"Manyapura (Manne)" is home to many temples built by the Gangas. The most famous amongst them are the
'Kapileswara' temple and the
'Someswara' temple. The Someswara temple is in a very bad state with no maintenance. The temple looks engulfed by many outgrown plants which need to be cleaned. There is an idol of Nandi inside the temple which is partly damaged.
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| Someswara Temple |
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| Ruined Temple |
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| The partly damaged Nandi Idol |
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| Stone Pillar |
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| Pattika of Lord Ganesha |
Our guides were eager to show us the other hidden treasures of their village about which we had no clue. They took us to Lord Hanuman temple which was completely renovated. But the most impressive part was the pillar on which the lord was inscribed. Within the temple compound, we found an interesting sculpture of Lord Ganesha , a Hero Stone and again a partly damaged idol of Nandi.
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| Lord Hanuman Temple and the Pillar |
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| Lord Hanuman |
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| Hero Stone |
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| Lord Ganesha |
Thereon, we moved towards the center of the village which housed a few temples, inscriptions and a Mantap. The mantap currently serves as a storage place for fodder.
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| Devi Temple Shikara |
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| The Lady ( Devi's Reincarnation ) |
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| Devi's Temple |
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| The inscriptions |
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| Mantap |
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| Inscriptions |
Just when we had in mind that we had covered all places of historical importance here, the kids surprised us by telling us they had another special place in store for us that was worth visiting. They took us to their school. While we wondered what made them bring us here, they took us to place that looked like a miniature museum. Recently an idol (only the head portion) was found around this place, which is believed to be of either the Buddha or the Mahavira (not sure). Our guess would be Mahavira since the Gangas followed Jainism.
Shravanabelagola, Kambadahalli and other Jain temples were built during their period .
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| Hero Stone |
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| Mahavira/Buddha |
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| Naga Devathas |
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| Beheaded Idol |
Manyapura (Manne) is a really wonderful place filled with history which has been lost somewhere due to our negligence. There are many other small temples in this village which we sadly could not cover. It is advisable to take help from the locals to move around the village.
Directions from Bangalore: Bangalore - NH4 - T Begur - Take right turn - Thayamangondlu (8 kms) - Proceed further till the railway crossing (NH207)-Take a right and immediate left turn - Manne
Distance from Bangalore: About 50 kms
Places to visit nearby: Nelamangala,
Binnamangala, Shivagange,
Nijagal Fort and many more.
Trip Date: 14 Jan' 2010
References :
1 Photographs up and down the lane .
2 Nelamangala planning authority(website doesn't exist now)
Related Posts:
1. 100 lesser known temples of Karnataka
2. Temples of Vagata
3. Hosadurga Fort, Kanakapura
buddha,nandi, hanuman great shots
ReplyDeletelike the pics
wonderful..!
ReplyDeleteGorgeous, dramatic, colorful captures! A superb post as always and I do love the history that you include! Thank you! Wishing you a wonderful weekend!
ReplyDeleteSylvia
marvelous!
ReplyDeletewhat is a hero stone?
Rushed through your post. :)
ReplyDeleteThanks so much for your wishes. :)
Fascinating! You are doing a wonderful job of bringing forth such hidden places for everyone to see, I would love to explore the village one day!
ReplyDeleteYou seem to be always on the route less travelled. Nice findings.
ReplyDeletewww.rajniranjandas.blogspot.com
Any idea if the town was fortified?
ReplyDeleteVery interesting. I wish people had taken care of this and given the due respect it deserves.
ReplyDeleteThanks for this post guys. And also thanks for the links given to Sudhir's blog. That was a good gesture.
ReplyDeleteRajesh.
♥Nice post.) Love your blog.))♥
ReplyDelete@ Fort mapper , we didn't see any kind of fortification . So its hard to tell about it .
ReplyDeletethe devi's temple is nice and colorful!
ReplyDeletewonderful rediscovery, it is good to see extra mile to capture the history of gangas Dhiraj good effort
ReplyDeleteIt is great. I have commented in the previous post also. This rich property of old civilization must be saved by Government.
ReplyDeleteNice post.
ReplyDeletenice post...great snaps..thanks for sharing :-)
ReplyDeleteWould love to know what the inscriptions say.
ReplyDeleteI think one can go to Epigraphia Karnatica to get the details of inscriptions. Hero stone is an inscription in recognition of a win in a battle
ReplyDeletenice photos of my native.......
ReplyDelete