Mahimapura

There are really so many places around Bengaluru, one just needs the eyes to see! Our latest discovery was Mahimapura, off Tumkur road, before Dobbspet, on 2nd Dec, 2006 (actually it was a bit of googl’ing that pointed us to a very nice article about this place, by Srinidhi Raghavendra, who writes for DH; kudos to you man!).

We left home post breakfast, on Tumkur road. There was some traffic until Nelamangala, after which it was quite clear. About 45km from Bangalore, there is a huge sign pointing towards Mahimapura. We took a left there and after about a mile, we reached the tiny hamlet of Mahimapura. Instead of taking the flight of steps from the west, we parked our car on the southern side of the hillock, and started to trek. Its a small hillock, though a little steep on some sides, and took us not much time to reach the summit. One memorable thing about this place is the rocks, which display Mother Nature’s creativity at her best! No wonder, I hear that most of the kannada movie song sequences are shot here. Some samples … (of creativity – both nature’s and mine!) …

The temple atop is of Garuda-Ranganathaswamy, and this is the only temple where Garuda is worshiped. The story from the puranas goes thus … Aditi (w/o Sage Kashyapa) receives a boon of two eggs from the Sun God, being told that two sons will be born out of them. After waiting for long, an impatient Aditi breaks one of the eggs, and a child without limbs is born. The child curses her and vanishes. Aditi worships the Sun God again, and he asks her to be patient and wait for the second egg to hatch. After a few years, the second egg does hatch, and Garuda is born! Garuda demands food soon as he is born, and Aditi directs him to Sage Kashyapa. Garuda, impatient with hunger disturbs his father who is performing penance. An angry Kashyapa asks Garuda to go and eat the corpse of an ogress lying on a rock, and Garuda does it! Later, realizing his sins, Garuda apologizes to his father, who directs him to Mahimapura, to worship Lord Ranganatha to wash off his sins. Garuda performs penance for years at Mahimapura, and the pleased Lord Ranganatha appears as a mound of jaggery, in the nirakaari form. Mahima Ranganathaswamy is the chief deity of this temple, and pooja takes place everyday in the mornings.

We walked back to the foothills by lunch, settled down on the nice grass lawn, and started to eat the sandwiches we had packed, only to be bothered by the monkeys on the trees and the local village children, who wanted money!

After lunch, we started back, to reach home in about an hour. Another satisfying weekend!