Kotilingakshetra and Bethamangala

Sometime in 2001

After a hard day's work at the R&D Division of BEML at KGF we went to Kotilinga Kshetra. We were a group of six; Deepak, Praveen, Ajay, Kalappa & I from Komal Process Controls and Kamal from Epoch Instruments. The name Koti Linga Kshetra means "a place of a crore Shiva Linga." The complex has two temples- Manjunatha Devastana and Kotilingeshwara Devastana. The latter is a giant Linga and opposite it is a giant Nandi. Both Linga and Nandi are steel & concrete structures. Apart from the two temples there rows and rows of Shivalinga. I think the mission of this Kshetra is to have a crore Linga.

We spent some 30 minutes and then moved on to Bethamangala lake, a reservoir formed by impounding river Palar. Water from this lake is purified and then supplied to BEML campuses and KGF town. The objective of our visit was to see Bethamangala Water Works, the water purifying plant which is a pre-independence installation. It was past sunset when we reached the plant, most of the staff had left for the day. One staff guy whom we met hesitantly let us in and in minutes he got friendly when he realized our interest to know things.

This 100 year old plant functions well even now.

The care-taker showed us the entire purification process. It’s truly an amazing place. a monument by itself.

It was educative tour, the 30 minutes we spent there was worth it. We thanked the technician and headed back towards KGF town.
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