“Yes, let’s see the fort.”
There began our second detour of the trip, and this time we decided to visit Banavar/Banavara. It’s a small village in the Hassan district of Karnataka in India, almost equidistant from Arekere and Arasikere. Guided by the signposts, we drove through the village and found our way to the fort (kote, in kannada).
It was quite a busy place, with a school way down the street. We went around and got off near the entrance of the fort. The walls were not in a good condition – the top layer had chipped off exposing the bricks and rocks.
The view was no different inside those four massive walls – almost, the entire area was covered with shrubs and wild plants. It was quite challenging to walk, but we did move around and got some great shots. Unfortunately, it wasn’t possible to determine much about its history (Itihaas, in Hindi), but the imagination does run wild when you are surrounded by it. Questions like ‘How old this structure must be?’, ‘How many battles were fought here?’, or ‘Who built it ?’ and many more – were left unanswered.
We came out and saw a few people walking by – so we jumped to the opportunity of talking to them and finding out more about the area.
One of them told us, “There is one temple at the end of the road and another one in the village, which you could see”. What a good news, it took us just five minutes to reach one of the temples.
The structure of the temple was very simple – the front was lined with pillars and a few steps led to the entrance. It was a picture of tranquility on a hot summer day.
After praying and relaxing for some time there, we left for the second temple. This one was small comparatively and its construction was similar to other Hoysala temples.
We stopped there and when we were just about to climb up the stairs, somebody called us from behind. We turned back and a person surprised us by asking, “Are you Journalists?”.
That was a little unexpected. And our obvious reply was, “No, we are not Journalists.”
We are just curious tourists.
Copyright © Vasudha Aggarwal & travel-defined.com, 2014 -15. All rights reserved.
Links – For more information about the place & how to get there, see – OneFiveNine Explore India.
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