UKSL Trekking cum Spiritual Tour to Antaragange and Kotilingeshwar Temple
Event Date – 21st April 2018, SUNDAY
Exploring different facets of life
Antaragange is a mountain situated in the Shathashrunga mountain range in Kolar district. It is about two miles from the town of Kolar and 70+ kilometers from Bangalore.
Antaragange is well known for Sri Kashi Vishweshwanatha temple, it is also known as Kashi of South. The temple is dedicated to Lord Shiva. In the temple is a pond which gets a continuous flow of underground water from the mouth of a Basava or Nandi statue. It is believed that drinking water from this pond cleanse one from many diseases.
There are seven villages on this mountain, including Therhalli. The mountain consists of granite rocks and lot of caves around. Trekking in and around caves is popular here.
Way to Antargange caves is a steep and narrow path behind the temple to top of the mountain. You need to trek about 3-4 km from the temple to reach the top of mountain and caves. It is a wonderful spot for families, groups to go for trekking and enjoy the cool interiors of cave structure.
At UKSL Trust, we selected this spot as one of the trekking spots and planned for trekking tour on 21st April 2018, SUNDAY.
We had great participation from everyone including, gents, ladies and so many kids in the group. Many of the families participated in full capacity.
As the day of trekking approached, we had made complete arrangements for the tour. But few days before one incident happened in the forest where in some miscreants conducted a night trekking which was actually prohibited. Because of this, there was increased vigilance by the police in the area. We were not even sure whether we will get permission and our tour will be allowed.
But as usual one of our most active organizing committee members, Mr. Lingaraj Managuli , took complete ownership of this problem , contacted all the required police stations, officers, forest Dept. and requested the Forest Officers for due permission. He spent significant effort in reaching out to the right officers, get their phone number, establish contacts, complete the paper work as guided by officers and ensured that we got the permission to go for Antargange Trek and enter Caves.
Lingaraj’s efforts did not go waste! On the day of Trekking, when we reached the temple at the foot of the hill, we were actually received by a Forest guard to help us with the tour. He was actually sent by the Forest Officers team. Very well done Lingaraj!
Now I should tell you, there was one more major issue that we faced apart from permission. Actually we were looking for brief accommodation for all the tour participants for about 1-2 hours after completing the trekking, so that we can all get freshen up, have lunch and proceed.
But thanks to Karnataka State Assembly Elections happening in this month, not a single Lodge was available in Kolar..! No question of getting any accommodation at all!
Then comes help from another Org Team Member Mr. Mahesh Goudar a veteran trekker..! He used all his contacts and checked for short accommodation at Kolar. Mahesh was able to speak to one of his close friends, Mr. Shashi a factory owner at Kolar. Thanks a lot to Mahesh and Shashi for their kind help..! Mr. Shashi immediately arranged for quick accommodation at his farm House along with one tractor full of water for taking bath!! What else do you need? No one can deny the happiness bathing in cold water at 1 PM in the afternoon!
All the members, families and children screamed in joy and relished every moment spent in the farm house! Trust me, Shashi did not charge a single penny for all the arrangement he made. In fact he had sent 2-3 people from his team to help all of us. Very Selfless efforts!
Our sincere thanks go to Lingaraj, Mahesh and Shashi sir for their all-out efforts and support and for censuring that the tour not get cancelled.
The top of hills, in the caves, it was a great team work by all UKSL Members! The path way to caves is not just enough for even one person to pass through. And we successfully pushed close 45 people!
But one we were inside, it was sheer bliss…! Helping yourself push through narrow pathway, using mobile flash for traversing through dark spaces, holding each other and then reaching the center of the caves was great experience.
We all sat there for good time, sang songs, had some snacks, took lot of ‘adventurous selfie’ pictures and then started descending towards the foot of the hill.
For many of the members, it was first ever kind of trekking experience and they just loved it!
After completing our first ever family trek, freshening up, we had a very delicious lunch at Kolar town in one of the good restaurants. People were feeling sleepy, but we never allow UKSL spirit to go down. We asked them to take some brief rest in the bus and straight away headed to our next destination Kotilingeshwara.
Kotilingeshwara Temple is a temple in the village of Kammasandra in Kolar district, Karnataka, India. The presiding deity of the temple is Lord Shiva. The temple has one of the largest Shivalingams in the world. Earlier to this, Kammasandra village was known as “Dharmasthali” and this is where Manjunathasharma (CE 788-827) or Bhakta Manjunatha lived. Bhakta Manjunatha was born in Dharmasthali to a family of Shaiva Hindu Brahmins and was always a man of good character, but was an atheist who insulted Sri Manjunatha ever since he was little. He ran a local wrestling school and participated in vigilantism instead of working in his family’s catering business and participating in religious traditions. Later in his life, he realized the divinity of Sri Manjunatha and became an ardent devotee of Sri Rudradeva. Then, one day when Bhakta Manjunatha and his family visited the local Sri Manjunatha temple, a few incidents occurred which were interpreted as bad omens and every single holy deepa (incensed lamp) on the temple premises became unlit. The other temple visitors then accused Bhakta Manjunatha as the cause. Nevertheless, Maharaja Ambikeshwaravarma, a local viceroy for the ruling Rastrakuta Dynasty and another Shaiva devotee, happened to be in attendance when that happened and quickly quelled the mob. He then approached Manjunatha to prove his innocence by making every deepa glow
again. Bhakta Manjunatha sang the devotional song Mayakaya Deepam by Maharshi Veda Vyasa and made them glow brighter than ever before. Everyone realized that Manjunatha was a changed man and was the greatest devotee of Sri Maheshwara. He is believed to have insulted Sri Manjunatha ten million times in his lifetime. Therefore, to acquit himself of his past sins, Bhakta Manjunatha, under the patronage of Maharaja Ambikeshwaravarma and the help of his family, created ten million lingas. Hence the name Kotilingeshwara, where Koti means crore and installed them in the area now known as Kotilingeshwara Temple. The temple structures themselves were built by Swamy Sambhashiva Murthy in 1980. The entire story of Bhakta Manjunatha was captured into a critically acclaimed bilingual feature film titled Sri Manjunatha by producer Nara Jayasridevi and director K. Raghavendra Rao. The main attraction of the temple is a huge linga measuring 108 ft (33 m) tall and 35 ft (11 m) tall Lord Nandi idol, surrounded by lakhs of small lingas spread over an area of 15 acres (61,000 m2). The Lord Nandi idol is installed over a platform which is 60 feet (18 m) in length, 40 feet (12 m) in width and 4 feet (1.2 m) in height. There are eleven small temples constructed within the premises for various deities.
A water tank is set up close to the Linga, used by the devotees to perform Abhisheka. The idols vary between 1 foot (0.30 m) and 3 feet (0.91 m) in height. There is a rest house, marriage hall, meditation hall and an exhibition center attached to the temple.
We all visited this wonderful place and spent some good time watching each of the idols and statues in greater details, taking pictures, selfies and enjoying the spiritual ambience of the place.
We then headed back to Bangalore after successfully completing a great trekking cum spiritual tour and reached home safely.
Photos – https://drive.google.com/drive/u/8/folders/1WfS8sWTtIJKQf0jlj1c7tQL7ClmLXjFQ
Life is an experiment in which you may fail or succeed. Explore more and expect less. – Unknown
Content Created by: Mr.Arun Yadwad
