It has been quite some time since I had visited this place and could not find time to express about it. All thanks to the day to day routines and other events that kept me busy these days. Finally I made up mind to express about this peaceful place which is a decent family trip for a weekend.
It was a long pending plan from me and my bestie to visit this place. We had read enough about it, which attracted us to visit this place soon. So, we planned for a bike trip on my friend's all new Avenger :) We started at around 5.30-6 AM on a saturday morning :) Well, dont get afraid that you may have to get up so early if you have to visit Antaragange. We started early to beat the heat that would turn up as the day progresses, and also to escape from evening rains of Bengaluru.
Antaragange is about 70-75km from Bengaluru towards the National Highway 75 that reaches Kolara. The road is bliss to drive from the first toll plaza. Till then you are at mercy of KR Puram traffic :) If you are starting early/feel hungry once you are out of city limits, you will get Kamat hotel on the way to Kolara, where you can have decent food. But the hotel is a bit tough to locate from the main road. So use google maps to know the exact location of the hotel. We failed to locate this place since we did not use maps. But we reached Kolara and had pretty OK OK breakfast at Hotel Sri Shanti Sagar. No, this is not the branch of famous Shanti Sagar group of Bengaluru. Still the place is fine for one time usage. From here the destination is around 5km. Check with locals for directions or depend google maps :)
We reached the spot at 7.30-8AM. We were welcomed by a group of Vanaras, monkeys to be precise :) There were a lot of them. You need to watch out for these if you are taking small kids with you. Otherwise, the place is very much calm, peaceful, away from all the pollution and stress of the capital Bengaluru. We parked our vehicle in the parking lot, so called parking lot and started to climb the steps to the temple. The parking lot is not at all well maintained. There are lots of monkeys around and they may damage your vehicle. After all if monkeys do not do the monkey business, who should do? :). So be careful on this.
The entrance looks like this.
As you can see from the above pictures, the place is also famous as Dakshina Kashi Kshetra, which means Kashi of south India. In fact, there are lots of places which are called Dakshina Kashi - Rameshwaram, Gokarna, Ramanathapura are popular ones to name a few. Ok, how does it matter to us? We call it as Antaragange :). But, wait...Is that second picture is the route to the temple? Seriously? I am not seeing an end to it at all!!!!!!. Will I be able to climb so many steps to reach the temple? Oh no..not possible at all...If you think like this, then you will be the biggest loser :D You can climb them slowly, step by step. There are places to take rest in between. So, it is easily doable by all. The environment is very good around and you wont feel tired walking in this peaceful atmosphere, unless you have some problems with your stamina ;) Once you climb these steps, you will reach the temple premises. What is interesting here is, the Pushkarini/pond that is located beside the temple. The importance of this is that, this never dries. There will be water that is coming into this place all days of the years. You can see the gange falling from the hills like this.
Hence this place is called Antaragange. We saw this amusement and proceeded to the temple. As I said earlier, this is called Dakshina Kashi, hence the God here is Kashi Vishweshwara.
Well, that is not all. There is much more beyond this. Here we have a cave. In fact, recently Antaragange has been famous for cave exploration. If you already know there is a cave, what is there to explore? Isn't it? Well, the crux lies there only :) You will not be able to find out where the cave is, unless you are expert or take local's help. You will get local kids in and around temple and also on the way uphill who can help you to find cave. But if you want to get more thrill, go alone and explore :)
As you can see, the bright spot in the pic is the only gap available for a person to pass through the cave :) There are two more places where we literally have to squeeeeeeeze in between the huge rocks. Once you enter the cave, you need to come out of the other way only. It is very tough to return in the way you have entered. So, one should have a good stamina to explore this place hazzlefree.
This is just one view of the temple. But, by seeing this you can imagine the scale at which Lingas are preserved at this place. This is a different temple compared to other temples around. So, it is worth a visit. If you are carrying camera, it is better to take a ticket for that as well if you plan to carry that inside temple premises.
It was a long pending plan from me and my bestie to visit this place. We had read enough about it, which attracted us to visit this place soon. So, we planned for a bike trip on my friend's all new Avenger :) We started at around 5.30-6 AM on a saturday morning :) Well, dont get afraid that you may have to get up so early if you have to visit Antaragange. We started early to beat the heat that would turn up as the day progresses, and also to escape from evening rains of Bengaluru.
