12) Mysore’s surroundings

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In the City Palace, we had met an Indian lady recently returned from the USA. She was an artist, writer and dancer, and gave us a vivid demonstration of classical Indian dance. The advanced dancers are able to translate any sentence into a dance movement, just what Deeptie did for us. Due to the interesting conversation with her, we were a bit late to catch a bus to our next destination, Somnathpur, a famous temple of the Hoysala style. As we absolutely wanted to see this monument, there was no other way than to become decadent westerners again and to hire an auto-rickshaw. When we had bargained a price that seemed reasonable to us - by the way, bargaining here is a must, from the jewellery shop to the fruit vendor, only then you are accepted by the local people, - we set off eastwards. To us, Karnataka is among other things the state of bad roads, and these we took were really bad! When you sit in a bus on a front row, the potholes may be bearable, but in a rickshaw you can feel every pebble. In spite of the bad road conditions, we enjoyed the ride very much, as we passed through attractive landscape, vegetable fields, rice paddies, stretches of sugar cane, creeks and nice villages.

The Kesava Temple (1268) is the only complete one of around 80 of this period in the Mysala region. It has three sanctuaries and stands in the middle of a rectangular courtyard (70m long, 55m wide) with cloisters containing 64 cells around it. The temple's base is constituted by a 16-pointed star, in some of its corners you can find elephants of about 70 cm high, as a kind of support. On top of the base, six bands with finely carved figures are set, like pancakes piled one on top of the other. The lowest of the six shows a line of elephants, symbolizing strength and stability, then come horsemen for speed, followed by a floral scroll. The next band of beautifully carved figures is the most fascinating and shows scenes of everyday life. Above is a frieze with monsters and foliage, and uppermost is a line of legendary geese. Above the six bands is one level of bigger statues, each of them is covered by a kind of temple roof. Interestingly enough, Kesava Temple is the only Hoysala temple with intact roof structures.

Inside, there are three shrines, one dedicated to Krishna, in a beautiful pillared hall. The pillars are of extreme beauty. The way they are cut reminds you more of turned wood than of stone. The ceiling is another striking feature of the hall, it seems to be made of huge stone tiles, each carved in a different delicate way. And of course we could not leave the site without taking some family pictures of an Indian family we met on the spot. On our way back to Mysore, we experienced a nice kitschy sunset.

Next day, we abandoned our decadent western attitude and took a local bus to Srirangapatnam. The small city 12 km from Mysore has played a crucial role in the region since its origins in the 10th century. The site once boasted a huge fort, built in 1454, with triple fortifications, but most of it is destroyed these days. Srirangapatnam was of big importance to the Vijayanagar kings, in the second half of the 18th century it became the capital of Haidar Ali (does this name not sound like the one of an Austrian politician?) and also his son Tipu Sultan used this town as his headquarters. In 1799, the British attacked the city and in a fierce battle, Tipu Sultan was killed and the British colonel (the future duke of Wellington) was appointed governor. The town is of big strategic importance because it occupies an easily fortified island in the Cauvery river.

After visiting a small temple, a dungeon of the former fort and trying to find some rests of the fortifications, we decided to spend the hottest hours of the day close to the water and managed to find a path. We actually came to a place called Bathing Ghat, a very appropriate name, scrambling over rocks and tried to install ourselves as comfortably as possible. It was a wonderful relaxing spot, in the end we found a place in the roots of a huge tree, and observed what was going on. And how much that was! Men were washing themselves, a ritual we have already seen many times, since they rarely have bathrooms in their houses. Apart form the practical side, washing oneself in the river has a strong religious connotation, everybody has images of the Ganges in mind, we suppose. The women wash themselves fully dressed, and in less public places. What they do in public is washing the laundry, the humble houses not being provided with electricity either. Washing in the cold water is a tough job. As often as possible, the laundry is folded and vehemently battered against a stone just above the water level, in order to get enough push, they swing the clothes behind their head. Then the cloth is rubbed with soap, and the whole procedure begins over again. When they consider the laundry clean, they do not hang it up, but spread it out on any surface they can find, grass, rocks or steps of stone, even a temple roof. The children amuse themselves a lot in the water, jumping, diving splashing with never-ending energy. Stephan was gone for some time chasing after nice pictures, in the meantime Klaudia was reading and chasing birds, such as kingfishers, cormorants and egrets, with the binoculars.

