Kolar Trip

It was after a couple of month from our last trekking, we have decided to explore a new place. As usual our friend Shashi collected the details of a place called Kolar which is around 75km from center of Bangalore City. We all then decided to take a trip to Kolar on 4th march 2017. This time we had decided to travel by bike so as to cover most of the places in Kolar in a one day trip. We started our journey at around 5:15AM from Domlur, Bangalore.

Morning view on the route

It was a descent and well maintained NH75 highway road to Kolar and took us 1 hr 45 minutes to reach kolar.

Kotilingeswara

Kotilingeswara temple is located in Kammasandra village in Kolar district. The main attraction part of this temple is 31ft long Basava statue facing the world largest 108ft long Shivalinga.
The name Koti means Crore, the entire project of this temple involves installation of 1 Crore Shiva lingas in the place. As of now around 90 lakhs lingas had been already installed . You will find lakhs of Lingas of various sizes spread over 15 acre area.

Statue of Basava

Statue of ShivaLinga

Also this is the one of the few temples in india where you can find Trimurthies (Bramhma, Vishnu and Maheswara) together.

We then had our breakfast in a nearby hotel. Without wasting much of the time we headed to visit 2nd place of the day, Avani. It was around 23km from kotilingeswara and we reached Avani at 10:00 AM.

Ramalingeswara group of temples, Avani 

Avani is a located in a small village called Mulbagilu taluk in Kolar district. This place is well known for Sitadevi temple and Ramalingeswara temple. According to the history, the place Avani is the birth place of Lava and Kush, who are twin childrens of Sita devi and Sri Ramachandra. The history also states that, at same place Lava-Kusha fought war against Rama by tieing Ashwamedha (Horse used in Sri Rama's Aswamedha Yaga).

You will find totaly 4 temples of Lord shiva build by Rama, Bharata, Lakshman and Shatrujna to take off their sins for waring against childrens Lava and Kusha.

Ramalingeswara  temple

Back side of the temple has a hill with Sita devi temple situated at the peak. After taking darshana from the temple we headed to hill. As we were new to this place we took help of one of the local guide to explain the history of Sita devi and to show us some mysterious places along the route to the hill.

Hill behind the temple

Local guide Chethan

Taking rest in between the route to peak of hill

We were asked to climb the hill with bare foot by localities as it is a holly place. We almost took 2hrs in climbing the hill, exploring and to descend from the hill. It was around 1 PM when we had descended from the hill. We could not find any hotel near by, so we had to head to the main road for the lunch. So we started to head towards next place of the Someswara. It was around 2PM after having a descent lunch in a hotel on the highway.

As we were delayed by 1 hour as per our expected schedule, we had to skip visit to Someswara temple which was on the way to Antaragange.

Antaragange

Antaragange Milestone

Antaragange is a word in kannda meaning "Ganges from deep".  This place is also called Gaya of South.

The main attraction part of this place is Kashi Vishweswara temple. There is a pond in the temple which receives water from the mouth of stone Bull throughout the year. The source of water origin is still unknown, but the devotees believes that water comes from devi Ganga who is sitting on head of Lord Shiva.

Temple Arch

Water coming out from Nadi's mouth

Other side of the temple has a hill with hidden Caves which is a perfect spot for trekkers. Though we were excited to explore the caves by ourselves, Our friend Rajesh suggested to take help from a local guide, as they would be knowing route to enter the cave up in the hill. So we took help of a local boy to guide and to explore two Caves in the hill. We kept our bags in one of the local shop before climbing the hill, as it would be difficult to explore the caves by carrying the bags.

With Local Travel Guide

Enjoying the time along the route

Along the Route

  Cave Entrance

The gap between the rocks slowly narrows down as we move further inside the cave. So we had to crawl through between the rocks to move and explore further. We enjoyed every moment passing through the cave.

After exploring the first cave we were more thrilled to explore another cave which was located few meter away. Inside the cave we found small flow of water which is considered to be holly water. The water was very cool and had a sweet taste.

Inside the Cave

It took us approx 2 hrs to climb the hill, then to explore the cave and to descend from the hill. 

Thirsty monkey drinking water from a bottle

We reached Bangalore at 6:00 PM.

This was yet another memorable trip in Kolar. Thanks to Shashi, Basavaraju, Anand and Nagesh for making this trip success. I recommend this to all trekkers to visit these places in Kolar. Just go for it, you will definitely Enjoy :-)