DAYS TRIP TO KOLAR & KOTI LINGESHWARA

Its been a practice to visit  Koti Lingeshwara every year in Karthika masam from 2005, the time since we(My parents) installed a Linga in Koti Lingeshwara, Kolar.. This time  My husband ramesh and my brothers family also joined us.... So we decided to  include few places to visit on the way to Kolar....We all started, early morning around 7:00am to cover more places...

Destination 1: Chikka Tirupati:

  We reached Chikka tirupati around  8:30 am. It is located in Malur taluk of Kolar district. The main attraction here  is Sri Prasanna Venkateshwara, where the main idol is made from Krishna shila (black rock), about three-and-a-half feet tall and is perched on padma peetam. Priest narrated us this story, when i asked about the Sthala Puranam. The temple is linked to the great epic Mahabharata’s Kandava Dhana Kandam. Agni, the fire god, during the incineration (dahana) of khandava vana (the forest of herbs) causes burn injuries to the serpent god Takshaka. Takshaka bestows Agni with a curse that he lose his power. Agni on  Learning that, only Lord Vishnu, can free his curse, he performs a penance and pleases Vishnu and gets the ‘shaapa-vimochana(free from curse).  Grateful  Agni installs Lord vishnu in this place, and Lord here is aptly know by name Sri Prassana Venkateshwara..  All the festivals that are held at Tirupathi are also held here. We had the darshanam, & stopped at Kamat restaurant for breakfast, then headed to next place. Timings are 8.00 Am to 12.00 Pm &  5.30 Pm to 8.30 Pm.

Destination 2: Antaragange:

Anthargange, rocky hill range is situated at about 1226 Meters (4021ft.) high in Kolar district. This has lots of caves formed out of small rocks. Anthargange is the best location for light trek, Rock Climbing and Trekking.

One has to climb half the way of the hill to reach the temple, (trekkers can trek further after the temple). The monkey’s are quite menacing, it was really scary, as we saw it plucking bags from visitors.(we had baby(Bro's kid) and its stuff with us.) .  Once we reach the temple, we can find a small pond kinda thing, which gets water flowing from Nandi or Basava’s mouth.  The flow is surprisingly thicker like almost 1 inch. And villagers said, throughout the year, it never gets dry, infact villagers, carry drinking water from here... It was so pity thing to hear they need to climb those many steps everyday n carry water.Theres a small temple of devi, we  took darshan and spent some time in water,  and headed to next place..

 
Destination 3: Koti Linga:

The Lord Kotilingeshwara Temple is situated in Kammasandra Village in Kolar district.The main deity of this temple is Lord Kotilingeshwara. This Temple was constructed by Swamy Sambha Shiva Murthy . The  largest Linga is 108 feet (33 m) tall and  Nandi  is 35 feet (11 m) tall.

                

There are millions of Lingas being installed surrounding the temple by the pilgrims since 1980 spread over an area of 13 acres, here anyone can install a Shiv Linga in his/her name, it is said to be as good as constructing a temple, you can find  famous personalities like Rajnikanth, and many  ex/present  Karnataka/Tamilnadu ministers installing Linga's in there name...

It was around 12:30 by the time we reached Koti-linga. As a regular practice, we fixed a priest to do  Abhisheka's to Linga installed by us. After the Abhisekam, we went around the temple offering prayers to all gods here including Lord Brahma, Lord Vishnu ,Lord Maheshwara, Lord Venkataramani Swamy, Goddess Annapoorneshwari, Lord Panduranga Swamy ,Lord Rama, Lakshmana & Sita , Lord Anjaneya , Goddess Kannika Parameshwari & Karumaari Amma and  Lord Panchamukha Ganapathy. After visiting all sub-deity in Koti Lingeshwara, we had lunch & headed to next place.

Destination 4:  Avani Betta:

It was around 4:00 pm, when we reached Avani,  a small village located at 35 kms from Bangarpet and located in Mulbagal Taluk of Kolar district in karnataka. We first visited  Rama-Linga temple, found @ foothills of Avani betta.

 We were then supposed to trek the avani or lava-kusha hills, Mom dint show interest in climbing as she had already seen it , Infact we (me, my parents n bro) have visited this place couple of times. Later reshmi (sis-in-law) also decided to stay back, as she had kid. So me my hubby, dad n bro started trekking. One can witness below places on  the way to hill.

1. Valmiki Ashrama.

2. Place where Sita used to wash clothes.
3. Place for keeping lamp carved in the stone.
4. Big Foot prints, believed to be of Hanuman, Rama and others.
5. Place where Lava and Kusha tied the Horse. 
6. Place where Sita lived.

This is pretty amazing. There are several holes in the roof said to be served as storing place for grains and even for heating water. The anda (for heating water) makes sound very much that of an empty vessel. We tapped our hands and were amazed by this. Everything was as usual and the entire rock was made upside down by Hanuman considering that people will spoil it. On the top of the hill is the Sita Devi temple. This temple has the idols of Sita devi and Parvathi devi. This is considered the place where Sita Devi went to inside ground with her mother after handing over Lava and Kusha to Rama. This is a must see for everyone.

 

Destination 4: Kurdumale:

By the time we came down the hills, it was 6:00 pm, we rushed to our final destination of the day.  Kurudumale, a place in kolar, famour for  vinayakar  temple built by a  famous scuplture  jackanachari  under  vijayanagar kingdom..

It was 7:00pm, when we were on the way to temple, when asked for directions, localites  suggested  its not that safe to travel further during late evenings, but  coming all the way, we dint want to miss this, so we decided to continue,  as we went further we realised its not in-habitated by people and very dark n scary with no street lights along. Somehow praying Lord ganesha in our minds,  we reached the place safely, and to our  surprise, we saw  our(parents)  EX-Tenant as main purohit there, he got us the darshan of Lord,  and told us this story..

Kurudumale was actually ‘Koodu-Malai’, a Tamil name meaning ‘meeting hill’.   It is called so because this place is supposed to be a meeting place of Gods for the purpose of recreation.The idol is very big and huge, Ganesha is 13.5 ft in height.  It’s believed that Brahma-Vishnu-Maheshwara, the Trimurthis, themselves installed Ganesha here to bless the land with prosperity. It’s said that the Trimurthis performed the pooja for Ganesha here as well.

I felt very divine after seeing  huge Ganesha, automatically mind was filled with joy and peace..We sat there for a while, seeing the lord, then started, as it was getting late.. From there we straight headed to blore, and reached blore around 10:00, had dinner in a restaurant near  my house, and went our houses..


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