a small temple dedicated to Lord Shanimahatma inside the premises of the Kotilingeshwara temple.

Lord Shanimahatma

We can see shivlinga in any direction inside the temple as there are more than 90 Lakhs installed shivlinga and still everyday many people install shivlinga. The target is to install one crore shivlinga at one place and hence the name "Kotilingeshwara" ("Koti" in local language means one crore).  

There are many linga with different shapes and we found one multi-dimensional linga which is completely different from the normal linga.

There are eleven small temples of various deities constructed within the premises of the Lord Kotilingeshwara temple. The lings will be installed in the name of devotee and the names of devotees can be found at the bottom of each linga.

We have spent about one and half hour in this place and then traveled towards "Bangaru Tirupathi Temple".

2. Bangaru Tirupathi Temple:
We traveled 10 Kms further from Sri Kotilingeshwara Temple to reach "Bangaru Tirupathi Temple". The temple hosts deity of Lord Sri Lakshmi Venkateshwara on a small hill and resembles the famous Sri Venkateshwara Temple in Andhra Pradesh. The entrance of the temple has a magnificent gopuram.

Gopuram

There is a water pond at the bottom of the hill and climbing 30 - 40 steps from here leads to the main temple.

Water Pond

There is a huge statue of Garuda (Lord Vishnu's Vehicle) holding a snake on the way to the top of the hill.

The special feature of the temple is that the main deity has to be seen through a six holed window. Though the deity of Lord Venkateshwara is small it is beautiful.

6 Holed Window

On the way to the bottom of the hill, there are trees filled with different colors of flowers. The hill is surrounded by thick green vegetation.

There are few stalls selling snacks at the bottom of the hill. Beside the snack stalls, there is "Papanasanam" like the one in Tirumala. However, there was no water flowing from it.

Papanasanam

The temple attracts lot of visitors during the month of "Shravana" (July/August). After praying Lord Venkateshwara and exploring this place for about thirty minutes we moved towards the next destination "Avani".

3. Avani:

Avani Temple complex

A 11 Kms travel from Bangaru Tirupathi led us to Avani. It is believed that goddess Sita gave birth to Lava & Kusha here. This place hosts an ancient Ramalingeshwara temple at the bottom of the hill and Sita temple on the top of the hill. The ancient temple is constructed by Chola rulers around 1400 years ago.

Entrance to the Ramalingeshwara Temple

Lord Rama is prayed in the form of Lord Shiva and hence the name Ramalingeshwara. It is a temple complex with many small temples dedicated to many gods.

This temple is an architectural wonder as the pillars are just placed on the ground without any connection with the foundation and also no cement in between. It looks like all are balancing each other confirming to the law of gravity. There are many beautiful carvings on the walls, pillars and roofs.

Carvings on the roof

From the temple, we went to trek the Luv Kush hill to reach Sita temple which is about three hundred meters from the Ramalingeshwara Temple.

Entrance to the Hill

On the way we found Valmiki Ashram which is in the form of a small cave. We got exhausted here as we didn't have lunch and thanks to Shrawani for getting snacks.

Sri Valmiki Ashram entrance

Inside Valmiki Ashram

Further, we saw a place called "Lakshmana Theertha" where small amount of rain water stored providing drinking water to the animals

Lakshmana Theertha

Stored Water in Lakshmana Theertha

From here, we had sight of our target "Sita temple" on the hill. There was a very cool breeze on the top of the hill and there was a good view of the surrounding area from here. 

Sita Temple

Sita Deity

Though we took one hour to reach the Sita temple, we came down the hill in about thirty minutes. There are no good hotels in Avani and it is better to take your own food. We had few cool drinks to regain the lost water and started to "Virupaksha Temple".

4. Virupaksha Temple:
It is a very huge temple constructed by Vijayanagara rulers around 1200 A.D.The sanctum is constructed in such a way that the sun rays fall on the "Linga"on ratahasapthami day.

Corridor in the temple

Kalyanamantapa

Specialty of the Temple:
The main part of the temple consists of two lingas placed one after the other and one of them is Atmalinga. The Atmalinga changes its color at different times of the day.

The front one is Atmalinga

Morning - Blood red color
Afternoon - White color
Evening - Honey color

This temple is not maintained properly and hence proper care must be taken by the temple management to clean the premises and renovate the destroyed portions.

Water Pond (kalyani)

5. Kurudumale 
    1. Ganesha Temple:

We travelled 12 Kms further to reach powerful Kurudumale Ganesha temple built by the Vijayanagara rulers. It is believed that the gods descend from heaven to this place for recreation of the Earth.

There is a giant 13.5 feet Ganesha idol and it is believed that the statue is installed by Bramha, Vishnu & Maheshwara. As this temple is supposed to be powerful many people come here to take blessings of Lord Ganesha before starting new job/work.

13.5 Feet Ganesha Idol

Mouse - Vehicle of Lord Ganesha

                           

2. Someshwara Temple:

This temple is about hundred meters from Ganesha temple and the specialty of the temple is that the entire temple is built of rock without any foundation.

Someshwara Temple

Someshwara idol

                            

There were different carvings on the pillars of the temple depicting the gods and mythological creatures. There are many ruined shrines across the main temple body. It is believed that half of the carvings in the temple were made by "Jakkanachari" and the other half by his son "Dankanachari".

Behind this temple, there is another small Kshamadamba temple which was closed. We took the pic of the goddess through a window.

Kshamadamba shrine

6. Mulbagal

    1. Kshtra Palaka Sri Anjaneya Temple

Lord Anjaneya

We travelled back from Kurudumale to Mulbagal which is the last tourist spot for the day. We refilled our bike petrol tanks for travelling back to Bangalore. The legend says that after war Arjuna went on pilgrimage brought the flag used in war consisting of Vayu Putra and established temple here.

We even had darshan of Sri Ranganatha Swamy outside the Anjaneya temple located in the same temple complex.

Ranganatha Swamy Idol

Water pond without water

From here we left to Someshara Temple which is our last destination of the day situated at a distance of couple of kilometers from Sri Kshetra Palaka Anjaneya Temple.

2. Someshwara Temple:

It is yet another ancient temple dedicated to "Lord Shiva". The entrance of the temple was under renovation when we visited the temple. By the time we reached this place, everyone was exhausted and decided to start back to Bangalore as soon as possible.

Entrance under renovation

Lord Shiva

Snake God Deities

Water Pond

Nandi

Navagraha Statues

With this our trip of devotion came to an end. We started back to Bangalore at 07:00 PM and reached home at about 10:00 PM. Though in the end people were a little frustrated because we visited so many temples, it was still an amazing devotional experience.