An Adventure called Jatinga Rameshwara - Part 4

    There was something on a rock that looked like a painting from far! Coming close, we realized that it was indeed a painting (a single one) but faded in color. It was hard to recognize the subject of the painting, though for us it looked like a design pattern painted with red ochre color. Thinking this place would not offer much, we were back to the base of Dodda-betta (the big hill), and generally started wandering around the hill surroundings. The place looked like a perfect habitat for wild animals. Walking along, we found a small cave that had enough water in it and some figures drawn with red ochre and white colors. After investigating these pictures closely, we realized that the red ones were surely pre-historic in nature but the white ones were the not so useful contribution of our generation! A few red ochre paintings were clear and the color was distinct.

Faded Cave Painting

Small Cave

Cave Painting

  The cave paintings were of men riding various animals and of humans, but sadly most of these paintings have been carelessly vandalized by the modern art of our generation. We searched the neighboring caves too but found nothing. We moved a little further and spotted another group of cave paintings of which, only one was clearly identifiable as a Deer. We found many other caves and ventured into a few in search of paintings, but in vain. We had to move on to other places and so we decided to return to our vehicle, though this time we chose to descend from the other side of the hill. The path chosen downwards was an adventure by itself. Without a proper route and surrounded by thorny vegetation, our descent proved less easy than expected. The descent though, was the second best part of our adventure after the spotting of the cave paintings!

Men riding various animals

Water inside the Cave

Deer Painting

Balanced Rock

Cave Entrance 

We were able to sight another ruined temple on the neighboring hill and decided to explore the same. Our next destination was Bramhagiri which is about 5 km from here. At Bramhagiri, we met Mr. Manjunath, the official caretaker of all the Asokan Edicts present in and around Brahmagiri. While discussing about Jatinga Rameshwara, he very excitingly told us about his experience during his last visit to Jatinga and that, one early morning he was chased away by three sloth bears.  It is a fact that the locals of Jatinga regularly sight bears on this mountain and hence people always prefer to go well equipped and in groups. We were frightened for a second listening to all this and thinking back of our adventure in Jatinga. It sent jitters as we remember strolling around Jatinga leisurely and fearlessly!

View of the Hill

Ruined Temple

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