Durga Betta and Vali Gufa!

The steps up to the Durga Temple start here

Anegundi - The Land of the Vijayanagara Kings, the Kishkinda of yore, the land that becons me again and again to it. Navabrindavanam, Chintamani and Pampa Sarovar are places that I visit every time I get an opportunity to do so. Another noteworthy temple that one must visit while touring Anegundi is the famous Durga Temple up a small hillock, popularly known as Durga Betta. There is another Durga Betta near Udupi.

The Goddess Durga here has been the favourite deity of the Vijayanagara Kings, who did not fail to worship her before proceeding on an important activity or war. The festival of Dussehra was celebrated with great pomp and show, with an elephant coming up the hill to carry the Goddess, down to the town of Anegondi, where the Dussehra procession to celebrate the victory of the Goddess over the Asura was carried out through the city. Even today, this ritual continues.

Panting up to the entrance under the midday sun

Shallow steps lead up to the temple. From the picture, you can see that the temple is within a fortress, the remains of which can still be seen.

On entering the temple, there is a small shrine for Hanuman. The priest here, performs elaborate harathi and offers tender coconut water as prasad. The Hanuman is beautifully decorated and it is indeed unique to see a Hanuman shrine inside a Devi temple.

Dwara Hanuman

We then walk into the main temple complex. The ancient Durga shrine stands right in the middle as a single small structure. Extensions have been built on either side in modern times, to create an Artha Mandapa, Dining Hall and other living quarters for the Sadhus who stay and perform poojas to the Goddess.

One noteworthy feature at this temple, is the sincerity and devotion with which the Swamis perform Pujas. There are at any  point of time, a number of tourists who wait outside to get darshan of the Goddess, some of them noisy too. But, the priests are just not distracted. They continue to perform the Kumkumarchana or poojas with complete concentration, not even turning once to look at the crowd outside. Once the Pooja is complete, the people are allowed to go in one by one to collect the Kumkuma Prasad and flowers.

There is a huge tree in front of the Durga shrine which has a number of coconuts tied up in colourful clothes to it. These coconuts have been tied by devotees wanting to have their wishes granted by the Mother. 

Coconuts tied to a tree in front of the Sanctum Sanctorum

The vibration in this temple is simply awesome. When you stand in front of Her, you feel goosebumps rising. The idol is about four feet high, and one has to stoop to have a close and complete look of the Goddess. But the energy emanating from her, has to be experienced to be believed.

Goddess Durga in her regal splendor - Watch the Asura at her foot

Just look at her - as she sits so majestically, holding Chakra (Discus) and Sanku (Conch) in her upper arms, and Trishula in her lower right hand. In her lower left hand, she hots the arm of the Asura, held in a convenient posture for Samhara. Look at him, twisted in a failing attempt to escape. Her eyes seem to look upwards towards the sky, but when you stand before her, you have a feeling she is looking directly at you! 

I cannot describe the emotions that went through me when I stood before her. It was as if she knew how I instantly fell in love with her, that the Swami turned and beckoned me to crouch down and receive the coconut, flowers and Kumkum as he tied a string (Raksha) around my right wrist. I was overwhelmed, and had tears in my eyes as I stepped out making way for those behind me to have darshan and prashad.

Murali, the young man at the shop who sells pooja items, books and CDs at the temple, is always smiling and willing to help. He speaks Hindi, Kannada and surprisingly, Tamil as well. He mentioned that the temple opened at 4.00 am in the morning and closed at 10.00 pm at night with no break in between. So one can have darshan of the Goddess at any time of the day. Abhishekam is performed every day at 4.00 am and Pujas at 7 am, 12 pm and 7 pm. Every day, Kumkumarchana is performed thrice and Lalitha Parayana thrice.

Murali also told us that this temple was built around 1336 AD by Harihara Raya I under the guidance of their  Guru Saint Vidyaranya. During the time of Harihara, the Vijayanagara capital was Anegondi and it was only during his brother and successor Bukkaraya's regime, that the capital was moved to the other side of the river to Vijayanagara.

A decorated trolley at the temple

Our previous visits to the Durga Temple have been restricted only to the temple, but this time we decided to go up the fort. We asked Murali about the Krishnadevaraya Samadhi. Murali told us that there were a couple of Samadhis on the way to Vali Gufa (Vali Cave) but he did not know if any of them belonged to Krishnadevaraya.

Vali Gufa? I needed to know more.

One of the Sanyasis at the temple knew Tamil. (Phew!) He explained that Vali had ruled over Kishkinda with Pampa as his capital city. At that time, he and his brother Sugreeva were united. One day, an Asura named Mayavi, challenged Vali to a fight. Vali accepted the challenge and they started attacking each other with maces.

