Chandramouleshwara Temple, Arsikere

 

This is one of the most beautiful temples that I have visited which were built by Hoysalas. One of the best part of the temple is the start shaped mukhamantapa which is the front part of the temple. There are 21 pillars in the mukhamantapa and it is adorned with beautiful elephants below every seat inside. Due to many invasions many parts of the temple has been destroyed and this is really bad and I personally felt how barbaric of the invaders were! Even if the temples were are restored and renovated the original beauty of it cannot be shown to people. The main deity of this temple is Lord Shiva and this is trikootachala temple where you get to see 3 shiva lingams and 3 nandis and 3 ganeshas. It is really a magnificent temple with intricate carvings around it and inside too. The main part of the Hoysala style of architecture was their emblem Sala fighting a lion, which they used to carve on top of the mantapa was missing here, as it may be destroyed by the muslim invasions. There were many veeragallus that dated back to the Hoysala dynasty that described the bravery and valor, which have been destroyed and ruined by barbaric islamic invasions. 

This is one of the most visited place in Arsikere as it is easily accessible and the road is very good to travel to this place.  It is around 138 kms from Mysore and it will take 3 and half hours to travel. These historical monuments are wealth of our nation and has to be preserved for our next generations too. Hope you too enjoy travelling to this temple 

Sangameshwara Temple Sindhaghatta

 This is one of the ancient times temple which is under the care of Archaeological department. It is said that it was built around 1200 years back but no one knows exactly when it was built. It is very beautifully carved with minute details inside the temple and the ceiling looks so pretty. Every pillar in the temple is carved so nicely. This temple is not much known to the people as it is located inside the village of Sindaghatta which is close to KR Pete. It is quite close to Mysore too and so you can easily travel to this place in your own vehicle. The road close to temple is not very good but the scenery around the place is nice as you get to see many paddy fields and lake too. A huge lake is there close to the temple. 

When I visited the temple was closed but i inquired around and went to the priest's house and requested him to open the place for me to get darshan. He was kind enough to open the doors of the temple for us. He also told us that temple is under the Archaeological Survey of India. He was complaining that he is not paid his salary from the government and that there is a case going on about the same in the high court. Felt bad for his condition as he was telling that they do not give proper financial help to maintain the temple well. 

There is also another temple close to this temple which is dedicated to Lord Janardhana and i missed to get darshana at this temple as the priest had closed the temple and had gone out of the village. Hope I get a chance to visit it some other time and visit both the temples again. I would suggest this is also a must visit temple if you love ancient architecture of Hoysalas. 

Akkihebbalu Laxmi Narasimhaswamy Temple

                                                     

Today its 12 December 2020 and weekend too, so I had planned for a break from routine life and traveled towards Hassan and explored ancient temples around Hassan. I visited this Laxminarasimhaswamy temple around 10.30 am and the road to the place is quite good and it is located at Krishnarajapete (K R Pete) and around 60 kilometers from Mysore, from Mandya it is around  70 kms. This is a very ancient temple which was built by Goutama Maharishi and it is said that Lord gave darshan to the rishi here after the rishi did penance for a long time on the banks of river Hemavathi.

The lord is a very beautifully made in black stone and he is in sitting position and on his lap goddess laxmidevi is sitting and the lord is not in ugra form but soumya mukha. There is a separate goddess Laxmi  temple in the premises with abhaya hasta and is in sitting position. They do rathotsava in the month of February every year. You can call the priest Srinath Bhat on his number 9449628141 and check for more details for any pooja to be performed in the temple. Temple opens everyday at 10 am till 12 but on weekends they are open till 3.00 pm this may differ post Covid situations. 

There is an ancient shiva temple next to this vishnu temple. This is dvikootachala where you get to see 2 shivalingams in one temple complex. They have maintained it very neatly and cleanly. There is a small park where different kinds of hibiscus plants are grown and kept very well and looks gorgeous to all the plant lovers. I would personally suggest for every traveler to visit this place and spend some quiet time here with the nature and god and get his blessings too. The driveway is very beautiful and so much peaceful as you will be very close to nature and you get to see so many paddy and sugarcane fields around. A must visit temple as per me.