Antaragange is about 70-75km from Bengaluru towards the National Highway 75 that reaches Kolara. The road is bliss to drive from the first toll plaza. Till then you are at mercy of KR Puram traffic :) If you are starting early/feel hungry once you are out of city limits, you will get Kamat hotel on the way to Kolara, where you can have decent food. But the hotel is a bit tough to locate from the main road. So use google maps to know the exact location of the hotel. We failed to locate this place since we did not use maps. But we reached Kolara and had pretty OK OK breakfast at Hotel Sri Shanti Sagar. No, this is not the branch of famous Shanti Sagar group of Bengaluru. Still the place is fine for one time usage. From here the destination is around 5km. Check with locals for directions or depend google maps :)
We reached the spot at 7.30-8AM. We were welcomed by a group of Vanaras, monkeys to be precise :) There were a lot of them. You need to watch out for these if you are taking small kids with you. Otherwise, the place is very much calm, peaceful, away from all the pollution and stress of the capital Bengaluru. We parked our vehicle in the parking lot, so called parking lot and started to climb the steps to the temple. The parking lot is not at all well maintained. There are lots of monkeys around and they may damage your vehicle. After all if monkeys do not do the monkey business, who should do? :). So be careful on this.
The entrance looks like this.
 |
| Entrance, Dakshina Kashi Kshetra |
 |
| Enroute to the temple |
 |
| Gange, that never dries |
 |
| Kashi Vishweshwara temple |
Well, that is not all. There is much more beyond this. Here we have a cave. In fact, recently Antaragange has been famous for cave exploration. If you already know there is a cave, what is there to explore? Isn't it? Well, the crux lies there only :) You will not be able to find out where the cave is, unless you are expert or take local's help. You will get local kids in and around temple and also on the way uphill who can help you to find cave. But if you want to get more thrill, go alone and explore :)
The uphill way starts beside the pond. On the way, you can get panoramic view of the national highway you came from, and also nearby villages. Have proper camera for different poses and different views on the way to cave.
What a view isnt it? Let us move forward to explore caves after having breathtaking views of flora and fauna of Antaragange :)
The path to the cave is very tricky. One can follow the herd instead of getting lost. So, it is tough to predict the entrance to the cave. I will just show the pic we had taken in front of the cave entrance, rest is left to your imagination until you visit and experience it.
 |
| Infront of cave |
You can explore various exits of the cave. But only one exitt will put you in right path. Rest all the exits will guide you to the top of the hill from where you can have a view of surrounding villages. Overall, it will be a very nice experience to explore this beautiful cave :)
Note:
1. Start early for more benefits like you can escape from sun, you can beat the traffic, you can beat the crowd at the cave.
2. Wear cap, full sleeve to upper body, and flexible cloth to lower body. This will enable you to explore the cave a bit easily. Full sleeve will protect you from thorns and bruises from the rock.
3. In weekend, few trek groups conduct hiking and other activities there. If you are interested you can register for that.
4. Beware of monkeys. Do not open food items in front of it.
5. If you are not confident of finding path, just take a local guide with you.
6. No network will be available inside the cave. So, depend on your natural human instincts to contact people :)
7. There are hardly any food items available in and around. You can plan for proper food at Kamat before Kolar. Or carry some ready food to eat.
8. Have towels/tissues handy.
We finished entire activity in around 2-3 hours. After this, we proceeded to Kotilingeshwara. This is approximately 40km far from here. You better check with locals for directions or as usual, rely on google. As the name suggests, this places is the home for a lots and lots of Shivalingas. Hence the name Kotilingeshwara.
 |
| View of main premises |
This is just one view of the temple. But, by seeing this you can imagine the scale at which Lingas are preserved at this place. This is a different temple compared to other temples around. So, it is worth a visit. If you are carrying camera, it is better to take a ticket for that as well if you plan to carry that inside temple premises.
Daily lunch will be served at temple premises. Here you can savor the tasty prasadm if you go to this temple in between 1.30-3PM. Once you are done with this place, head back to Bengaluru with sweet memories of the trip.
I have alread given the important notes at the beginning, so not repeating again that here. If any input is needed, comment on this post :) Happy to help :)
Nice Information. Pending in my list to do. Local guides are available on the spot or need to book ? You have your guide contact details?
ReplyDeleteThanks. Guides are local school going kids :) They will be available near the temple. Also they will be available en-route to the cave after climbing some distance over rocks. No need to book. You can go ahead and hire them there.
Delete