At one point, Mayavi lost his mace and unable to bear the blows of Vali, started running away. Vali followed him and they both landed up in a cave. They wrestled for several days, as an anxious Sugreeva kept watch outside. One day, blood started flowing out of the cave. Fearing that Mayavi had killed Vali, Sugreeva blocked the entrance of the cave with a huge stone and ran away. The truth was that Vali had killed Mayavi. When he tried to get out of the cave, he found that the entrance had been sealed by Sugreeva. Vali thought that Sugreeva had deliberately done so in order to usurp his kingdom from him and to leave him to die inside the cave. This misunderstanding created enmity in the mind of Vali, and Sugreeva had to run to Rishyamukha Parvatha to save himself from Vali losing his wife and kingdom in the process.

It was this cave that the Sanyasi was speaking about. He also told us that there were a couple of samadhis of the Vijayanagara empire - he did not think any of those were Krishnadevaraya's and a well dug during Vali's time which had been reconstructed by the Vijayanagara kings.

We were really excited. Although there were a few people in the group, who had difficulty in climbing, they too decided to climb up slowly, not wanting to miss visiting these places.

Entrance of the Fort

When we reached the fort, there was another Sadhu (this one mercifully spoke Hindi) who took us inside and showed us the various places. In the picture, to the left lies a piece of musical stone, damaged recently by some miscreants.

The two samadhis belonging to the times of Krishnadevaraya stand in solitude. The Sadhu said that one of them was that of Ramaraya, son-in-law of Krishnadevaraya and the other he was not sure. People had piled stones all around the Samadhi. The Sadhu said that they prayed to their rulers and did this. When they came back the next time, if they found the stones had fallen or changed pattern, they believed their wishes would be granted! 

Samadhi of Ramaraya?

The Sadhu then pointed out the well which is supposed to have been constructed during Vali's times. He pointed out that it is not common to find wells on hills and Vali had dug the well to ensure there was adequate water inside the fort even if someone laid siege for several months. This well is said to have been improved and reconstructed by the Vijayanagara rulers.

The well on the way to Vali Gufa

By now, we were close to the huge boulder and the cave beneath it and a small board read "Vali Gufa" in Kannada and Hindi. There was already a group of tourists at the entrance of the cave. We waited for them to pass on, before approaching the cave. The Sadhu explained that what had once been a cave where a gory battle had taken place, was the abode to some Sadhus today.They spend several hours meditating inside this cave.

The Blue door signifies the entrance to the Vali Cave

The cave as you can see is below the huge rock boulder and there is a small blue gate that allows one to enter and peep in.

A peep into the cave

The cave is in such a manner that one has to literally crouch to enter the cave but after entering there is adequate space to stand and move about. The other end of the cave, tapers down again. It is amazing how Vali and Mayavi would have entered this cave and then engaged in a gory duel.

A protective steel mesh has been installed to prevent unauthorised entry or misuse of the cave. As you can see from the picture, there is an idol of Vali inside the shrine and a couple of mats which show that the Sadhus have been staying inside and meditating.

The Sadhu from Assam who showed us around

The Sadhu who stays here took us around and explained everything. He refused to accept money offered by some members of the group, saying he did not need it. We gave him some fruits which he took, after some persuasion. We are indeed grateful to him for having explained all the details expecting nothing in return.

It was noon when we returned to the Durga temple. The Sanyasis there asked us to have our lunch, as the temple provides free meals daily to all those who visit. As we had made alternate arrangements at Anegundi, we had to refuse. Had we known about the arrangements, we would have planned to take prasad at the temple.

We thanked Murali, who had motivated us to go up the fort to see these exciting places. 

Anegundi is across is the river and just 5 kms away from Hampi. One could also travel by road from Mantralayam, which is what we did. Anegundi is located at the Gangavathi Taluk in Koppal District of Karnataka and it takes three hours to drive down from Mantralayam.

If you happen to be in this part of town, especially during Navaratri, do not miss visiting Durga Betta (not to be confused with the one near Udupi) and Vali Gufa.

