Saturday 24 March 2012

Mulbagal - A weekend getaway for temple freaks!!

It is a two hour drive from bangalore north to mulbagal. We left at 7.a.m - sundar and myself leaving the kids at home. After constantly listening to the alapanai of hari and shriram at home, their non-stop talk and fights, it was a different tune  in the car - the songs in the raagam of purvikalyani, hindolam and shankarabaranam straight from AIR was pleasing treat to our ears. A breakfast break at kamat upachar, kolar , took us exactly two hours to reach mulbagal. My father-in-law had given us details about main temple sin mulbagal.


1. We went to koodumalai - now called as kurudu malai (which is a misnomer). Legend says that the trimoorthis - bramha, vishnu and shiva came together here to install lord ganesh. Hence the name koodumalai. (coming together). This was a growing structure since kruta yuga and when the tempe strucutre was built by the vijayanagar king, shri krishnadevaraya in kali yuga, it stopped growing. Visited by all stalwatrts like rama in treta yuga and krishna in dwapara yuga, is quite popular landmark in mulbagal. One has o take a diversion to the left from the NH-4 and travel towards srinivasa pura. The big arch and the yellow boards are neatly laid down giving the right directions. The Lord is majestic and is well maintained. This is one of the protected monuments coming under the archelogical society of India.


Then we headed to the temple nearby dedicated to someshwara and kshamadamba. The priest here was very well informed and gave s a lot of information about the temple and in general. This temple had 31 prakarams when constructed but was destroyed by hyder ali when he attched the place. This temple was built by the great dakanachari under the patronage of the chola king. One can notice that the carvings here are typical mimic of what one can see in belur and halebeedu.


Some general info that the priest gave us. Generally people are not allowed too close to the god. This is because, the entire region between the garba ruha and where we stand is divided into 4 portions. The first ofcourse is the garba gruha, The second is called the nava kusha mandapam. Here the jewels and belongings of the Lord are stored which again is a restricted area. The next comes the sukha-naasi. The people who recite the vedic mantrams for the lord are made to sit here and chant. It is made sure that there is maximum sunlight and breeze to make the people comfortable in chanting the mantras. The last protion is called the ranga mandapam which is the place for devotees to have a view of the lord. This was new to me and was indeed a good piece of info.


After this, we went to the Anjaneya temple which is very close to the mulbagal bus stand. Looked like the Anjaneya is a swayambu and very powerful. Many people flock to this temple and today being a saturday was all the more crowded. Purchased a few books of bhakti sudha and purandaradasa kritis and started off to yet another important place - the madhwacharya mutt for our lunch ofcourse.


The madhwa mutt contained the brindavanam (samadhi) of Sripadaraju swamigal who attained samadhi at this place. He was born in 1404A.D and became the mutt head of mulabagal. The food was good with a typical tinge of the karnataka style brahmin food.


It was time to get back home putting an end of the short yet sweet trip. Once a while, we have to take time off for ourselves. This really rejuvenates and gives a better frame of mind to get back to your routine. Listening to all hindi sons on our way back took me back to my good old school days of chitrahaar, and saturday evening movies.