Divine Cheluvarayaswamy and Lakshminarayana - Melukote, Hosaholalu

This blog is about famous Melukote temple which is well known weekend getaway from Bengaluru along with legendary temple of Sri Lakshmi Narayana at Hosaholalu. In this blog I would mention about how to reach these places, what are its specialities and its timings and other details. Keep reading.

Melukote is a famous divine destination. In this blog I do not write about its history. One can google it or follow the link I have given to know about the history of Melukote and some of the importances related to it. In this blog I would concentrate on how to reach this destination, its timings, the preparation you may have to do to visit this place and what other options are available across this.
Well here it goes :)

We had planned this trip on a Sunday. The temple of Melukote is about 150Km from Bengaluru. There are multiple routes to reach this place.
1. Bengaluru-Mandya-Madduru-Melkote
2. Bengaluru-Srirangapattana-Pandavapura-Melkote
3. Bengaluru-Kunigal-Bellur Cross-Nagamangala-Melkote
4. Bengaluru-Magadiroad-Kunigal-BellurCross-Nagamangala-Melkote

Among the above set of routes, while going I took route 4. The road till Magadi is single road but its good. Also traffic will be lesser to get out via this route. We will almost reach the Kunigal highway near Kunigal. Hence its a double benefit - one on the wallet by avoiding toll charges, two on the time by going through less traffic route. We started by around 8AM in the morning. Hence we went till Yediyur and stopped at Swathi Delicacy for breakfast. This venue serves tasty breakfast and has lots of varieties of food. It is neat and not heavy on wallet as well. It also provides restroom service which is agian well maintained. Though it is beside the highway, it has ample parking space. Polar bear is also available beside this hotel for ice cream lovers. One can fill their stomach and proceed to their journey. We also had sumptuous breakfast and took a diversion at Bellur Cross towards Nagamangala. This road is also in good condition. After crossing Nagamangala and going ahead for certain distance we can spot a deviation to reach Melukote which is about 5km from this point. This place is called Jakkanahalli Cross. We reached Melukote at 12PM. Have a look at the below picture for timings of this temple.

Temple timings

If you zoom in the picture, you can see the timings mentioned for normal days and on holidays. Also you can see the timings mentioned for another famous temple on the hill - Yoga Narasimha swamy temple. Since it was on a Sunday, there was considerable amount of crowd and the queue to the darshana was a bit slow moving. We finished our darshana in about half an hour and decided to visit the famouns movie shooting spots - Akka kola and Tangi kola. Kola means pond in Kannada. Here is the picture of the same. This picture is of Tangi kola. Akka kola is besides this kola and looks similar. We have basic facilities available here. Now a days they are guarding this place against any kind of pollution or plastic which is appreciable. 

Tangi Kola

The above ponds and temple are surrounded by many math's and ashramas where in earlier days people used to stay whenever they visit this place. Now also government guest houses are available to stay here. One can plan in advance to avail booking for the same.

After visiting the Cheluvaraya temple we proceeded to the hill - Yoganarasimha swamy temple. One really needs to be strong enough to climb the steep steps to reach the temple premises. There are at the minimum 300+ steps to the temple entrance. People can take brake in between and continue to visit the hill. However people with problems in knee or leg can stay at the foothill and submit their pranamas to the almighty from there only. They can sit and enjoy the calm Kalyani pushkarini at this foothill.

Kalyani at Melukote

Another view of the same Kalyani

View from the top - Yoganarasimha swamy temple

Oh yes :) This is the same place which is seen in lots of movies. The Yoganarasimha swamy temple visit took about 1hour in total. While stepping down we had tea and started to step down. Once we went down hill we visited the Kalyani. It was calm, serene. But cleanliness of this place can improve a lot. People cook here, wash their clothes here and littered around this place. One should take care about it soon. 

After completing the Melukote visit, we had plans of visiting this less explored but arcitecturally marvelous LakshminarayanaTempleHosaholalu. Please follow the link given to know well about this place. This temple is located at a distance of 30km from Melukote and is at about 2km from KR Pete. This temple is of the same period as that of famous Hoysala kingdom. Lord Lakshminarayana swamy is residing in this temple. This place is very less explored compared to its counter parts across Karnataka. However archaeological department realized its importance and the monument is protected by them now. One can see the resemblance of  its architecture with the Belur-Halebidu temples. Since not many people know about this gem, it will be less crowded even on weekends. But if you are architecture lover and follower of Sri Lakshmi Narayana, this is a must visit place. The murthy of the god is so charming and one could not take their eyes off.  I do not want to post the pictures of its external and internal architecture here. I want you to explore it by itself and be happy about it :) 

We started from this place at 5PM and took the same route till Melukote while returning and hit the Nagamangala - Bellur Cross road. Once we reached the Bellur Cross, we headed straight in national highway and reached Bengaluru via Nelamangala. Since it was night, we felt it is better to take the highway route. Also since it was weekend, one should really find a way to avoid mysore road as well since it would be heavily crowded in weekends.

Key notes:

1. The places mentioned in this post are in Mandya district

2. One can visit the places as in this post. If this is the case, start early in the morning by 7AM

3. If you are religious and interested in architecture, I would suggest 2 days plan for this circuit

   Day 1: Bengaluru - Doddaladamara -Magadi (Fort + temple) - Melukote. Stay in Melukote

   Day 2: Melukote - Hosaholalu - Thonnurukere NambiNarayana temple- Bengaluru

4. Plan to start early in the morning.

5. Plan by private taxi/car for comfortable trip.

6. If you want to travel by bus, there are buses directly to Melukote from Bengaluru in morning. There is a bus starting from Srinagara at 6AM in the morning. 

7. Please be aware of temple timings. 

8. Keep plenty of water while travelling

9. For food, in Hassan highway there are plenty of eateries. One need not worry at all. So plan your journey accordingly so that you can have food at these places.

10. Do not forget to take camera. You will surely miss them if you dont carry them.

11. Have sun glasses as well. These places are a bit hotter and there are hillocks and rock stones on the way. So overall temperature will be high.

12. Keep fruits as supplements to suppress your hunger

13. Please do not pollute these places with plastic

14. Talk to locals for directions. Do not always depend on google. People are helpful :)