[Newpunter]

This was a small trip that we did this sunday. My original plan was to visit most of the temples in and around Kolar. However, due to certain circumstances, we could visit only Kotilingeshwara ( Kammasandra ) and Bangaru Tirupathi ( Guttahalli ).
Other places that can be visited in a single day around Kolar :
1. Someshwara Temple : I think this temple was constructed during the Vijayangar period.
2. Anthara Gange : Around 30 kms from Kolar. This place has water flowing from a bull's mouth.
3. Kolaramma Temple : This temple is in Kolar and is a very ancient temple and has inscriptions dating to the Chola period and the Ganga dynasty.

Sadly, we couldn't cover these places during our trip. We started around 8:30 AM from Marathahalli and reached back home by 3:30 PM.
A few Stats:
Total travel time : 4 Hours 57 min
Distance Covered: 220 Kms
Mileage : 13.5 Km/ Litre

We had originally planned to take the following route. My plan was to explore some new routes. In the end, i got more than i bargained for .
Marathahalli -> Whitefield Road -> NH207 -> Hoskote -> Malur -> Bangarpet -> Kotilingeshwara Temple -> Bethamangala -> Guttahalli.

Everything went smoothly till Hoskote. NH207 was a pain initially coz there were numerous speed breakers that were the size of small hills and a few potholes here and there too. However, after a few kms, the road was an absolute pleasure to drive. The road was beautiful and we were the only people in sight.

Once we reached Hoskote, we had to take the turn to Malur. However, we got lost and took a different road. The road was very narrow and the villagers did say that the road leads to Malur directly. The road was decent and there were not too many potholes, but it was very narrow and it was difficult when there was a vehicle coming from the opposite side.

A few kms into this road, we found a place which was probably a cattle market. There were literally thousands of cows and oxes being sold. There were hundreds of tents and people were blocking the road with their cattle. We had to honk a lot to get through.

Once, we reached Malur, we again got lost and instead of taking the route to Bangarpet, we took the route to Kolar. My GPS didn't say anything initially, but after around 3-4 Kms, it suddenly told us to take a U-turn. That was the first sign that something was wrong. But we didn't ask anyone till we had covered around another 10 kms ( it didn't help that with my limited knowledge of the Kannada script, I read 'Kolar' as 'Malur' ) . By then, it was too late to turn back and we decided to go to Kolar and then take the Bangarpet route. Ultimately, this is the route that we took ( I think ).




Finally, we reach Kotilingeshwara around 11 AM. There is a good amount of parking space here and it is surrounded by a boundary wall too. That was the good part. They charge around 20 Rs for the parking ( which i think is quite ok ). The speciality of this temple is that there are a lot of shiva lingas inside the temple ( koti linga means 1 crore lingas ). The main attraction is a 108 Foot shiva linga. This can be viewed from a long distance away. There are a number of smaller lingas with the names of the people who installed them. We could find a number of them installed by famous personalities in Karnataka like Veerappa Moily, Rama Krishna Hegde etc ( when they were Chief ministers ).

The problem with this place is that it is completely commercial. The price for carrying your camera inside is 100 Rs and the entry ticket is 10 rs per person ( which is acceptable ) and additional tickets for coconuts. As a result, we left the camera inside the car and didn't take any pics here. Once inside, we did try to sneak a few pics with our phone cameras but there was one guy who caught us and snatched my phone. Luckily for us, that guy had bitten more than he could chew. He had just snatched a few phones from a group of guys and they started arguing with him heatedly. The guy got outnumbered and he finally returned our phones. Phew.

There was what seemed like a decent restaurant near this place called Aishwarya Restaurant. We did not try it out but it looked decent. We couldn't find any other decent place to eat nearby.

Once we left this place, we continued on this road to reach Bethamangala and then we continued on the road to Guttahalli. There is left turn on this road and there is a milestone stating that Bangaru Tirupathi is 3 kms away. We took the left turn and then found ourselves in a small village and the road had turned very bad. We asked the villagers if we were on the correct road and they said that the road improves once we cross the village. They were correct, the road was much better after that. It was only a couple of kms to Guttahalli from this point though.

The Bangaru Tirupathi temple is located on the top of a small hillock. The temple is quite small and the speciality of this temple is that you have to look at the idol of Balaji from a window with a few holes in it. The idol faces towards the window instead of the door. There is some good parking space on the roads near the temple ( but they do charge 10 Rs for the parking although you have parked beside the road ) .