Contact Details:

For accomodation and food at Anegundi : Shri B Mallappa, Vaibhav Guest House - 09449432520/ 09480794104

For tourist guide assistance at Anegundi and Hampi - Shri H Manjunath - 09449284490/ 09449653598

Pampa Sarovar, Anegundi

Beautiful View of Pampa Sarovar covered with lotus 

With every trip to Anegundi, comes the desire to visit Anjanadri Hill, the birthplace of Sri Anjaneya Swamy. This time, when we decided to go to Manthralayam from the 15th to 17th of March 2011, we had made a firm commitment that we were going to climb Anjanadri come what may, little realising that nothing happens till the divine will destines so. The first day was spent in Mantralayam, enjoying our time with in the divine company of Sri Raghavendra Swamy, witnessing the Rathotsavas and the Mahamangalaharathi. On day 2, we had decided to visit Navabrindavan and other places around Anegundi, particularly Anjanadri. We instructed our driver to reach the room by 3.45 am so that we could leave by 4. Those of us, who are regular visitors, were really excited that we were going to visit Anjanadri finally, and our excitement was rubbing off the first time visitors in the group as well.

It was 3.45 and there was no sight of our car. Several phone calls later, we found that the driver had overslept and would be able to reach only by 4.30. By the time, he actually reached it was well past 5 a.m, and we knew that Anjanadri did not seem a certainty as it did before. We reached Anegundi by about 9 am and had breakfast at the Vaibava Guest House, our regular destination. Mrs and Mr. Mallappa take pleasure in serving delicious home made food personally to the visitors and we did enjoy a sumptuous meal. After breakfast I gingerly brought up the topic of Anjanadri with Mrs. Malappa. She just echoed my thoughts - it would be extremely difficult for the senior members of the group to climb the 700 odd steep steps, as it was geting really hot. She immediately said - Next time, you come and stay overnight, so that you are able to climb up at the crack of dawn.

Well, we were definitely disappointed. For several years now, Anjanadri has been an elusive dream. But then,Key Sara Sara....whatever will be, will be. So we set off to Navabrindavan. After a delightful swim in the Tungabadra, we went to the shrines and prayed peacefully. The temple was gearing up for the Sudeendra Theertha and Vyasaraja Aradhane, and had put up makeshift pandals to help devotees circumambulate in the hot sun. We took the boat back to Anegundi. Where to next? Since there were first time visitors with us, we thought we could go to Chintamani nearby. I became the unofficial guide as I had visited Chintamani several times before. It was delight to go back to the cave where Rama met Sugreeva and Hanuman for the first time ,and to see the place from where he shot and killed Vali.
 How did Rama go and meet Sugreeva and ask for help?The question prompted us to go to Pampa Sarovar.

Pampa Sarovar is one among the five holy Sarovars installed by Brahma where Shiva and Parvati are worshipped. The others being Manasarovar ( In Tibet), Bindu Sarovar and Narayan Sarovar in Gujarat and Pushkar Sarovar in Rajasthan. The Pond is surrounded by rocky mountains and completed covered with lotus bloom. The picture you see at the top the page was taken in early 2010. This time, I was disappointed to find the pond devoid of the lotus blooms. It seemed dirty and a little uncared for which was very sad to find. In fact, several monuments in Anegundi are protected by the ASI, but Pampa Sarovar despite its spiritual and historic importance does not seem to be part of it.

A view of the Pampa Sarovar as it is now

That was just the beginning of my disappointments. The entire complex, which houses the holy Sarovar, the cave where Sabari, the old woman who was an ardent devotee of Rama, waited and prayed for several years to meet her Lord, the temple of Lord Shiva and Goddess Vijayalakshmi are all managed by individuals. A Baba is said to have stayed and prayed at the Shiva temple and his disciples are now maintaining the temple. The Sabari cave is being cleaned and maintained by tribal families staying outside the cave.

The Tribal women wearing beautiful costumes
 and jewellery take care of Sabari's Cave

The cave is small, clean and extremely serene. One can immediately visualise the old lady, staying there for several years, waiting for her Lord, believing her Guru Matunga Maharishi's words, that definitely one day Lord Rama would come there and she would be blessed enough to meet him. Finally, Rama comes there, in search of Sita who had been abducted by Ravana. He is tired and hungry and decides to stop by the Holy Pampa Sarovar. Sabari, has been waiting for very many years, for this exact moment. She is so delighted that her Lord is finally there. She plucks the best fruits from the nearby trees and offers them to the brothers, but not before tasting them herself, to be sure that they taste as sweet and as delicious as she would prefer, for her Lord. Rama accepts the bitten fruits, understanding the devotion and true love of his devotee. Sabari hears about Sita and advices Rama to take help from Sugreeva, the brother of Vali, King of Kishkinda. Rama takes her good advice and goes to Chintamani to meet Sugreeva.

Footsteps of Lord Rama can be seen at the place where Sabari seated him and washed his tired legs with water from the Sarovar and decorated them with flowers. There is also a Homa Kund inside the cave where Sabari had peformed puja for several years.

