Hindupur

Hindupur (also known as Hindupuram) is a city and a municipality in Anantapur district in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. Hindupur was given its name by a Maratha Chieftain called Murari Rao, who apparently named this town after his father Hindoji Rao.

Hindupur is historically famous for various goods such as silk, jaggery and red, dry, chillies. It is situated at a distance of 100 kilometers from the Garden city of Bengaluru and 14 kilometers from Lepakshi. The nearest airport is Bengaluru's International Airport - Devanahalli (70 km).

Lepakshi
Lepakshi is a small village located in the Anantapur District, in Andhra Pradesh, India. It is 15 km east of Hindupur and about 120 km north of Bangalore.

Lepakshi is very important historically and archaeologically. There are three shrines dedicated to Shiva, Vishnu and Virabhadra.
The famous Veerabhadra temple, dedicated to Veerabhadra, is located here. Built by the brothers Viranna and Virupanna, the temple is a notable example of the Vijayanagar architectural style.[1] It is famous for its sculptures, which were created by the artisans of Vijayanagara empire. A huge Nandi bull made out of a single granite stone is one of the attractions in Lepakshi.

The place is renowned for being one of the best repository of mural paintings of the Vijayanagar Kings.Many old Kannada inscriptions dating back centuries can be seen on its walls Legend has it that the Naga of the Nagalinga was carved out of a single stone by sculptors while they waited for their mother to prepare lunch.

There are three temples dedicated to Shiva, Vishnu and Virabhadra. On a hillock known as Kurma Saila (tortoise shaped hill), temples of 'Papanatheswara', 'Raghunatha', 'Srirama', 'Veerabhadra' and 'Durga' are located. Veerabharadra temple is the most important temple.
Lepakshi is an ultimate testimony for Vishwakarma Brahmins who sculpted these temples. It is believed that noted Vishwakarma Amarashilpi Jakkanachari took part in the planning the architecture of these temples. There are many shila shasanas that the famous sculptors like Dakoju, Maroju took part in this temple sculpture.

Team Trip…IHS Bangalore

Wow…how else could we start putting down the whole day’s trip in a single word. Well that’s how the day started and ended too. After the so many sessions of team meetings since couple of months, whose minutes did end with a decision on team outing with, ‘yes we will go out…confusions??’ and nothing more…the beautiful day arrived on the 30th of Dec, 2008…we all gathered, sighed,laughed and went on…
It wouldn’t be quite fair not to mention, on how meticulously we had organised for the trip, arranging the rations, water, empty bottles to fill up with water during remote walks (and the likes…), scheduling the pick up timings for each of our members and the cab of course, …except for the decision on where we would go…until the evening tea the day before (the 29th Dec). Yeah, we know that is how we men like to run democracy. And that was the last meeting for sure discussing about this trip. The places now were Ranganathittu, Himavadgiri Gopalswamy hill and Bandipura safari.
Wow…so we started the day…the cab picked our definitely spirited and brave members
from the north of Bangalore (Yelahanka) in the early morning chill and made way through to the south of Bangalore (Jayanagar) picking up the rest of the spirited and brave members on the way to our champion’s house (Suresh) for a really nice hot coffee by his mother.
Warding off bad charm is the usual Indian practice before starting a long journey. And for this occasion, Suresh broke a coconut, did the pooja in front of our cab. Talking about the charm we had assured ourselves we had good ones in plenty in each of us…;-)…including our photographer in the making, Yash (Poornima’s son) and the cute little Shikha (Sushil’s daughter).

Well I would say most of us probably were never thinking about where we were going but with all the little and continuous assuring moments during the whole trip, the journey was truly a pleasure.


