Devarayanadurga - Namada Chilume - Goravanahalli

Date of Journey: 01st October 2011
Total Distance: ~250 KM
Route Followed: KR Pura > Hebbal > Gorguntepalya > Dobaspet > Devarayanadurga > Namada Chilume > Goravanahalli

Trip Map:
Here is the trip map and the route I followed, return journey is not mentioned in the map because I travelled to Challakere and stayed over there.


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Background of the trip:
Davangere is my native place but now we are staying in Bangalore since 3 years, so whenever there is any family function I won’t miss to attend it. On 3rd October one of my relative had the house warming ceremony so as usually I tough of attending it. Devarayanadurga is the place I want to visit from many days but somehow its keep on postponing. Instead of going directly to Davangere I came up with a plan to visit most of the places around Devarayanadurga.

We kept our schedule to leave as early as possible in the morning so that time should not be a constraint, but finally we left our home around 6:30 AM. I took the outer ring road and headed towards the Goreguntepalya signal and touched the NH4, as per our plan to have our breakfast at Kamat Upachar we reached there around 8:15 AM. There were already many cars parked in front of the restaurant and got a rough idea about the crowd inside, so we tough to serve ourselves and finished our breakfast (idli, vada, upma and poori) within 30 min and left from there.

Dobaspet flyover (it’s around 1 KM from Kamat Upachar) is the key deviation point left road will leads to Sivaganga and right leads to Devarayanadurga. We took the right turn and followed the Uradigiri road and reached Devarayanadura around 9:30 AM.

Devarayanadurga: ~75 KM from Bangalore
It’s a rocky hill station at an altitude of 3940 feet surrounded by lush green forest. Before 1696 this place is known as Anebiddajari (“the step where the elephant fell”) then as Jadakana Durga and later it has been rename to Devarayanadurga after capturing by king of Mysore Sree Chikkadevaraja Wodeyar. Kanthirava Narasaraja has constructed the Lakshmi Narasimha Swamy Temple in the Dravidian style which is the main attraction of this place.

We had a quick darshana at Bhoga Narasimha temple which is situated at the base of the hill and continued our journey to Yoga Narasimha temple which is on top of the hill. As it was the first time I was driving in the hill station so I was very much existed to steer over those sharp curves.

Bhoga Narasimha Temple


Inside view of Bhoga Narasimha temple


After a 20 min drive we finally arrived on the hill top, temple authority has provided some space to park vehicles on hill top which can accommodate 10 to 12 vehicles. I reached little early in the morning so I am able to get the parking space easily.

First view of Yoga Narasimha Temple


There are two shops on the adjacent sides of the entrance where we purchase some offering to the god. There are lots of monkeys all over there so be aware not to carry any uncovered carry bags or water bottles otherwise they will attack you and grab whatever present in your hand.



Now its turn to climb around 100 to 125 steps, they were in good condition and maintained properly so it won’t be too tiresome while climbing. We took a lot of photos on the way and after a 45min of climbing we reached the temple entrance.

First entrance


Inside view of first entrance


Well maintained steps


Sculptures along the way


Second entrance


Gopura at the hill top


Entrance to Yoga Narasimha Temple


Inside Yoga Narasimha Temple


As usually temple environment is cool and silent where you can even hear the wind breeze. After having a darshana my dad, mom and Tanishka want to enjoy at Pada-teertha so myself and Shilpa went to view point to have an aerial view.

Pada Teertha


View point


Temple from the viewpoint


Curved roads which we followed


Monkey Couples



Namada Chilume: 5 KM from Devarayanadurga
After a long time my mom is climbing this much steps and she is very much tired now so we though not to visit Namada Chilume and directly go to Goravanahalli. But our faith has already decided what the next step is. By mistake instead of taking the right turn to Goravanahalli I took left and reached Namada Chilume.

Namada Chilume is located at 5 Kms from the Devarayanadurga; tourism department has setup a small Deer Sanctuary here and will collect Rs. 3/- each as an entrance fee. A 10 min walk will take us to the place where natural spring of water flowing out from the rock.



When we enquired the local guys about what is the significance of this place and the natural spring, we got the answer which took us back to one of our great epic Ramayana’s period. During the vanavasa time Lord Sri Rama along with Laxmana and Seetha visited this place. One fine day when Lord Sri Rama applying Naama to his forehead he was not able to find the water around so he shotted the arrow on the rock and suddenly a stream of water starts flowing out.



Natural stream and Footprints of Lord Rama


Nandhi


It’s already 1:30 in the noon and little bit a sunny day so we spent some time over there and return back to place where our car is parked. It’s shocking to see that my car is completely got dirtied by the monkeys  somehow we managed to get it partially cleaned and left from there.

Goravanahalli: ~28 KM from Devarayanadurga
Our last destination is to visit Goravahanalli Mahalaxmi Temple so this time we took the correct route and reached Goravanahali at 02:15 PM.



Because it’s an afternoon time temple is not crowded so we had a good darshana. We all are very hungry so enquired the nearby shops for the good hotel, but they informed us lunch will be provided by the temple authority and there is no good hotels nearby. Dining hall is nearby the temple and well built, we have served with sufficient amount of rice, sambar and butter milk.

As our plan is to halt at Challakere at my Sister-in-law’s house we left Goravanahalli around 3:30 PM and reached Challakere around 7:00 PM

Overall it’s a wonderful experience to visit all place as per the plan. A special thanks to my Figo for giving excellent service.