The cave is cool despite the scorching heat outside. There is a tunnel on one side of the cave. The young boys who were following us, giving us titbits of information, told us that the tunnel led to Hampi. One of them jumped in and prompted me to follow.

The tunnel inside the cave

Much that I would have loved to follow the trail, my size and my friends waiting for me made me decide against it. The boys mentioned that Sabari used to bathe in the Pampa Sarovar every day and gather choice flowers to worship Lord Rama. Once the Rishis saw her doing so and drove her away saying that she had no right to bathe in such a holy Pond. The next morning, the Rishis came down to have their bath, and found that the Sarovar was extremely dirty and unfit for bathing. Perplexed, they did not know what to do. At that time,they heard a voice from the sky, tell them that the Sarovar was only as pure as the people who bathed in it. The sages  realised their mistake, and sought forgiveness from Sabari. They requested her to bathe in the pond and continue her holy rituals.Once Sabari stepped into the water, the Sarovar turned clean and pure again. I wished she could just step back again into the water which definitely needed some cleaning and purification!

Right next to the Sabari cave, is the temple of Vijayalakshmi as well as the Shiva and Pampa Devi (Parvati) temple. The Vijayalakshmi has been installed by a Baba (sorry could not get the name due to language problem) who had stayed there for a long while. The things that were used by him are still maintained well.

Things used by Babaji

The temple has a goddess (Vijayalakshmi) with several Salagramas placed before her. The sanctum Sanctorum is flanked by statues of Ganesha and Hanuman respectively.

Idol of Ganesha to the left of the Goddess

Idol of Hanuman to the right

Goddess Vijayalakshmi

Right next door to the Vijayalakshmi temple is the Shiva temple. There is a small passage linking both the temples. The Shiva temple is really ancient and I would need help from the experts who visit the blog in identifying the time period to which the temple belongs. The most horrifying factor here is that in the name of renovation the whole temple has been turned into a modern bathroom - as Mr.Chandra, of REACH foundation likes to put it. Marble tiles have hidden valuable inscriptions, and whitewashed pillars have disfigured icons. 

I almost had tears in my eyes looking at the magnificient Shiva in the temple, who has been a silent spectator to this thoughtless deed.

Dwarapalakis amidst the marble tiles

Goddess Pampa Devi...not to miss the marble around!

One of the Dwarapalakas - Can you see the tiles plastered
around him?

Look at this!

Whitewashed Pillars hiding a lot of detail

I felt angered and helpless looking at all this.....that too at a place which is well known for its history and mythology. What does one do as we watch such ageless, timeless beauties being eroded under the name of modernization?
The others had already gone out, ready to board the vehicle. I slowly walked out of the doorway and looked out into the open....the beautiful pond, with the rocky terrain behind it, the trees that swayed in the wind, the noise of the children playing below and the serenity of the temple....was a divine concoction in itself. Wish someone would do something....I thought like every other commoner and joined my friends who were waiting below. I remembered reading some time ago that the Royal descendants of Krishnadevaraya still resided at Anegundi, and the temples there were still under their maintenance and control. I hope the current Krishnadevaraya is not happy with this so-called modernization!

Nandi locked in marble

As we drove away from the temple, I looked up at Anjanadri. It seemed Anjaneyaswamy was telling me that I had to wait for my time. I asked Sambasiva,our driver if we were going back to the guest house for lunch. The time was close to 1 pm and it was really hot. Sambasiva told us we could visit Durga Betta, a temple nearby, if we were interested. Now that was a temple I had not seen during any of my previous visits.
Well....all about that in another post :)

Updated on 5.4.11


When I shared information about this post on a Yahoo group I belong to , there was some interesting feedback and ensuing conversation which I am happy to share with the readers of this blog for their  reference and understanding.
SS
"Hi Priya,
Nice post, would like to bring a local tradition to your notice, might be helpful in your study. Many places in India are associated to Ramayana or Mahabharata by local people. As you wrote in your article that Rama met Shabari here, there is a local story in Chattisgarh state where a place with name Shabarinarayan is associated to Rama and Shabari. It is believed that Shabari was the daughter if King Shabar who was the king of that place.
It would be a good study to understand the geography of the place as described in Ramayana and try to see which of these two places resemble more closely to that geography. Just a suggestion from my side."

My reply:

At the outset, I want to thank you for raising an interesting point. I am with you on the fact that regarding several locations in India there are local beliefs about certain incidents having happened there, and there could be multiple locations for the same event.

