inscription-stone hunt at Bhogasandra

During the Dec 2023 visit to Bhogasandra, while at Kote Ranganatha Swami Devastana, our friend Sidramanna mentioned about the presence of an inscription stone outside the village. The only person who would be able to show me that artifact would be Sidramanna's uncle Eshanna. Since that was a busy month for coconut farmers here, we could not find a convenient time. Even on normal days Eshanna is busy, always on the move by foot from one plantation to another. With a bag full of tools and pipeline spare parts, Eshanna checks drip irrigation lines daily. Besides the pipelines, he also checks the trees and fallen coconuts. Basically very dedicated to work, lives up to Jagatjyoti Basaveshwara's quote "Kayakave Kailasa" which means "work is worship."

In the third week I visited Bangalore, just a day. The following day Sridhar and I travelled to Bhogasandra with a short detour near Tumkur to see historical monuments of Gulur and Kaidala. Later in the day Satyaprakash, our friend from Bengaluru, joined us at Bhogasandra. The following day Venugopal from Mysuru joined us. It was a gathering of four primary school friends at Sridhar's farm, deep inside a rural realm. That evening we four went to Bhogasandra lake by walk. On the way we saw  a flock of peacocks & peahens.

Sridhar, Venu, Satyaprakash

Jan 19, we all went for an early morning walk deeper into the farm lands. Purpose of the outing was to pick & gather a citrus fruit called Yeralikayi. We happened to meet Eshanna near the target tree. He helped us pick two bag full Yeralikayi and accompanied us till Sridhar's house. On the way, the matter of inscription stone came up and luckily Eshanna obliged to take us to the spot. After breakfast. Satya left to Bengaluru and we went to catch up with Eshanna.

Venu hauling two bag full Yealikayi

After walking for about 15 minutes we reached a barren spot next to a coconut plantation. Eshanna looked around, under the bushes but unable to find the slab he had seen. Apparently the place had been disturbed by an excavator during while making a trench here. Eshanna felt the slab might've been buried when the trench was closed, he was disappointed. So was I. However, there was a rough granite slab with engraving on one face.

Eshanna and Venugopal

This is the best I could do with sunlight blazing down. Since the surface is coarse, the engraving is kind of camouflaged.

Here's a cropped version. On the top is a Shivalinga, surely Sun and Moon would also be present. Below the Shivalinga are five or six horizontal lines, between the lines there seems to be some text. As per Eshanna, a habitat existed here once upon a time. The place was abandoned during a scrouge. Looks like the habitat was mainly temporary structures since there are no ruins here except for this stone inscription.

That rear view of the slab. Geologically this stone is a fusion of granite and some other stone. Between this block and the bush were a few slimmer slabs buried in dirt. We tried to dislodge one of them but it wouldn't budge. To excavate we would require a lot of tools including a machete to clear the bush. A work for some other time.

Hoping to unearth the inscription some other time, we left and headed towards another coconut plantation of Eshanna. On the way we passed by a pond. On the pond banks was this anthill.

That's the pond. Eshanna said this pond was fed by canal water and rainwater too. This anthill with so many spikes has a special look.

From the opposite side it feels as though we are looking at a bull's horns.

Another 15 mins walk, we reached Eshanna's plantation where he plucked tender coconuts and opened them for us. The fresh cool drink was rejuvenating. We were thankful to Eshanna for taking out time from his busy schedule. I feel he walks 8 to 10 km daily and his mind is always engrossed with work. BTW, Sridhar tried to install a steps tracking app in Eshanna's smart phone, unsure if the installation was successful.

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