Chennarayanadurga

Somewhere on the net, I had read about the existence of ‘Nava Durgas’ (9 forts) around Bangalore. My quest for them has been on ever since. Chennarayanadurga is one of them. This fort located near Madhugiri in Tumkur district, was built by a local cheiftain in the 17th Century, and has been lesser known to even a veteran Bangalorean!

We left home on Sunday morning (8th October) by around half past eight, and hit Tumkur road. Since it was not a working day, we zoomed past Nelamangala in no time. Entered the tolled road towards Tumkur, and reached Dobbspet (50 km). Here, the signboards are pretty confusing for the naive. Instead of going under the flyover to take a right turn, we went over it, and to compensate for it, we stopped over at the Cafe Coffee Day, to enjoy some hot Capuccino! We then turned around and went under the flyover, to the town of Dobbspet, where we took a left turn onto the road leading to Koratagere (37 km). At Koratagere, we took a right turn onto the road leading to Madhugiri. Continue on this road for around 7-8 km, and you will get an arch entrance on the left, leading to Siddara betta at the village of Thumbadi. Take a left and proceed for 3-4 km, and you reach the foothills of the magnificient Chennarayanadurga.

This fort was built in the 17th century by Chennappa Gowda, a local cheiftain, who was feudal to the then Maharaja of Mysore. The fort was used to garrison the local armies (wonder how the horses used to climb these steep rocks!).

The village at the foothill looked quite desolate and old-fashioned, as if it still was from the same era. We parked our car, enquired with the locals and started our trek by around 11:30.

The climb was quite steep, and we managed to accomplish it with the aid of a rope that we bought the previous week, on which I had performed my handiwork of knots! There are 3 different levels of walls encircling the fort, and in the penultimate level, much to everyone’s surprise, we found a huge pond full of water. It is really amazing how the strategic planners of yore thought about such things. There was silence abound atop the hill, only to be interrupted with the swooshing sound of the breeze, cooled by the waters of the pond; blissful!

By now, it was time to break for lunch, and we settled down on a rock a little above the pond and unpacked our meal of aloo parathas and cheese spread. I wandered around, taking some pictures, experimenting with light and shade, trying to capture the beauty of the bastion with my lens.

Somehow, never before have I had such a strange feeling that I had here. The silence was eerie, making me feel that I was standing in the middle of the people and armies of those days, or it was maybe their souls wandering around!

The weather started becoming dull, and we decided to turn back, because descending the rocks would be very difficult if it would rain. We had to remain deprived of visiting the granary and the Murari temple above, but we kept it for another visit. While climbing down, we stopped by to enjoy the rock formations, and dad’s photography skills created this masterpiece!

We completed the descend and reached the foothill by 16:00. This time, there has been a bumper produce of tamarind, and with so many tamarind trees in the village, we could not resist to devour some!

P.S: Tamarind trees are associated with ghosts

On the way back, we took the Madhugiri-Tumkur SH, which I think was a good decision. It was a better road, and this helped us, as it started raining, and it really rained like anything, reducing visibility to less than 100m. There were lot of streams on the road, and at times, the road itself was replaced by streams! After Tumkur, we stopped by at Kamat Upachar (before Dobbspet), and enjoyed some nice Balekai Bajjis with hot tea! After the rain stopped, the drive back was pretty much uneventful, and we reached home by 18:30.

Another ‘Durga’ conquered!