A few pics from the temple :

















After spending a little time here, we started on our way back. We wanted to take a different route this time, so we took the Bethamangala-Kolar route after asking for directions a little. This road was really bad initially. There were lots of potholes every where and we couldn't cross a speed of 60 kms/ hr. However, the good thing was that there was almost no traffic and there were a couple of beautiful lakes on the way. With around 10 kms to go to Kolar, however, the road turned beautiful. The road widened into a 2 lane highway and it was newly laid and it was a pleasure to drive.

Now, we were all hungry and looking for a place to eat and return home. We were on the lookout for any restaurant on the highway. We finally found a Kamat on the right side near Hoskote. We had a good lunch ( note that these guys don't accept credit cards, so it is a good idea to keep some cash in hand ). Then we reached home via SH 35. This turned out to be a better route than NH 207 as this had a divider all the way and luckily there was very little traffic during that time of the day. We reached home by 3:30 PM.

This was the route that we took while returning :

[kannan666]

Nice write up and lovely pics Newpunter !

[ramki067]

Nice start up pics Newpunter. Can you post the pics of Koti lingas?

[cool_dube]

Crisp write up. Could do with some pics of the koti lingas though I did not know that they charge INR 100 as camera fee. It is too much!!

Also, could you share the GPS coordinates of both temples that you visited?

[Newpunter]

Thanks Guys. I didn't take any pictures of the kotilingas as I didn't want to pay 100 Rs for the camera. That temple is very commercial in nature. They have built a few temples inside the complex and the path is structured in such a way that you have to enter each temple before moving to the next. Once inside, they talk in such a way that you would definitely have to 'donate' some money to each of the priests. There was one temple for Santoshi matha inside, where once you pray to the deity, the priest tells you to do a pradhakshina of the temple but while you are halfway through, he tells you to go to the shiva linga just beside that. There is a guy sitting there who gives you a glass to pour water on the shiva linga and then tells you to put some money there according to our interest. Ofcourse, he tells it in such a way that you would definitely have to put some money there.
I hate temples like these which are set up only to make money.
Bangaru Tirupathi on the other hand was very good. The village is a very small one and the temple is small but beautiful and thankfully, it is an old temple and not a commercial venture.

Regarding the location, Kotilingeshwara is just beside the road when you are travelling from Bangarpet to Bethamangala. You will find the huge shiva linga on the right side from some distance.
Bangaru Tirupathi is about 4 kms away from Bethamangala in a village called Guttahalli. It is at the end point in the first picture that i posted. I will try to see if i can find the GPS coordinates.

Edit: There are a few pics of the Kotilingeshwara Temple and the 108 Ft Shivalinga on Wikipedia. The article claims that it is the largest Shiva Linga in the world ( which is most probably true ) :

Kotilingeshwara - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Edit 2: Finally found one decent pic on my phone :

[ampere]

Place looks very nice. Thanks for sharing. Will try some time.

As to the route:

You should have taken the following:

Marathahalli-Varthur-Domadandra-Sarjapur-Bagalur-Malur-Bangarpet.


Notes:

- Getting around Sarjapur town. Pathetic, as there is no road and its 4x4 territory. But this is for only about 100m max.
- NH207 from Sarjapur-Bagalur is under very good condition and no speed breaker.
- Bagalur-Malur (SH) is decent road with 1-2Km of very bad broken roads.
- But all these roads have hardly any traffic.
- Not sure of the Malur-Bangarpet section, as I have never done that.
- Malur-Kolar is a beautiful SH.
- SH35 is always better than NH207 on the Hoskote section.

[Newpunter]

For people who have asked, The coordinated for these temples are as follows :

1. Bangaru Tirupathi : 13.033994,78.355179
2. Kotilingeshwara : 12.996278,78.296385
3. Kolaramma Temple : 13.139415,78.138714
4. Anthara Gange : 13.142549,78.100455

[chikkars]

Originally Posted by Newpunter

We had originally planned to take the following route. My plan was to explore some new routes. In the end, i got more than i bargained for .
Marathahalli -> Whitefield Road -> NH207 -> Hoskote -> Malur -> Bangarpet -> Kotilingeshwara Temple -> Bethamangala -> Guttahalli.

The best and and most straightforward route is -

M'halli - Kadugodi - NH4 - Hoskote - Kolar - Bangarpet - Kotilingeshwara

if you'd taken this route, it would have taken you max 1.5 hrs to reach the destination.

[slakhs]

^^I took the above route some 6 months back and it is the best / easiest route. Just for a change I took a very long route via VenkataGiri Kota - Kuppam - Krishnagiri on the return almost doubling the distance.

I do have some pictures of KotiL' temple, will try to post some from home later. A mentioned by Newpunter, it is a very commercialised temple, sort of like a South Indian version of Kempfort Shiva temple, so it is more of a picnic / sightseeing than going to a real temple.

