Thenginkal Betta

Sometime Dec 2002. Amma gave me a Prajavani newspaper cutting about Thenginakallu Betta. The article inspired me to plan a trip to this remote hill. I asked two of my office colleagues Girish and Rajesh to join me, they happily tagged along. We left Bangalore early, stopped at Sri Revana Siddeshwara Kshetra for a quick breakfast at a local eatery serving steaming hot tatte idli & sambar. Sri Revana Siddeshwara Kshetra is also known as SRS Betta because of the monolithic hill here. SRS Betta to Thenginkalbetta distance is about 2 km, a narrow rural road flanked by fields and plantations.

Before we explore the hill, let's take a look at it's name. Thenginakallu can be split into Thenginkayi & Kallu which means coconut & stone. There must be some historical connection to this name which I'm unaware of. Betta means a hill or a mountain.

One long look at the hill we couldn't figure out where to start the climb. So we decided to seek help. At the entrance of the village, on the right hand side was a house, we stopped to inquire. The house owner's name was Chandrashekhar, he seemed to be the village headman. He was kind enough to talk to a villager and appoint him as our guide. We were very happy that a local person would be leading / guiding us here.

Thenginkalbetta is a merger of two hills into one. Meaning on a long base are two granite mounds. That's our guide leading us, Girish behind him and Rajesh was behind me.

Thenginkalbetta is peaceful and hardly touched by mankind, something rare in these times. Bottom half of the hill is green with lot of plant life. We had walk over rocks, through creepers and thorny bushes. It was one hell of an adventure. Without our guide, we would not have found the way to the top. By the time we reached the half way up, my exposed skin was covered with cuts. Our guide told us that there are leopards, bears, wolves and a host of wildlife in & around this hill. He told us that any wild animal coming from the side or diagonal generally do not attack, if we remain calm they might just go away. however, if you see it head on, it could spell trouble. Apparently when you face any wild animal head on they feel challenged or threatened and they tend to attack. As a precaution our guide had a well sharpened sickle in his hand. A sickle is a handy thing in a jungle trek, helps clear thorny limbs in the way.

Our guide, I think his name was Manjunath, showed us a dolmen concealed under a shrub. He told that Palegar soldiers hid weapons under the slabs for emergency use. That's Rajesh inspecting the secret spot. He's holding a small machete in his hand, so amongst the four of us there were two weapons.

A few minutes away from the dolmen were these memorial stones. As you see the bottom panels show battle scenes in which warriors were martyred and the upper panels show them merging with Paramaatma. Those days I used a Yashica film roll camera, so shooting pictures was always constrained hence no close ups.

This is the larger rock-hill to our right.

..and the the smaller hill to our left. We were heading into the valley between the hills.

Thenginkalbetta has played a role in history. It's natural caves were used as hideouts by Palaegars (local chieftains) during wars. Manjunath showed us one of the caves high up in the rocks. Bamboo ladders were used to climb and pulled up into the cave. It seems the cave can accommodate up to 60 people and has a source of fresh water as well.

Apart from the large cave, there are a few more smaller caves here. Clambering over the unstable stack of stones was a risky adventure but our Manjunath was very encouraging. This cave was large enough to accommodate a dozen adults.

Due to frequent thunderstorms, the cave's floor was water logged. That's Girish standing in cold water. Climbing down the stacked stone was even more scary but all of us descended safely.

This is another cave which doesn't have waterlogging issues. Here we had to negotiate the slope without steps.

Our guide mentioned that fugitives use these caves to avoid police. Even hunters use these shelters while waiting for a prey to get ensnared.

Now we are atop the smaller peak. The rock surface is not very smooth... it gave us good grip and we felt confident even on steep faces.

May be not long back the place would've been covered by thick forest.

Every step we could see something unique; here we have a T-shaped gap. A large boulder has split into three, a natural phenomena of disintegration.

A pool of rain water, still fresh & clear. A face-wash of this cool water refreshed us. Manjuntah on my right, and Girish on the left. From this spot, we caught a glimpse of three bears trying to get under cover... they are way down the hill.

We are standing in the valley of the two peaks.

This creeper born in the tiny gap! Look how it's clinging close to the rock.

More water... we reach a fresh water pond. This looked like a man made one, meaning a small has been built to harvest rain water. If you look carefully, you can see a stone pitching over the surface of the water.

A trisected rock still standing as one. I wonder how it was formed.

As we climbed further upto towards the bigger peak, entered a small wood of Neralaemara. A carpet of green grass and fruit bearing trees. I felt I was looking a paradise. My pictures hardly say anything. One should be in the place and feel it.

The shape of the rock is the effect of soldiers sharpening their swords. They would lie below the rock and rub their sword-edge against the rock's surface. I remember seeing similar stones at Chikkasiddarabetta fort.

Another grinding spot.

We had a wonderful time on the top. We climbed down the other face of the larger peak. It was quite steep but the surface gave us great grip.

Even nature draws and paints... see this painting created by flow of water. Such contrasting colors!

Once back down, Manjunath took us home, introduced his mother and wife. This simple mud & wood house has sheltered four generations. While we chatted away the ladies prepared coffee for us. It was the first time I had Bella-Coffee ~ jaggery sweetened coffee and loved it. We Thanked our host for their warm hospitality and said bye.

On the way back, we stopped at Sri Chandrashekhar's house, thanked him too and left.
Thenginkalbetta has been one of the most serene places I had ever been to.

.........