Sri Chandramouleswara Temple, Unkal, Hubballi

A colleague told me about this temple. I was happy to know that Hubli, the commercial city, had such a beautiful temple to boast about but also sad to see the condition of the temple. The open space around the temple is a playground for local boys. A big gang of college going boys were playing cricket noisily, not caring where they are sending the ball, with another bunch using the temple platform as their gallery.

The temple is supposed to be 900 years old and the architecture is similar to the temples of Badami, Pattadkal and Aihole. I feel it's pretty close to temples of Belur and Halebid in terms of the base, the raised platform.

Inside are two Shivalingas. The first one is enclosed in a square chamber which has doorways on all 4 sides. One can see the Linga from all 4 directions.

The second Linga is known as Chaturmukha Linga; four faced Linga. The pedestal seems to be carved out of the same stone which forms the floor around this Shivalinga.

As you see, pooja is offered everyday. If not for this the temple could not be cared for.

I went around looking at the decorative sculptures. This temple is no less compared to some of the major attractions in terms of detailed and precision work.

These panels remind me of Mahadeva Devastana of Itagi.

A peacock motif. Note the semi-circular bangle holding the two curtains flowing down. Such details! How did the creators imagine, design and then actually create them in stone?

Some parts of the temple are in pristine condition.

Kirtimukha to keep out evil eyes.

This piece of work expresses engineering skill.

That's the rear door. In fact this temple has four doors, one each in every cardinal direction. The main entrance is east-facing.

Engineering and art join hands.

Front left portion of the temple.

Hindustan tractor and Basavanna co-exist in Unkal just like tractors & oxen in rest of Karnataka and many parts of India.

I visited this temple again in Feb 2020 and took more pictures. Do check out the newer posts: Chandramouleshwara Devastana revisited.

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Parasgad Fort

...driving from Aminbhavi, as we neared Saundatti, we could see Yellammanagudda to our right. The fort sits on the top with a portion of the wall right on the edge. I was thinking of taking a right towards of the base of the hill and climb up instead we stopped to check the correct approach... go to Saundatti, go towards Yellamma temple and ask for helipad, the fort is close to the helipad. Perfect directions.

We had but tickets @ 2 per head. We were welcomed by a small group of Langurs leaping around wildly. The fort is in ruins. The place does attract visitors, mostly pilgrims to visit a spring pond just outside the fort on the other side ...the side we saw from Aminbhavi - Saundatti road. I missed taking pictures of the entrance... you'll have to manage with this video.

...past the twisty gateway designed to slow down movement.

Inside it's open ground and few partly standing walls. We followed the heavily tread path...

This image of Lord Hanuman is unique. I've never seen anything like this before. Three teenage boys were the only other visitors other. They were chatting away non-stop, just like us, I could not make out the tongue they spoke. Chetan told me it was Pategari, a mix of Kannada, Hindi, Marathi, Lamani and few words of their own.

Little further the path goes down hill gradually and we enter a shallow rocky valley. The Pategar boys stop, waiting for us to take the lead. They were scared of a bunch of red-faced monkeys.

This was one the most friendly of the lot. He was chewing away some sort of grass trying to quench his thirst from the moisture in it.

Someone remarked his haircut is stylish. The gateway in the background is the most intact part of this fort. This the path down the hill to the base.

The western sky. Middle of the picture is the Aminbhavi-Saundatti road.

Shri Yamanuru Raja Baksha Devastana. Get blessings. We did not go in but we could see a small pool of water. The place stank of bat droppings.

We were on a narrow ledge with a 20 feet fall. The rock overhang was a good shelter for soldiers guarding the fort's gateway. The place gave a good view of the surrounding plains and the approach to the hill.

The only bastion sitting on the edge.

View of the plains towards Dharwad.

A silhouette shot.

Steps built through the cleft in the hill.

We could see a small temple further down the stairway but we chose to skip it and turn back.

Pategar boys stuck to us until we were out of the monkey's domain. We deviated from the regular path and climbed up the step like rock formations.

We were inspecting a fort within a fort. The structure is an enclosure with four bastions connected by four walls. As you see it's crumbling away.

We took the narrow gateway out and few steps ahead Veeresh spotted a snake skin ...completely intact. We could make out the eyes also.

Check out this video, it's interesting to see Veeresh lifting the snake-skin.

The bastions of Parasgad fort on the eastern side which is close to Yellamma Devatsana.

There are few things we did miss seeing ...the temple and the spring pond on the western side. Hope to visit again. We moved on to see Hooli fort the last destination of the day.

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