Bangaru Tirupathi was of course the traditional one but even it is only of 1950s or 60s vintage. There was a lot of hassle by beggars in Bangaru Tirupathi, for someone usually very sympathetic to them even before watching Tami Movie Naan Kadavul, it was very annoying.

Slakhs

[Newpunter]

Originally Posted by slakhs

Bangaru Tirupathi was of course the traditional one but even it is only of 1950s or 60s vintage. There was a lot of hassle by beggars in Bangaru Tirupathi, for someone usually very sympathetic to them even before watching Tami Movie Naan Kadavul, it was very annoying.
Slakhs

Oooh, I forgot to mention about this . There were a lot of beggars sitting on the steps while returning from the temple. They were all asking for some money and said they would distribute it among themselves. But there was this guy who was sitting separately from everyone and he was almost scolding us to give him some money. We just ignored everyone and returned to our car.

Regarding the best route, like everyone has said Hoskote-Kolar-Bangarpet-Bethamangala is the best route. Hoskote-Malur-Bangarpet-Bethamangala is also a decent route ( if one could find the correct route from Hoskote-Malur) .But my aim with this trip was to explore some new routes which i did more than what i expected .

[ampere]

Originally Posted by slakhs

^^I took the above route some 6 months back and it is the best / easiest route. Just for a change I took a very long route via VenkataGiri Kota - Kuppam - Krishnagiri on the return almost doubling the distance.

That is quite a roundabout. As per what I know, NH219 is in a good shape and should have been fun to drive from VGKota to Krishnagiri. Can you update on that route condition? I aso remember some one posting a nice looking eating joint on that stretch.

@Chikkars, Is the route to Malur good via Hoskote? NH207 is pretty bad. I still think the route via Sarjapur/Bagalur should be easier with hardly any traffic on this stretch.

[slakhs]

^^This trip was made 6 months back. Since the temple visits were finished sooner than expected, I just wanted to explore a new route (also step into AP / TN to make it a tri-state trip). Bangaru Tirupathi to NH219 was not good. NH 219 was good with some occassional potholes / rough surfaces. Kuppam was bypassed with a flyover.

Some photos of K'Lingeshwara









Slakhs

[chikkars]

Originally Posted by ampere

@Chikkars, Is the route to Malur good via Hoskote? NH207 is pretty bad. I still think the route via Sarjapur/Bagalur should be easier with hardly any traffic on this stretch.

Yes, much better compared to NH207. Last I took NH 207, there were streches where there was no road at all. Further, there is a level crossing which is closed frequently as Blr - Chennai is a busy rail line.

This route is definitely the best:

Marathalli - Whilefield - Hopefarm - Kadugodi (Sai baba ashram) - drive about 10 Kms until you touch NH 4, take right - drive 4 KMs to Hoskote

Road from whitefiled till you touch NH4 @ katamnallur cross is 4 laned and nice.

About 2 KMs after Hoskote circle, there a junction with arch where road splits from NH4 on either side. Right takes you to Malur, left takes you to Chintamani. Straight takes you to Kolar, from where you can take the SH to Bangarpet.

[Newpunter]

Originally Posted by chikkars

About 2 KMs after Hoskote circle, there a junction with arch where road splits from NH4 on either side. Right takes you to Malur, left takes you to Chintamani. Straight takes you to Kolar, from where you can take the SH to Bangarpet.

Seems like we missed this junction ( probably coz we joined NH4 from NH207 ? ). The little I saw of the Hoskote-Malur route ( we joined this road almost near Malur), it was really beautiful. Maybe it looked beautiful coz we were driving on a potholed single road till then , but it did look very good and we would have saved a lot of time if we had taken that route. But we did enjoy getting lost on those small country roads.

[skdking]

Originally Posted by Newpunter

Once, we reached Malur, we again got lost and instead of taking the route to Bangarpet, we took the route to Kolar. My GPS didn't say anything initially, but after around 3-4 Kms, it suddenly told us to take a U-turn. That was the first sign that something was wrong. But we didn't ask anyone till we had covered around another 10 kms ( it didn't help that with my limited knowledge of the Kannada script, I read 'Kolar' as 'Malur' ) . By then, it was too late to turn back and we decided to go to Kolar and then take the Bangarpet route. Ultimately, this is the route that we took ( I think ).




......

Hey There,

I see that you traversed, though only unintentionally, the Malur-Kolar route last year.

I need to take the same route when I travel from Hosur to Kolar via Malur next month. This trip will be in the evening.

Can I request for some feedback regarding road condition, route marking, time taken, safety etc.

Thanks in advance.