Following the Yogi’s trail. Review on Devarayandurg and Siddarbetta

This had been long in planning and almost became a disaster. It’s been 3 months since I’ve come to Bangalore from Pune and 3 months that I could not go for treks. Fortunately a friend finally agreed and I set out finding the perfect place for my inaugural trek here. Searching the net has a lot of virtues but this time I learnt that it could be grossly misleading too. I found a picture perfect place called “Devarayandurg” and we set off at 7 a.m. june 29th, 2003. It is 79 Kms from Bangalore via Tumkur (16 Kms) and is supposed to be a hill resort. At the foot of the hill there is a natural water spring called “Namada chilume”. Legend has it that Lord Rama shot an arrow in to the rocks to create a spring for Tilak or for Laxman to drink water (according to two different versions we got). Now this is what was reported. Fact: it’s located in a place called as a forest reserve, which looks like a zoo and we saw, a few deers there. No disrespect meant to Lord Rama but he could have done a better job and sprung a larger spring. What we saw was a small hole about 10 inches wide and a thin trickle. The place is frequented by picknickers and is surrounded by forests, which are nothing more than dry shrubs. I think the whole blame lies on the monsoon gods who have shunned Karnataka. Then there were the two temples of Yoganarshimha and Bhoganarshimha constructed by a Wodeyar chieftain. These two along with the derelict (and it means very derelict) fort is at a height of 940m, which my bike found a bit difficult to climb. But that is the very point, unless you are a devout or want to test your bike no point in going up. It’s bleak and desolate and ROCKY. In fact the whole countryside throughout my 243 kms of trip is rocks and boulders. Then there’s supposed to a 1000-acre lake. Blame it on the rains again but we found it difficult to locate even ponds. I guess the data I had gathered from the internet had some very optimistic Karnataka tourism guy writing it and then some enterprising people copying it onto their websites. We were on the brink of getting demoralized. We were here looking for adventure, trekking, something different!! We definitely had not traveled 100km for this. But time was on our side. It was just 11 o’clock and we decided to go to Siddarbetta. This place was towards Koratagere taluk, located 35 kms., from Tumkur town. The internet had said:it is a veritable paradise of medicinal plants. It is part of the Kolikal State Forest. But we found the real excitement in this place. We reached it by 12:30 afternoon and I must say that the 11kms leading upto this place after a huge signboard is made of roads, which are a test for your bike. Anyways we found a lot more tourist activity here.

However keeping our expectations minimum we started up the hill. It was also strewn with rocks and boulder. There were stone steps leading upto the cave temple on top. The place has an abundance of simians and it wouldn’t be the best idea to eat on the way. The view from the top and during the climb shows the whole countryside. Reaching the cave we took off our shoes and entered the temple. There were a few pujaris and some people were bathing in the waters of a spring that is supposed to have medicinal values. However the spring is in a 6 ft deep hole inside the temple and the pujaris there take out the water and put it in a tub. They also charge you Rs. 3/- for bathing. We performed a small puja infront of some idols there and having made our offerings, we started inquiring about what else was there to see? We were shown the mouth of a tunnel entering into total darkness; not more than 2-3 feet off the ground. The place didn’t at all seem inviting. But there were 3 other guys too who wanted to go and they took a guide. So we decided to tag along. We crawled and entered as to what seemed like the womb of the mountain. There were a few places we could stand up. We were shown (by candle light) places where the yogis meditated. In total darkness and silence, deep in the rocks. There was a small pond of mountain water, which served for drinking purposes for them. We slithered on the ground, crept through narrow crevices, dropped through boulders and over what seemed like bottomless pits. Eventually we reached the other side of the mountain face. This face was supposed to look like a 7-headed serpent if seen from far. We had no chance of that. The drop below was a sheer cliff. After some more calisthenics we emerged in front of the cave again. For me this had been a new experience. I had never gone tunneling before and that too inside a hill. On the way back to the left falls the Channarayana Durg. Situated at the height of 3734 feet, this was a strategic fortress during medieval times. The route towards this abounds in ayurvedic herbs. After some rest we started back at 3 p.m. and made it to Bangalore by 6 p.m. The yogi’s trail had saved the day!!