Rangasthala, Muddenahalli, Bhoganandeeshwara

This was a very casual, unplanned trip to 3 totally unrelated places around Bangalore. We left home in a fully loaded Indica (5 ppl + lunch and water in the boot) by around 8:30 am. Zoomed on NH7 past Devanahalli and reached Chikkaballapur, which is about 60km from Bangalore. Asked for directions at the town center, and proceeded to meet Lord Ranganatha, peacefully asleep at his abode in ‘Rangasthala’.

The temple appears magnificent from outside, resembling the temples of the Vijayanagar period. But the inside has been recently renovated, and the beauty seems to be lost. But not all of it … below are some snaps, shot with great effort trying to avoid the recent additions to the facade!

Ksheera Saagara Shayana!

An old pond …

From there, we proceeded towards Muddenahalli, birthplace of the most famous engineer and Dewan of the erstwhile Mysore state, Sir M. Vishveshwaraiah. You can see the house where this great man was born and spent his childhood, and also, adjoining the house is a private museum, owned by his predecessors, which has an extensive collection of photographs, and writings, pertaining to the developments that were undertaken by him in Mysore, during his tenure as Dewan. It was a great pleasure and satisfaction to visit this place, especially after (a) hailing from Mysore, and (b) studying engineering from VTU!

Memorial + Park near Sir MV’s house.

2 Great engineers

We had lunch at the park which has a memorial for Sir MV. Then we continued towards the base of Nandi hills, visited the Bhoganandeeshwara temple, and returned to Bangalore by 7pm. Overall, a nice picnic