The island being over 3 km long and 1 km wide and the different sights situated on different corners and as we could not find bicycles to rent, we again took an auto-rickshaw. The first sight we were driven to was Tipu's summer palace (Daria Daulat Bagh = Splendour of the Sea). Built in 1784 and set in a beautiful garden, it looks rather dull from the outside due to its green sun screens. Unfortunately, it was again prohibited to take pictures from inside, though that part makes the palace an absolute jewel. The frescoes, ornamental arches and gilded paintings on the teak walls and ceilings are full of interesting details. Furthermore, several of Tipu's belongings, like weapons and clothes, are on display, although some only on picture, the real item to be seen in British museums. The murals covering the west wall show Haidar Ali and Tipu Sultan leading their elephant forces with the help of French soldiers at a battle in 1780, inflicting a massive defeat on the British. One could spend a lot of time there, watching all the elephants, horses and ammunition, seeing the horror-stricken faces of the British soldiers and their horses as well, spotting bodies without heads or limbs or heads without bodies rolling in the sand. The depiction of the British ammunition depot exploding was so natural that we could almost hear the deafening noise and feel the burning heat.

After a short walk in the summer palace's garden, we went to the Gumbaz, the Islamic rulers' mausoleum. Tipu Sultan had it built in remembrance of his father Haidar Ali, Tipu Sultan himself and his mother are also laid to rest in the ornate white-domed Gumbaz. Then we went back to the centre of town and had a quick look at Jama Masjid, a mosque built by Tipu Sultan and still in use. It has beautiful minarets with very small openings, which are a perfect hideaway for a number of birds, including wild pigeons, kites and parrots. After visiting the enchanting place, we hopped into the next bus back to Mysore.

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Photos

Somnathpur temple overview
The triple roof of the Kesava Temple in Somnathpur shows the 3 sanctuaries which can be found inside

Temple on raised platform
The temple stands on a raised platform in the form of a 16-pointed star. It is worth going around to look at the sculptures but you may burn your feet on the hot stone

It's nice to have such a strong pet
The whole star-shaped base of the temple is supported by elephants, but sometimes they need some help

Colourful Indian tourists
Nice Indian ladies going around the temple. In the background one can see six bands of sculptured figures that run around the temple

Six bands of sculptures run around the temple
The six bands are composed of lines of elephants, horsemen, floral scrolls, scenes from everyday life (absolutely detailed), monsters and legendary geese

Elephant and Horsemen bands
The two lower bands show elephants symbolizing strength and stability while the horsemen represent speed. Each of the figures is unique in its details

Scuplture on the outside walls
Above the six bands the temple is completely decorated with fantastic sculptures

Krishna statue within the sanctuary
Inside each of the 3 sanctuaries a large statue of a deity can be found. This one represents Krishna, an incarnation of Vishnu

Ceiling of the temple in Somnathpur
One special feature of the Hoysala temples is the carved ceiling of the entrance hall

Another carved ceiling
The temple in Somnathpur being one of the best preserved Hoysala temples, it has a wide range of beautifully carved ceilings

What a cool place to be
Despite her new headgear, Klaudia still enjoys the cool moments within the temples

Srirangapatnam Bathing Ghat
Srirangapatnam like every place on a river has a bathing ghat. As the name implies people gather there for bathing, but also for washing

Playing kids in the water
The kids love to use the river as a playground, however girls seem to be excluded from this pleasure

Tipu Sultan's summer palace
The summer palace is an absolute jewel with colourfull frescoes of battle scenes between the French, British and Mysore armies. You will only enjoy the outside view as it was strictly forbidden to take photos inside

Entrance to the Gumbaz
The Gumbaz in Srirangapatnam is the family mausoleum for Haider Ali and his wife as well as their son Tipu Sultan

Gumbaz
Inside the Gumbaz, the tombs are found in a classical muslim square shape ornated with a white dome

Jama Masjid
The mosque built by Tipu Sultan in Srirangapatnam has two impressive minarets

Remains from the city walls
Not much remains from the original city wall, but the small rests are still impressive and worth a closer look

Comments

[bathing]

explained
Girls are not excluded. They have a separate place where men dont go, for privacy.

[JAWA MOHAN]

Excelant
If i got any boon, I must be Tipu Sultan.

[mujaffar]

temple location
i have tipu mastan oliya temple location