We stopped for our breakfast by a roadside restaurant nearby the ‘Madur’ village on the Mysore highway. Well since we thought lunch is going to be in the distant future, each had good rounds of idlys, dosas, masala dosas, kesari baths, kara baths and the coffees. I believe all were very hungry too. The now energetic team with few dance numbers playing at the cab’s hi fi stereo (well I don’t really agree with that), were enlightened with the many steps from our little passengers (Yash and Shikha) with the rest of us adding chorus and claps to those steps. Did I forget our beautiful Sharayu didn’t get much of a leg room during those moments? Our team competing with the Anand/Sharayu/Poornima’s were continuously on the losing side with Antakshari.
The next stop was a beautiful bird sanctuary at Ranganathittu. Storks, Spoonbills, Cranes, Kingfishers, Herons, Bats, Crocodiles, Monkeys, Squirrels, etc. were all there and in our
cameras too. We took a boat ride costing about 25 Rs per head (with a separate fee for our cab to enter the sanctuary). The boat rider was the best informed one. He was informed of the legendary ‘Steve Irwin’ too, from the “Crocodile Hunter” TV series.


Well the topic about crocodiles became more thrilling (apart from the stories doing the discussion), when we saw one lying on the rocks and the other swimming across the waters but farther than the boat’s usual route. The waters were both shallow and deep in many places. The bird sanctuary is formed along the Cauvery river (I guess) flowing through the area. The park formed in there was a well maintained one too. We were told that the best time to visit this place would be in
spring when the many migrating birds would be moving around after laying eggs immediately after winter. This was quite a fulfilling experience. Some snaps from the sanctuary...



How can we go without getting hungry after such an entertaining and fulfilling ride…so here are we…in a shelter at the park. Never mind the photographer and his associates not visible above, they joined immediately afterwards…
After meeting all the demands for food and a rest room in a sanctuary (there was one the adults used), we boarded for another long trip. The next stop was going to be the
Gopalaswamy/Betta hill with ‘Himavad Gopalaswamy temple’ on the top. Did we forget the lunch…that isn’t likely…we stopped for a quick lunch on the wayside before moving towards our next destination. The temple has a perpetual stream dripping through the inner sanctum and that brings a lot of people to visit this yet another scenic place. The hill comes under Bandipura reserve forest, and is surrounded by numerous (76) lakes and we definitely saw few of them at a distance. The climb above the hill in the cab was very comforting for many with the temperature decreasing gradually as we were climbing. The temple atop belongs to 14th century. As the name goes, at any time of the year, this place would be covered by mist and the name "Himavad" giri befits. If we had reached this place early morning we could have probably witnessed ocean of clouds for a more enchanting experience. Some snaps
from there…



We bet we had quite good photographers, budding ones and few good cameras too for the
occasion. The next stop was the Bandipura National Forest. A reserve forest for the ‘Tiger project’, the place is less than 45 mins travel from Gopalaswamy Temple. This was the most entertaining one of the trip with the chance for witnessing what it really means ‘monkeying around’. We saw gang wars among the monkeys; a couple of them very intelligently removing the canvas cover and opening the zip of a bag and removing probably a baby wear dress (well it was not interested in that), from atop a ‘Innova’ parked nearby; and a never-give-up attempt by one to feed its thirst with a ‘Sprite’.


This was all when we were waiting for our pickup vehicle for the safari to arrive. The safari trip had cost about 95 Rs per head, for about 45 min ride. During the safari ride, we saw herds of deers, few peacocks hunting around, few different breeds of monkeys, few elephants (not in the wild) and in all likelihood a cock (not the white leghorn we see in the city butcheries). The safari could have been probably more thrilling if we had taken a trekking ticket into the forest, but that would have been best in the morning hours.
So after a long day we withdrew ourselves into the cab, started back, put on couple of movies and filled ourselves with the remaining snacks. Few of us probably just over did the last part. Well the last lap was well honoured by a little hum and little singing on the lines…”so gaya ye jahan…so gaya aasmaan…”, by Suresh. On the way back crossing Mysore city, we stopped for the dinner with many a meal plates witnessing ‘gulab jamuns’ as leftovers, well a sign they had enjoyed enough the sweetness of the trip (but probably it was overdoing the snacks and other rations before). The last lap was the dropping over each member nearby their houses. Now isn’t that you would call…wow…