"Gummanayakanapalya", is a small village located in Bagepalli taluk of Chikkaballapur district . This place is home to a lesser known fort built by a local chieftain with the help of a wealthy farmer Gummi Reddy. The history of this place is not very well known .The board put up by the Government of Karnataka Tourism reads " Welcome to the historical place of the Vijayanagar Kingdom " and gives details of the facilities available here . But none of the facilities exist today .
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| Welcome Board |
This place was on our to-be visited list since a long time. Finally,when we landed here, the only thought in our minds was how could such a beautiful place be a lesser known and talked about place.
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| Initial View |
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| Closer View of the Magnificent Fort |
The journey was an amazing one for two reasons - the long bike journey and the pleasant weather all along .
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| NH 7-A Pleasure to Ride |
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| A Beautiful Lake |
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| Smooth as Butter |
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| The Sunny-Shady Road |
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| Lovely ! |
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| Bike Park |
After interacting with a few locals , we started to walk towards the fort. The entrance to the fort is very grand. On entering the fort , we spotted two small temples, one dedicated to Lord Anjaneya and the other to Lord Ganesha . Proceeding further, we found an other entrance, which had wonderful carvings on it . It was surprising to see erotic carvings on the wall .
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| The Main Entrance |
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| Top of the Inner Entrance |
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| Entrance- View from the inside |
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| Lord Anjaneya |
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| Lord Ganesha |
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| Dancing Couple |
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| Carvings on the Wall |
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| Man Fighting a Tiger |
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| Snake Charmer |
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| Erotic Carvings |
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| Use of a Gun |
We also found the remains of a palace, probably built by an Islamic ruler since it resembled the Indo-Islamic style of architecture .
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| Remains of the Palace |
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| A Portion of the Palace |
There were many ruined structures on the way to the top of the fort .The inner tiers of the fort walls are intact . The last (inner most) tier opens up into a plain land with some ruined structures.
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| The Fort Wall |
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| Temple |
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| Walk to the Top |
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| The Summit |
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| Eternal View from the Top |
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| Truly Breath-taking |
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| Aerial View |
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| Bird's Eye View of Gummanayakanapalya |
Distance from Bangalore: 150 kms
To be continued .............
Superb! Just the kind of place I would love to visit too over a weekend!
ReplyDeleteFantastic post as always! And such an amazing, beautiful place! Your photos are superb, of course. How I would love to visit there! Does look as though you had gorgeous weather. Thank you for the tour and the fascinating information you share with us! Have a wonderful week!
ReplyDeleteSylvia
Stunning! Loved the place, and would definitely love to visit it someday!
ReplyDeleteAs Siddharth opined, it will be a great week end spot.. Very good photos and nice write up TGS.
ReplyDeletethis is wonderful!!
ReplyDeleteYou do get to visit wonderful and exciting places ! Enjoyed reading the informative post with detailed pictures.....sad to see the walls crumbling away.
ReplyDeletewould like to be there someday..... very colour full n informative post
ReplyDeletewonderful pics and info
ReplyDeleteInteresting pictures, especially the one depicting use of gun. Thanks for sharing the directions ...hope to visit this fabulous fort some day.
ReplyDeletehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thollapalli
ReplyDeleteGreat work TeamG .love your enthusiasm
ReplyDeleteit's a nice place
ReplyDelete