May 19, 2009

Talakad

A few weeks back, we visited Talakad, a few hours drive from Bangalore. We took the Mysore road, took a left turn at Maddur. From there another 50 kms inward on a bumpy, gravel road lands you at this real nice sandy river bank.

This small village is called Talakad. This is where they have 1000 s of temples from 12th century covered with sand, and just 6 have been excavated by the Archaelogical department of India.

We started after a hearty brunch at Peco's around noon, and we were close to Maddur by 1:30ish.. but we got whirled up in a hot pursuit frenzy with a Maruti Baleno and hit speeds of 140kms/hr on the Bangalore - Mysore highway on a Maruti WagonR. After we drove past Maddur, we realized that maybe they are off to Mysore, and promptly took an U-turn and headed in towards Talakad. A 10km stretch from here is good but the rest is all a mess. Some broken up pieces of road is all I could find, and with the bullock carts and bikes in between, you really can not and more over should not drive too fast. We reached Talakad and took a guide (for Rs.100) to show us around the place/temples and provide some explanations. Well, the kid (yes the guide was a Class X kid) did know bits and pieces about history but then he explained he studied in a Kannada medium school and hence his English is not perfect. I was impressed that he knew how to explain himself, and could convey most of the history to our understanding.

Guide take aways
  • The older temples are from the Ganga dynasty, and the main temple of the village is from the Chola dynasty.
  • Here is where you will find a natural brown Shiva Lingam, as compared to the black ones which are the most common
  • This is the region where Cauvery takes a bend and hence quite slow and shallow. You can almost wade through to the opposite bank.
  • Forest cucumbers are very common in this area and is used as a teeth cleaner ( Toothpaste)
  • Cashew trees are also very common here

After the temple walk, which was through hot sand, barefoot and across a slightly hilly terrain, we decided to hit the Cauvery. We did not go into the water, as it looked quite unclean, and also there were far too many people inside bathing and swimming. We instead had a mango bar and relaxed on the bank watching all the kids jumping and mothers trying to ensure they do not hurt themselves.

Here are a few pictures of the temples and others. The scorching heat and walking bare foot on the hot sand resulted in less clicking andmore dodging to find shade below trees!






10 comments:

  1. Are the remains of a temple? you know this reminded me of an old episode from Malgudi Days. There was a story surrounding a temple.

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  2. They are the remains which were buried in the sand. They are taking them and rearranging them stone by stone.

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  3. Aathira, these temples are very beautiful! Imagine how the complex would look like after all of them have been excavated! :)

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  4. I hope they find the funding and manpower to dig up all of them. There are so many beautiful temples in India, its nice that you are visiting some around B'glore. Nice pictures.

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  5. 140 kmph? Hey,careful! Maddur seems like a familiar name from childhood days...isn't it famous for vadas or somethin?

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  6. Aah! I missed this place while I lived in Bangalore (for nearly 8 years).We used to do many trips around Bangalore, Mysore.Lovely pictures. Informative post. Thanks for sharing.
    Cheers
    preeti

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  7. hey..that post got me nostalgic!
    havent been to talakad...but have been in and ard lots of these little places ard bangalore...and theyr amazing!
    if u liked this u shld go to hampi..u'll love it!

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  8. Ekta: I have been wanting to go to Hampi... and something or the other keeps popping up messing up plans. I plan to do it this year .. after the monsoons hit and the temperature cools down a bit.

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