Rajagopala Beerangi, Thanjavur fort

Cannons are deadly weapons yet they are fascinating objects. During my historical tours I made sure to check out the cannons in and around my routes. The largest ones I'd seen were in Bidar, Vijayapura (Bijapur) and Kalburgi (Gulbarga). I've collated the information in the post: Largest cannons of Karnataka. My curiosity about cannons isn't limited to just Karnataka. I've seen photos of Jaivana cannon at Jaigarh fort, Rajasthan. Apart from that I'd not come across any other large gun...

On Dec 28th while seeing Whatsapp status of my friend Pramod a set of pictures caught my attention. In those pictures was a massive cannon. The cannon was seriously huge, as large as Badi Tope at Bidar fort or even larger. Wondering how I missed this massive cannon. Now the question where is it situated? Since Pramod was touring Thanjavur the previous day, I guessed it must've been a cannon from Thanjavur fort and later confirmed it. Here's Pramod Potdar posing with Rajagopala Beerangi, the cannon of Thanjavur fort.

The cannon is situated on a turret on the eastern side of Thanjavur fort. It is said to be manufactured in 1620 CE by Tamil engineers during the rule of King Raghunatah Nayak. Presently the cannon is mounted on three stone-pedestals. The original mounting arrangement would have a swivel system to adjust its aim on to the target. Coming to it's name, Beerangi is the Tamil word for cannon, which is similar to it's Kannada counterpart Pirangi. This cannon is a fine example of forge-welding technology of the XVII Century. Unlike the commonly seen cast metal guns at some of the forts / museums, this is a forge-welded steel cannon. If you look at its surface, you see a series of rings welded together. Other examples of forge-welded cannons are: 1. 20' long cannon at Kalburgi fort and 2. Landa Kasab Tope on the southern ramparts of Bijapur fort.

Coming to its physical dimensions, it is approximately 7m (23') long with 1m (3.5') diameter barrel. The bore diameter is approximately 0.5 m (20"). Going by these dimensions, its weight is approximately 32 tons. And going by its estimated bore diameter, a 500 kg steel ball would be a projectile for this cannon. Imagine the scene of a 500 kg steel ball flying a few kilometers and the havoc when it bombards its target! In the picture below, the curved iron strips strengthen the mouth of the bore to withstand forced while loading the steel ball, and also when the ball is discharged.

Though this cannon is a protected artifact, there seems to be no information board at the site. ASI / Tourism department must post a short writeup for the benefit of tourists. Just like our ancient sculptures, temples, palaces, & forts, cannons are also engineering marvels. They need to be highlighted since they are potentially case studies for students of metallurgy.

Before closing this post I would like to thank Pramod for the photos. I would also like to mention that photos of Bonsai Baobab of Shukavana, Mysuru are his. Based out of Pune, Pramod is an avid traveler & trekker, traveling in every possible direction of our diverse country. He and his friends form a wonderful team, they've done some serious trekking in the Himalayas and Sahyadri Ghats.

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Ketti beauty

Let's start off with a quick intro to Ketti. It's a village about 8 kms southeast of Ooty. The terrain is hilly, covered with gigantic eucalyptus or tea plantations and the valleys with paddy fields. The hills and valleys are dotted with colorful houses. Days are cool, even the sunny days. When it rains, it pours and gets cold. Nights are freezing.

August 23, 2019
This was my second visit to Ooty and Ketti valley, not a vacation but on work. I stayed at our client's weekend home. The house is situated on a steep slope, it has a fantastic view, looking straight into Ketti valley and the opposite slope as well. The valley is open on the eastern side, far away hill range always shrouded in clouds. The house is made of steel, wood and glass. Yes, the outer walls are all clear glass. Day or night, sunny or rainy, you have an unobstructed view of the surroundings. I particularly liked the evening, night and early morning times. The silence is sweet. The twinkling lights from the sky is a glorious sight! Dawns are simply mesmerizing when the first rays touch the horizon.. shades of red and yellow turn blue and yellow. This particular picture is from my first visit in February 2019.

I would get out of the bed early, watch the horizon from predawn to the moment sun rises above the horizon. Then step out for a walk. Its a refreshing feeling to breathe in the fresh chilly air. The landscape is filled with vegetation, amazing varieties of plants.. oh those colors and diverse forms of the flowers! The beautiful power of Mother Nature!!

The pictures below were shot within a distance of 250 meters from the house. The first one being the clump of grass with bright yellow flowers. Notice that some of the blades have blunt edges? That's the result of bison biting off the tips. Bisons can be seen often. grazing silently. During my first visit, I saw a lonely bison, what a lovely beast it was. I did not venture too close to it.

A closer look at the five petaled star-shaped flower. This is how plants and insects co-exist peacefully unlike the present day human who's always in conflict with anything and everything.

Two for joy. They look like a perfect couple. In the background are little white-yellow flowers.

Ball like buds of another variety. This has more than five petals, retains its form for few days even when dry.

This one seems like a group of small single petaled flowers.

This picture is more about the blades of grass. I liked the graceful curve of the dry blade.

This white star has 'peace' written all over it. See the green star bud in the bottom left side.

