A Fort and A Lost City - Hulukudi

Fort Hulukudi  had more in store than our expectations. The priest informed us that the steps we climbed to reach the temple were only recently laid by the temple trust and was not the original route to reach this temple. The actual route to reach the temple was from the opposite side of the route we had taken for ascent. He advised us to take the route behind, which currently is not in use and look out for the big bull statue (Nandi) and a huge stone resembling a butter ball. He also told us that the fort here was built by a local king. We thanked the priest and moved on in search of the Nandi. On our way we met a local who volunteered to walk down with us and share information about this place. He told us about a long forgotten town at the hill base, named Mahdeshwara. Here on, we started out descent along with him and decided to explore the Fort first.

Watch Tower

Steps leading to the Watch Tower

Crumbled Fort Wall

Village Mahdeshwara

Another Watch tower

Fort wall stones scrambled all over

Fort Wall

Rock Cut Steps

A long flight of rock cut steps led us to a small temple that housed the Nandi. The Nandi statue was huge and quite impressive. It is supposedly carved out of a single stone. From here, we went in search of the butter ball stone. This is very much similar to the boulder named Krishna's butter ball in Mahabalipuram (Tamil Nadu). After this, we reached a stone arch which marked the hill base (This arch is the original entrance to the temple).

 

The Nandi Temple

Nandi

Veerabhadra Swamy's Butter Ball

Entrance Stone Arch

 After a small walk through the village fields, we reached the forgotten town of Mahdeshwara. At the entrance of this village was a ruined temple of Lord Shiva and looked quite grand. Our guide left us to ourselves to enjoy exploring the temple and also mentioned about a small cave besides the temple. Meanwhile he went to arrange some lunch for us. This temple was simply beautiful and kudos to our guide and his family who are actually taking care of this temple inspite of not receiving help from anyone. The Shiva Linga is a large one and resembles Chola architecture. There is also a Tamil inscription on a stone by the side of the temple.

Mukaneshwara Temple

Decorative Door Frame

Interior Decorative Frame Work

Art work on the Ceiling

Lord Mukaneshwara

Tamil Inscription

Entrance to the Cave besides the Temple

The next temple we visited was dedicated to Lord NarashimaSwamy. This temple currently has been renovated to give it a modern look. The spacious place all around this temple served as a dinning hall for us where we were accompanied by two other little friends for a sumptuous and tasty  lunch comprising of  Bisi Bele Bath (Dal and Rice  with Vegetables) and Kosambari  (Dal and Coconut Salad). After this heavy and much needed lunch, we rested for a while and walked towards a mantap that housed another huge Nandi. A little further, we were amazed to see an open air temple of Lord Hanuman. The image of Hanuman carved on a big rock was magnificent and looked like it had been painted recently.

Our Sumptuous Lunch

Nandi Mantapa

Beautiful Nandi

Lord Hanuman

Way to Mahdeshwara

Our journey came to an end here and we walked through the fields towards our vehicle. We chatted for a while with our guide and then came the time to say goodbye to him, thus ending one of those journeys, which initially looked unworthy but later turned out be one of  the most exciting and interesting trips of ours. We wholeheartedly thank our guide for taking us around this place and sharing everything he knew and dedicate this to him and his family.

Hulukudi Veerabhadra Swami

References :
1 Travel blog .
2 Wikimapia