For those who've seen Savandurga, its a huge monolith. In fact the largest monolithic hill in Asia. The monstrous size of the rock is so dominant that the ruins of fort on the hill goes into the background. If you focus on the fortification aspect of the hill, one can be surprised. The fortifications are spread across a wide area and elevations. The fortifications are spread over the two hills and also over the sprawling rock-bed on the southern side of the peaks. The elevation of the rock-bed is hardly 15% of the main peaks. The rock-bed is quite uneven with a few naturally formed water ponds. Unlike the main hill exploring these ruins is not a strenuous activity.
My visit here was some time 2003 or 2004, a colleague Rajesh had accompanied me. We reached Savandurga Cross around 3-00 pm. About half a kilometer from Savandurga cross is a point where we parked my car and started the exploration y foot. The rock surface is like a ramp, steep at places, the ramp levels out into a sprawling area which is a mix of flat surfaces, slopes and shallow valleys. Spread over this area is a fort called as Basavana Durga.
This is a cleft in the ramp. Day would be a safe time to explore this area. At night, the steepness of surfaces cannot be judged properly hence it may not be safe.
Here's a screen-shot from Google Maps of the area. On the bottom left corner are the farm lands through which we walked to reach the rock. Following is the index of the points marked on the map-
A - Cleft in the rock
B - Gateway in rampart walls
C - Natural water pond
D - Rectangular enclosure
E - Entrance to the enclosure
F - Natural water pond
G - Ancient temple
That's Savandurga hill in the background as seen from the plateau. In the midground is a line of rampart wall with bastions at regular intervals. The wall running from east to west is about 950 meters. Close to the eastern end of the wall is a gateway - marked B in the screenshot. On the right is a hillock with a walled enclosure.
This is the gateway in the wall. The fort builders have taken care not to expose the opening directly, a screen wall conceals the opening so that anyone entering has to slow down in the zigzag path. These walls seems to be built by the Palegar rulers, probably during Kempe Gowda's time. The condition of the walls are good.
From the gateway, half a kilometer towards the left the temple can be seen - marked as G. As you see the temple is situated close to the main hill of Savandurga.
The temple is simple, has one Shikhara over its sanctum. The Shikhara is a brick & mortar creation. Going by the design of the Shikhara, it seems like Vijayanagara architecture. Since the Palegars were vassals of Vijayanagara kings, the same architecture was followed by them. In the early 2000s I had a aim-n-shoot Yashica. Every roll had 36 shots, so photography was rationed. I don't think I shot a closeup of the full temple.
This is Savandurga's Biligudda i.e. the white hill. The other peak which is called Karigudda i.e. black hill is concealed in this view.
This is the north-western bastion. The walls are approximately 20' high. This enclosure is approximately 50 meters wide and 125 meters long. Within the enclosure is plain ground. Probably this was the arms and food grains depot.
Close to the enclosure entrance is this magnificent sculpture of a balustrade. Balustrades are fixed on either sides of steps of a temple or a mantapa. Looks like the construction work remained incomplete for some reason.
Close by was a broken piece of another balustrade. While the broken balustrade's surface is almost clear, the intact one is coated with a yellow layer - even though they are lying a few meters from each other.
Rajesh attempts to climb the wall. I think this is the south-eastern corner of the enclosure. I'm not sure if that's a niche or a escape passage.
This is not the wall of the enclosure but the kilometer long wall. According to local stories, this area was covered in a thick forest of bamboo. So this fort had a natural defense system in place.
Next to the enclosure is this natural pond (marked as F in the screenshot) measuring 90m x 14m at its longest and widest points. The pond seems to be 10' at its deepest point. We found clumps of elephant dung. Going by the dryness, it must be several weeks old. A caution if one is planning to camp here in the nights. Water ponds are normally visited by wild animals in the night, may not be a good idea to close to them.
The pond close to the gateway.... as seen from a bastion in the wall on the hillock. The wall is built on a slope which has quite a gradient. Also, notice the wall design, the lower half is dressed stones upon which sits a rammed earth wall. This type of walls can be seen at Chitradurga fort and many other forts.
The wall standing on the slope for at least four and half centuries. As far as I know, the rammed earth is cast on top of the stone wall using centering and scaffolding. Looking at this wall, I wonder how the engineers fixed the centering sheets. Truly amazing creation.
Another view of the wall and a bastion. I wish the bastion was free from vegetation, it would've been interesting to see the base of those walls.
The beautiful profile of Savandurga hill... five peaks. On the second peak from the right, is the Basava Mantapa. Inside the four pillared shelter is a statue of Nandi looking towards south. Our plan is to reach that Mantapa in the morning.
On the eastern side of the enclosure is a bastion positioned on the edge of a rock formation. Those days we had no Google Maps, so we didn't know the extent of the ruins without a guide's help. Having explored the area in Google Maps, I know how much is yet to be seen. Hopefully I'll go to Savandurga one more time just to explore the lower hills.
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