Ramlingeshwar Gudi, Ramtirth

January 15, 2010

About 5 km from Halasi is a place called Ramteerth. A group of young men at Halasi suggested me to visit Ramtheerth without fail. I followed their directions and reached a mango garden, the hill was visible on the horizon. I parked the car and entered the mango garden. The place looked deserted and I needed directions. I walked a little further and found a ittangi bhatti ...a brick making yard. Luckily, I found a family living here. One of them pointed out the path, said its a lonely path to the temple and asked me if I was not worried about going alone. I replied that I was used to going around by myself.

The path snaked through a paddy field then through woods with patches of dirt and rocky surfaces, shady and sunny, went though a almost dry stream bed. I imagined how it would be trek here in rainy seasons. I heard many bird but saw few ...difficult to spot them in the foliage. I saw one bird about the size of a robin with long tail feathers ...gave me no chance to shoot.

Rocks here are granite ...being quarried. Man just cannot let nature alone. This seems like a little temple made by quarry workers.

I must have walked for about 20 minutes to reach the temple. As you see it's a temple made of roughly finished stones. These temples seem to be built during Kadamba rule, the architecture says so.

Water was not inviting, in fact the pond looked scary with it's dark green slimy water. Little frogs dove and swam across the pond.

As I went closer to the temple, I heard a voice ...mantras being chanted. I stepped into the temple, found a man snoring away in bliss. Inside the sanctum sanctorum two elderly men were going through a ritual of Shivalinga Pooja. It was Makar Sankranti; I guess these men were offering special pooja.

The temple deity. Om Namah Shivaya.

This temple is known as Ramlingeshwar Gudi. Besides these two shrines there is another incomplete temple, one without a roof but has a Linga inside.

This is the Shiva Linga enclosed in the walls of the roofless temple.

Besides the historical temples, this spot has another attraction- a huge rock which looks like a lizard head...

...and a tortoise head from another side.

The rock hill slopes off on the southern side and also there are sheer drops with overhanging rocks.

The place was silent and a light breeze helped take the heat away. I wanted to explore more but time was a constraint. I've made up my mind to visit this place some time September 2010 ...by which the place should be green and fresh.

View of the paddy fields through which I walked here.

I did visit Ramteerth again on October 16th with three of my colleagues. Here's the link to blog post on the second visit to Ram Teerth.
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