During my fourth visit to Sridhar's betelnut farm at Bhogasandra, Sridhar and I had made a social call on an acquaintance from the neighboring village Hardagere. Our acquaintance Indrakumar is a farmer growing mainly coconut and betelnut. While at his place, we chatted mostly about farming and general stuff. I asked if there was any historical place at his village and he mention Mastigudi. After snacks & tea we decided to check out Mastigudi which is situated a minutes walk away. Here we are- a sculptur edepicting a royal couple under a Kirtimukha. According to Indrakumar, this sculpture was housed under a proper shelter made of stone slabs. Presently the roof is gone, only the walls are remaining. In the past this was like a shrine, rituals happened on a regular basis. Now it's in a state of neglect.
The word Mastigudi is a sum of Masti and Gudi. Masti or Mastikallu means a sculpted stone pillar / slab erected in memory of a woman who immolated herself on her husband's funeral pyre. Mastikallu is also known as Sati-kallu. However this sculpture doesn't have the features of a Mastikallu. This seems to be more like a memorial to a couple of a royal family who ruled over this place. By it's looks this sculpture seems to be from Hoysala period. In fact there are several temples in the surrounding region dating back to Hoysala period. To the south of this region are well known Hoysala centers like Turuvekere, Aralaguppe, Nagalapura, etc.
Indrakumar and an elderly person of Hardagere did admit that this monument needs to be cared for. I was gald that such a thought occurred. Perhaps I'll remind them about it during my next visit. Talking about historical places in this region, there are several of them, let me mention a few here. Kempamma Devastana at Kote village, Guddada Ranganatha Swami Devastana near Kote and the Veeragllu of Sagasandra. I've also heard that there are a few ancient sculptures at Bhogasandra village which I'm yet to see.
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