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| The Golden Dawn |
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| Veerabhadradurga Hill Fort |
Our quest to complete the ‘Baramahal’ or the ‘12 Forts’ took us to our next
destination, “Virabhadradurga/Veerabhadradurga”.
Our first task was to get the location of this fort since not much information
regarding the same was available on net or elsewhere. However a few months ago,
while glancing through g-maps, we accidentally came across the coordinates of
this place. At our next possible outing, we decided to check this place out and
reached here without any difficulty. Our concern now was to find out the right
hill amongst the many hills around on which the fort was located. The first
hill looked quite inviting and we wanted to inquire about the route to the top.
The local person, who stopped by to respond gave us the correct location of the
hill-fort we were in search of. We reached the place and inquired for the trek route
from the locals present around. On getting the required information, we parked
our vehicle and started the trek.
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| The First Gateway to Veerabhadradurga Fort |
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| Sri Kote Anjaneya Swamy |
The trek was pretty straight forward with steps laid all along. The route was
comparatively clean due to the regular movement of people. The fort of
Veerabhadradurga is 7 tiered, with much of its fortification and gateways still
intact. There is a beautiful rock carving of Sri Anjaneya Swamy between the
second and the third gateway, which is still under worship by the locals. The
second gateway opens into a small plateau where minor agricultural activities
are undertaken by the locals. The third and fourth gateways are more for the
purpose of defense and devoid of any other structures. The fifth gateway opens
into a bigger plateau area.
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| The Engulfed Fort Walls |
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| Intact Fortifications |
After crossing the fifth gateway and trekking for a while, our eyes were
greeted by two ancient temples, one dedicated to Sri Veerabhadra Swamy and the other
dedicated to Sri Chennakeshava Swamy. The temple dedicated to Sri Chennakeshava
Swamy is a grand structure, but sadly is in a ruined state now. There were no signs
of any efforts towards its restoration. Although both the temples were built
under the rule of the Palegars, it is very difficult to ascertain who built them
and when.
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| The Fifth Gateway |
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| Sri Chennakeshava Swamy Devasthana |
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| The Royal Chieftain's Residence |
As this fort is one amongst the 12 forts constituting the Baramahal, its association
with the Channapatna Palegar Sri Jagadeva Raya cannot be ruled out. However,
strangely, a local legend goes on to say that Sri Jagadeva Raya who was then a vassal
king under Tippu, jumped into the natural spring well present in the fort
premises along with his wealth when Tippu was defeated by the British and the fort
was about to be captured. It is believed that the spring is very deep and is
difficult to ascertain the depth of it. Hence the wealth was never found. Such
folklore was documented by the British and spread across many places. This
natural spring well is called Rama Lakshmi Jonai (Jonai: natural spring).
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| Rama Lakshmi Jonai (Spring) |
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| Sri Kote Anjaneya Swamy |
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| Team G Square |
Rama Lakshmi Jonai, a beautiful and serene natural spring well is situated about a 100 meters from the temples. Water here was clean and clear. We spent some time here and decided to explore the top-most tier of the fort. We had to cross the sixth gateway and the route was a bit slippery due to drizzle and the up slope of the hill. We reached the top of the fort (we assumed this was the top most point) and spent some time here enjoying the scenic views and wondered how beautiful it would be to view the sunrise from here.
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| The Rock-Cut Steps |
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| Way to Heaven |
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| The 7th Gateway |
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| Top Most Tier of Fort Wall |
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| The Top most Point of The Fort |
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| The View |
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| Me |
Coincidentally, a few months later, on the 1st of January 2023 we decided to redo this trek to witness the sunrise. The picturesque sunrise was worth every effort taken
by us to reach the hill-top in the early hours of the morning. There was
another small peak visible from the sixth gateway, apparently the highest point
of the hill which we had missed during our last trek. We managed to complete
this peak and reach the highest point this time. This fort is also known by
other names such as ‘Itikalldurga’ and ‘Sendirayanadurga’.
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| The Gang |
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| The Early Risers |
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| The Sun Rise |
At the base of Veerabhadradurga is a grand temple dedicated to Sri
Chennakeshava Swamy which is fully functional. Thus another fort from the
Baramahal was captured by us!
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| The Harvest |
References:
1. Madras State Gazetteer - Salem
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