But as far as the incident of Rama meeting Shabari is concerned, there seems to be pretty strong literary and historic evidence that the location was Pampa Sarovar, where Shabari waited for several years as per guidance from her Guru Matanga Muni.

Shabari was born in the Bhil Tribal community of Chattisgarh, which is probably why there is a place there that should ideally be her Janmsthaan there.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shabari

You will see clearly in that article that Shabari met Rama and Lakshmana at the ashram at Rishyamukha which is the current Anegundi region and the ancient Kishkinda. Remember, Vali could not set foot on Rishyamukha due to a curse!

This is not all. I have drawn reference from "Chakravarthy Thirumagan" written by Chakravarthy Rajagopalachari, popularly known as Rajaji. Rajaji has written Ramayana in simple prose form, referring to both Valmiki and Kamba Ramayana and drawing their essence and also making comparisons. This was written in Kalki in the earlier 1950s and later on published as a book in 1956. It is a well accepted widely reviewed book which finds its place in many a household. 

In Chakravarthy Tirumagan, Page 359, Rajaji narrates the abduction of Sita by Ravana as follows: 

பல மலைகளையும் ஆறுகளையும் தாண்டி செல்லும் போது வழியில் ஒரு மலை மீது யாரோ நிற்பதை கண்டாள் சீதை. அப்போது மேலுதிரியத்தை எடுத்து தன ஆபரணங்களை அதில் முடித்து கீழே போட்டாள்.......அழுது கொண்டிருந்த அவளை கீழே மலை மேல் இருந்த வானரங்களும் பார்த்தன.பம்பையை தாண்டி பிறகு கடலையும் ராவணன் கடந்து லங்காபுரி பிரவேசித்தான். 

This roughly translates into - after crossing several hills and rivers, on the way Sita saw someone standing on a hill. She took her upper garment, tied her ornaments into a bunch and dropped them. The monkeys on top of the hill saw her crying. Ravana crossed Pampa and then the sea and went into Lanka. This gives clear evidence that the jewels were dropped here and there is a place called Chintamani here where Rama met Sugreeva for the first time and handed over Sita's ornaments to him. I have written about it in an earlier post (http://aalayamkanden.blogspot.com/2010/12/chintamani-temple-anegundi.html).(Also refer http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anegundi ) Chintamani is also the place where Rama shot and killed Vali and his bones are still said to be found at a place called Nimmapuram nearby.

There is specific reference to the meeting between Sabari and Rama at Pampa Sarovar in Page 386 of Chakravarthy Tirumagan:

பிறகு ராமனும் லக்ஷ்மணனும் பம்பையை நோக்கி சென்றனர். அந்த அழகிய பிரவேசத்தில் மதங்க ரிஷியின் சிஷ்யையான சபரி என்கிற விருத்த சன்யாசியம்மையை கண்டு அவளுடைய உபசாரத்தை பெற்றனர். .......சபரியை கண்டு பம்பசரஸில் ஸ்நானம் செய்த பிறகு ராமலக்ஷ்மணர்கள் தைரியம்  அடைந்தார்கள். .......Contd on Pg 388.......ராமன் ரிஷ்யமுக வனம் வந்து இங்குமங்கும் வில் பிடித்து திரிவதை பார்த்து சுக்ரீவனுக்கும் அவன் கூடத்துக்கும் பெரும் பயம் பிடித்து கொண்டது. 

This again translates into " Then Rama and Lakshmana went towards Pampa. In this beautiful location, they met an old Sanyasi disciple of Matanga Rishi, named Sabari and accepted her hospitality. ........After the meeting with Sabari, they bathed in Pampa Sarovar and felt reassured. ...............Contd on Pg 388.......Sugreeva and his men were worried that Rama was in Rishyamukha vana and roaming around with  his bow. For further reference, please check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kishkindha as well.

I hope this clarifies. I will be happy to hear if there is any historic or literary evidence about this having happened in Chattisgarh. 

With your permission, I wish to include our corversation in my blog to justify the contents of the same. 

Thanks so much - I thoroughly enjoyed your recommendation,"

Dr.RK

I can say with authority based on Valmiki Ramayana that Priya's story is correct. Ram and Lakshmana were descending from Janasthanam (Deccan plateau) and were advised to meet Sugreeva in Kishkinda . It was also told to them that they should go to Pampa lake and meet Sabari who was doing penance there and was about to leave her mortal coils to go to the Heavens. She was just awaiiting the Darshan of Lord Rama. She was a Bhil woman(hunter type). With all these detail given by Valmiki there is no way to make a mistake. They were clearly very much down south already. Thank you.
Regards

AR

If Im not wrong, kishkinta is present Humpi...........