January 24-25, 2014 - Angadi Ride
This was a ride hosted by the Bangalore Motorcycle Club and the 2 day ride was planned around visiting Angadi, the "birth place" of the Hoysala empire. The Hoysalas ruled much of South India from the 12th century to about the 15th century. They were renowned for their temple building prowess and built an estimated 1500 temples, of which less than a 100 remain standing today. These temples feature breath-taking sculptures and two of them are on the UN World Heritage List.
Here's the route map...
We started bright and early and the meeting point was at the toll gate on the Tumkur road. Here's a shot of the pink hued sunrise.
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After all the riders showed up, we set off at 7 AM, and the first stop was a wayside restaurant, more of a shack, called "Hotel Darshani".... a hole in the wall place that served "tatte idli", a local favorite that featured idli and vada. (Idli is a soft rice dumpling, and eaten with a coconut sauce called chutney, and vada is a spicy donut that is dunked in sambar, a thin gravy soup).
After a good breakfast and coffee, we set off on the Mangalore highway.
A couple of hours later, we were in the verdant landscape of Chikmagalur.
We reached our place of stay, a working coffee estate that also doubled as a home stay (a k a bed and breakfast).
Here's the home stay ... note the coffee berries drying in the foreground.
Here's some of the group... checking out their bikes after the ride...
My ride, the orange "Hero Impulse", next to some farm machinery.
More pics of the coffee berry drying yard...
Some of the crew... breaking out beers....
There are 3 birds in this cage....
After a nap, we went to catch the sunset on a hill....
Back to the homestay on the evening “campfire”….
Day 2
We hit the Charmadi ghat… a twisty road that winds its way through the Western Ghats (a "ghat" is a mountain range) to check out the spectacular view of the mountains at sunrise. These mountains, a serrated series that runs along the length of India’s western coastline, but about 50 miles inland are spectacular in their ecodiversity.
The approach road of the ghat…
Mountains in the mist…
The road that cuts its path through the mountains…
And the obligatory poses against the spectacular backdrop…
One more mountain shot…
Back in the valley…
The river has its uses…. as a car wash, in this case, to wash a 3 wheel scooter called and autorickshaw…
And doing the laundry….
School children along the road…
Carrying sacks of produce on his shoulders….
Village women wending their way across the farm…
And an overturned truck, a common sight…
School children in costumes marching along the road…
Back at the homestay…. the rhythms of coffee berry drying…
One the team absorbing the rays…
While the bikes wait patiently…
At breakfast…
Then a quick (and brief) offroad loop in the coffee estate…
This photo was taken on a tame stretch…
After the “offroad”, we saddle up for the ride to Angadi, the birthplace of the Hoysalas and then the ride home…
Through scenic postcard perfect landscape…
School kids running to catch up with us…
Getting closer to our destination…
I think we reached…
Park the bikes…
Small temple here… not quite the spot we were looking for ….
The temple priest’s house…
We then get to the birthplace…unassuming structure, given the breath-takingly grand temples that this dynasty built over the next 300 years…
The granite pillared antechamber leads the sanctum sanctorum (where the deity is placed).
The deity… Channakesava, also known as Vishnu…. now this looks more representative of this dynasty… intricate sculpting.
A detail lit by flashlight..
The deity’s head is framed by the different avatars that, according to popular myth, he has taken over the ages….(note: the red mark is vermilion smeared on the statue).
The avatars represented above, from left to right are:
Matsya: fish
Kurma: tortoise.
Varaha: boar
Narasimha: half man, half lion
Vamana: dwarf
Parashurama: Lord Rama with an axe
Rama: the king of Ayodhya (mythical kingdom)
Krishna: the cowherd
Buddha: founder of Buddhism
Kalki: the final incarnation of Vishnu on a horse, with his sword drawn, and he is the harbinger of the end of time in Hindu eschatology.
One interesting fact is that there is no debate in India on evolution. In the US, this has been an on-going debate, and despite repeated debunking, the creationists continue to try to push their theory into school curricula and build public acceptance. In India, perhaps because evolution is similar to the progression of avatars from fish to human being, there is complete acceptance of evolution as the logical explanation.
Note the exquisite sculpting, with intricate detailing of the anklets, and toes with their toe rings.
Two other statues are enshrined in separate small structures…. Ganesha, the elephant headed god, and Shiva, depicted in the Lingam form.
The village near the temple…
Rear view of the temple...
Group shot…