There were so many varieties of yellow flowers, many on trees. A mild wind was blowing, did not bother to shoot the shaky ones. A small break from yellow, we have a violet flower. These flowers turn into round fruits which are used to prepare a spicy sambar.

As I looked down at the ground, something magical was happening above. A army of small cotton-ball-clouds marched across the sky.

Another type of yellow-star. The petals are kind of thick and strong.

The slope on one  side of the path I walked on was covered with tea plants. Until I saw this white beauty, I never knew tea plants flowered. The petals has a matte surface, like hand made paper. Tea plants don't seem to grow too many flowers, it was a rare sight.

This violet-white beauty is quite complex. Even the bud seems like a flower.

These groups of tiny beauties. Each flower cant be more than 5 mm wide. The subtle combination of white, violet and yellow..

Flowering plants thrive without care. That's the beauty of these hills.

 A red star, looks kind of wild, fierce.

The wild one's bud. This looks peaceful.

Yellow rules again. There's some pattern to the randomness in this flower.

 Yellow cups. The left one is few days older than the right one. The fifth picture in this post- yellow ball - is the bud which blooms out to become this flower. This has a look of a lotus.

 This orange flame lit up by bright morning light is planted in the garden around the house.

The garden has a little greenhouse for strawberry creepers. This is the first time I ever saw one. One picture shows a bud, flower, unripe and ripe strawberries.

I'll call this a post. There are some more pictures I would like to share later.
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drive through Bandipur and Mudumalai forest

The last time I visited Bandipur was in 2010 or 2011. I'd tagged along with Satish, Shoba and Shefali, stayed at one of the jungle resorts. The most memorable part of that trip was the nine hour trek through the forest covered slopes of Madhumalai hill range. At one point we (trek guide and I) were less than 10 kms from Ooty. Talking about Ooty, I'd never been there!

Feb 12, 2019
The destination of this journey was Ooty, not on vacation, heading to a site for inspection. We'd started from Bengaluru early, it was around 9-30 when we entered the forest area. The road was in good condition, ride was super smooth. Forest department boards welcomed travelers and cautioned them about dos and don'ts; respect wildlife, no stopping vehicles, no honking, no selfies, do not feed animals, and so on. Yes, people need to be reminded else they'll make this another shopping street.

Morning light cast long shadows across the road, oh what a sight!

Bandipur forest is popular for wildlife, especially elephants, bison, tigers and deer. With such a big forest, there are other easily noticeable creatures such as peacock, leopard, bear, monkeys, langur and so on. Hoping to see elephants, I was looking far into the jungle but there was a surprise.. a small shelter made of granite slabs. I requested our cab driver to stop to get a decent shot. If not for the forest boards, I would have gone closer to it.

Anyway, here's a cropped version of the picture. This stone structure has the looks of a prehistoric megalithic tomb, similar to the ones seen at Rajan-Kollur, Hire Benkal and Aihole. I've heard that such structures have been found across Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and parts of Andhra Pradesh. This particular tomb must be 3' to 4' high, its capstone must be 6' diameter. Such an elegant looking thing it is. Hope the forest department continues to protect it. I wonder how many more are present in these forests.

A while later, a lone male elephant was sunning lazily. We slowed for a quick shot and moved on. Happy to have seen the handsome beast.

Next were a herd of deer grazing, not bothered about the passing traffic. They are used to the presence of vehicles. As a child, I'd seen and felt velvety deer horns and tough skin. Such lovely animals, what a sight they are.

Another herd was resting, probably they had had their morning meal already. All are grownup males, I think.

A lonely little one calling out for its mother.

Another herd of grownup males. The one leading has the longest horns, probably he's the leader of this group.

A young elephant shying away from the sight of humans and their dreadful machines.

By now, having traveled for an hour or so, we had entered Madhumalai forest. Saw plenty of deer and felt these weren't really wild deer.. on the verge of domestication. These two look like they are posing for a picture.

The last picture here was a grownup caught in an unpleasant act. I think this is a rainwater harvest pit and someone has dumped trash into it. The deer was trying to grab something, like a cow in our towns and cities. Sad isn't it.

I wish these animals move deeper into the jungle, away from human contact.

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Kodaikanal

One among my few trips to Tamil Nadu...

We visited Kodaikanal during our vacations after our second year engineering exams. We traveled overnight, reached early morning and we found a cottage close to a cliff with great view. The cottage has bunker beds... The weather was cool and the water was cold. We spent some time sitting in the front porch enjoying the view ahead of us. Mot of us used to smoke, including me. Venkatesh had a cigarette and he hid it behind me


We went sight-seeing; some ____ walk, a suicide point, a cascade, a museum, a lake, we did some shopping too, I bought two shawls from Tibetans. This is one place where I saw trees full of pears on street sides, we had one each, they were quite tasty. Evening we went for a boat ride in the lake. For the first time I had white corn... it was so tasty I had some five or six of them! .....all the while I smoked, smoked and smoked.


It's nice to see the water cascade down these rocks and spray of fresh water felt good on the skin.


This was right opposite our cottage, Venkatesh shot this picture; Vishwanath, Aravind, Rajesh, Jayanth and me. This was the evening we had a wild party running late into the night...



The night was freezing, we made a bonfire in the front yard and danced around it like crazy.

Probably that was the last second day I smoked...

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