A trip to Sholay's Ramgad

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Ramdevar beta is popularly known as Ramgad as pictorised in the famous Bollywood film Sholay. The place is a paradise for trekking, rock climbing and photo shooting. There are two temples on the top of the hill, viz, Rama temple and Rameshwar temple.

How to reach

Ramanagara, is about 50 kms from Bangalore, on Bangalore-Mysore highway. While coming from Mysore, it is about 90 kms from Mysore. While coming from Mysore, you have to cross Srirangapatna, Mandya and Channapatna to reach Ramanagara. Ramangara is famous for silk market and is know as the silk town.

One may go upto Ramanagar town by bus and then take an auto to Ramadevar beta. There is no facility to stay there overnight. So one has to plan the return trip on the same day.

Other places nearby

Sri Revana Siddeshwara Betta is also located in Ramanagara District about 70 Kms Away From Bangalore City. While visiting Ramadevar beta, one may plan to visit Revena Siddeshwar beta on the same day.

There is another place called Kengal hanumantharaaya temple which is also near to ramanagara City. Besides Janapadaloka and Kanwa resorvoir are nearby places which may be combined on a single trip.

There are about seven hills in 10Km radius of Ramanagara, viz, Yatirajagiri, Sidilakallu Betta Shivaramagiri, Krishnagiri, Somagiri, Revanna Siddeshwara Betta and Jala Siddeshwara Betta, Randevara Betta. All these sites offer abundant opportunities for trekking, camping and exploring the wilderness of nature.

What is there on Ramadevar Beta

There are quite a few granite hills around Ramanagaram, which are great attractions for adventure enthusiasts. Ramadevar beta is the same place known as Ramagad in the famous Bollywood film Sholay. The famous Gabbar Sing was sitting on this hill with Samba and Kaalia.



While entering in to the area, you will find a nice Arch welcoming you to the hills. There are plenty of places to climb and explore on both the sides of the road. Before reaching Ramadevar beta, you will see a Lotus Pond on the left. The pond is full of beautiful lotus. You may find children selling lotus there.



After seeing lotus pond and trekking nearby hill you may like to proceed further towards Ramadevar hill. The vehicle can go up to this place, the foot of ramadevar hill. You have to park your vehicle here and take the stairs to climb to the top of the hill.



From this entrance to the hill, you have to start climbing. You have to climb a total of around 300 steps. The route is in the middle of the forest and is quite exciting. While climbing the hill after 250 steps you will come across a Hanuman temple on the way.



Climbing is very exciting as because the stairs are very neat and clean amongst the dense forests and hills all around. This trekking is less risky and can be taken up by women, children provided you have enough strength to go up.



After climbing for about half an hour to one hour you will find Ramadevara temple on the top of the hill. The hill is famous because of this temple. The temple is more than 1000 years old as people say. Some people believe that Lord Rama had visited this place. From near the temple you can have a good view of the hills and places around.



Near Ramadevara beta, there is a natural pond on the hilltop, called Rama Tirtha. It is interesting to see water at such a height. However, the place is fenced and people are not allowed to go down to water for safety.

There is another temple called Rameshwar Temple about 30 meters away from Ramadevar Temple. You have to climb up a little to reach that temple. The pond Rama Tirtha is in between these two temples.



Near the temples on the top, there is a small tower. You can have a nice view of the hills from this place. The hills are 60 to 100 feet in height and very steep. Many professional rock climbers climb on these cliffs with equipments and proper safety measures. Many adventure groups come here for face climbing, boulder climbing, chimney climbing, hill climbing, rock climbing etc.



Ramadevara beta has something for everyone of every age group. All the shooting points of Sholay are still there. You can see beautiful rocks and nature around. The religious people can visit the temples. Besides this is an awesome place for shooting pictures.

Some more information

You should have sufficient time to move around the hills. The real pleasure is to climb and see. If you are lack of time, you cannot enjoy much.

Ramadevar beta and Siddheswhar beta are different, about 20 kms apart from each other. Some bloggers confuse between them and mix up the photos of Ramadevar beta with Siddheshwar beta.

Some bloggers mention Ramadevar beta as Randevar beta, both are same.

There are two temples on Ramadevar beta, one Rama temple and other Rameshwar temple. Besides there is a hanuman temple on the way while climbing.

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Comments

[Tarak]

Thanks for the detailed description and marked wikimapia map
Thinking of making an unplanned trip to Ramdevar Betta and found this post very helpful.

[umakantm]

Ramgad trip
Dear Tarak, Thanks for your complements, All the best for your trip.

[shailesh]

gabbars rock.
plz show/tikmark gabbars rock/den.thakurs house..at yr sholay spot area image.i m waitting

[umakantm]

gabbars rock
ha ha... I was trying to figure out each of those points. But very difficult to define exact points as the movie was shot from different angles.

[Satyam Roy]

A guide's contact Number
Nice blog !! Hey as you visited this place, I hope you must have taken help of a guide. I need a guide who can guide us in our visit. Can you please provide a contact number if you have one.

[umakantm]

Guide to sholay point
Dear satyam, thanks for your comments. No I did not take any help from any guide. I took the help of maps and blogs on internet. I suggest you to have more time to visit the place. If it is a holiday you will see more people moving around and you can explore the points yourself and by asking the people there.

[jagtar singh]

about sholay movie site
if i visit this place i want to know about sholay shooting everything by any witness

[jennywatson]

ramnagaram
Nice blog.. nice pictures.. you can also visit- Ramnagaram Trek

[Lavanya]

Save the Environment
Its beautiful and worth the climb of 400 steps. We couldn't climb the rest of the 50 steps as we had kids and elderly people in the crowd. I also suggest walk barefoot - it would be therapeutic for your feet as these steps are made of proper stones and not concrete; also, the steps are neat and clean. However, loud music from the temple can be avoided in the interest of the nature - the birds specially. Music if must be played, should be played just to be heard within the temple area and not disturbing to the nature. The loud music would shoo away any wildlife.