Nov 29, 2010

Ramteerth revisited - part 2

...continued from Ramteerth revisited - part 1.

There are two temples at Ramteerth. The main temple is east-facing and the smaller temple is north-facing. The smaller temple is roofless. I climbed the walls of the smaller temple to get a shot of its deity. The Shiva Linga within the walls. The circle looks perfect and design symmetric. I wonder how artists of those days achieved such precision.

South-eastern view of the main temple.

Another fluttering beauty. I was lucky to even get this shot ...it would not rest for more then a second at any spot.

Life in a row ...these holes could be for breaking the rock into pieces with straight edges. Probably to be used for the half done smaller temple..

While I was exploring, these guys was busy scribbling something on the rock. They spent quite sometime time with the act which made me curious.

"Art work by Veeresh" was added below the date. It's a work of art indeed. Looks like J is about to swallow the O.

From here, the surface sloped downwards and then a sudden 20 feet drop, and slopes down again towards a jungle covered valley ...that;s on the right.

Towards the left; more paddy fields. We went back up to the lizard face rock where Veeresh was leaving our team signature. We climbed it, being the highest point of the hill, we got a good view.

View of the temples from top of the rock. All of us has climbed on to the rock, the view from up here was much better, naturally.

We climbed down except Veeresh. Someone asked if we should send him kaavi and kamadalu. He can stay up there and become a Swami chanting Om Namah Shivaya. I think it was Chetan who remarked thet he could chant Ojoino Namaha instead!

We explored the surroundings a bit. Chetan and Neelaknt were brave enough to stand on loose rock on the overhang.

We took a different way back to the temple. This is the south-western view.

Colors and texture of dragonfly and rock match so well. Here we spoke about dragonflies' similarity to helicopters. How you could make them lift pebbles when you hold them by their wings.

Chetan spotted this butterfly and both of us approached it very slowly to get closeup
shots. The butterfly did not budge ...we guessed it's time must be up. Its wings look battered, may be it's just awaiting it's end.

This dragonfly reminds me of Rayban glasses with amber tint.

Veeresh becomes Manninamaga- son of the soil.  We plucked a few stalks of paddy as a souvenir.

Chetan and Neel also joined. All set to become mannina makkalu. We stopped plucking when we had a handful ...we shouldn't be robbing a farmer of his harvest ,,,every grain counts.

This picture is a good picture for a birthday or love you card. These are grass flowers.

The sun was up and the ground had dried. it was so much easier walking now. We saw short and tall varieties of paddy.

The last leg of our trek back the car.


From here we drove to Sangolli Rayanna's memorial at Nandagadh. All we could see either side of the 4km drive was paddy fields. Rice seems to be a major produce in this part of Belgaum district.
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2 comments:

  1. Hi Siddeshwar, is this temple from the time of Kadambas or Chalukyas, why is it abandoned, usually hilltop temples have annual 'jatre', the gopuram is still so beautiful!

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    1. This temple seems like Kadamba. It's not abandoned. Local people visit come here for significant days. For example Sankranti and Mahashivratri. I think a jatre happens here too, not sure when.

      BTW, that's not Gopuram, it's a Shikhara. Gopura dots over the temple gateway and Shikhara over Garbhagudi.

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