Gavi Gangadhareshwar Temple

Sunday 25, 2010.
It was Sunday afternoon, and we were all napped and refreshed, ready to check out the latest temple on my to-do list. A peep out of the window ought to have warned us that the weather was really not ideal for a trip half way across the city into totally unknown territory with a one year old possessing an unpredictable appetite. But I didn’t peep, and by the time I did, I had expended serious amounts of energy chasing a little nanga-bunga (not sure what language that is, but it kind of means naked) baby trying to squeeze him into a diaper.

After all that work, I wasn’t just going to give up now, was I?

Besides my husband was actually ready on time! No one wastes that kind of effort on a strong wind threatening to knock us over and a heavy rain that might leave us soaking and stranded in the middle of nowhere (which is where I thought Gavipuram was actually, until we reached the place and thought to ourselves – OH! That wasn’t so bad!).

Although you might be outraged by my utter lack of Bangalore general knowledge, I just want to say – I am learning. I first heard of Gavipuram in the newspaper where an article said there was some discussion on developing Gavi Gangadhareshwar temple as a heritage tourist spot. I then learnt, over the rest of the week, that not so many people had heard of the place either. So I wasn’t the only geographically challenged person around.

Here is what I learnt – Gavipuram is in the same exact vicinity of Basavanagudi. So it really isn’t in some far flung corner of Bangalore. In fact it is just 3 km from City Market. This makes it a rather unlikely place for one to find a cave temple, don’t you think? But there it is nonetheless.

We drove through tempestuous winds, my head constantly twisting unnaturally as I leaned forward to check if large branches were threatening to break and fall on our little Santro, crushing us all. After a while, the winds calmed and I returned to pay more attention to my official role as Navigator – which is when I realized (or rather Google Maps told me) that we were off course. A few friendly auto drivers later we were buzzing along, spinning a couple of times around a round-about opposite the Ramakrishna Math wondering which turn we were supposed to be taking and finally Google Maps told us that we were on the right track.

(On a tangent here: I love Basavanagudi. It is a wonderful, wonderful area. So many trees, but more importantly so many BEAUTIFUL parks.)

We knew we had entered Gavipuram when we came across a beautiful park on a hill. We pulled over and asked directions from two teenagers, who appeared to be struggling very hard to sprout some moustaches as they ambled lazily along chatting away. I got to practice my Kannada (which I learnt that morning from my spoken Kannada class). “Gavi Gangadhareshwar temple eli ide?” which roughly translates to “Where is Gavi Gangadhareshwar temple?” Ok.. so I only got to use two words but that’s better than no words!

They replied politely in excellent English because obviously they realized that I was no native Kannada speaker. How I messed up those two words, I know not. I think it was all the pressure to perform or just the anxiety in my voice.
The park and temple are both on opposite sides of the same hill. The temple is on the rockier side, but you get a clear view of the temple from the park as they both share a boundary wall.

A great thing about the temple was that it has wonderful parking. Outside the gate is a rather large parking area. We were one of four cars there.
At the entrance there is a large green board greeting the temple goers with a short history of the temple. The gist is that this temple was first built in the 9th century and is said to have been where both sages Gouthama and Bharadwaja performed penance and worshipped the resident Shiva-linga. Later, in the mid-1500s Kempegowda rediscovered the temple and renovated it – adding 4 large monolithic granite pillars which support enormous discs representing the sun and the moon as well as a dhamaru and trishula (both articles which are connected to Shiva).

As there were large signs asking us not to take pictures, I could not get any of these really impressive pillars standing somewhat awkwardly in the corners of a rectangular courtyard. Here, families of weekend pilgrims like us sat together, sharing a joke, staring at the walkers in the park and just talking to each other.

From the outside, the temple did not look like a cave – just a rather short temple at the bottom of a gradual slope, lacking the usual ornate gopuram I have seen in most temples. But as soon as we came through the entrance and passed by truly ancient and weatherworn pillars to the main temple, the ceiling (suspiciously painted over with some grey stuff, which I assume is to prevent erosion) suddenly got very low and gets lower still as you proceed.

The main cave is a rather hot and stuffy place, despite it being quite large and without too many pilgrims. When we entered, the aarti was in the progress. A young priest was singing a melodious prayer in the sanctum sanctorium as he decorated the large granite lingam with the most recent flower offerings and waved the aarti. Prashant and I had bought a ticket for a prayer for Pranav and we tried to hand it to the priest. In the mean time, I looked further into the inner sanctum fascinated by the Shiva Linga.

The large granite Linga was decorated quite simply with pink, white, green and red garlands and a yellow and red dot in the center, but what really caught my eye was this large mirror-patchwork disc on the back wall of the inner sanctum, a little above the linga. The plate was made of concentric circles of rectangular mirrors arranged to catch the reflection of the diya making it look like a glowing sun shining upon the linga.

Interestingly, on Makara Sankranti (winter solstice) evening, the setting sun pays its annual obeisance to Lord Shiva – the sun’s rays pass between the horns of Nandi who is stationed outside the inner sanctum and shines upon the Linga. This event, as well as Shivarathri brings a big crowd to the temple.

After a short and hurried prayer was made for Pranav’s benefit, I began to stray – looking at all the different shiny black, exquisite sculptures that lined the cave walls around the inner sanctum and further across the rest of the cave. It is indeed a large cave, with surprising little nooks and crannies full of treasures and place for people to meditate in peace.

I was most interested in the idol of Agni, which I had read about as being the only one in South India. I looked for it in every conceivable corner and then was directed to an unlikely little tunnel at the left-most corner of the temple (past the Parvathy idol). Having to fold into half, I walked in an organutan-esque fashion through a narrow passage to find myself alone with a long line of small idols, each lovingly decorated and clearly well visited. This is where, among other idols of the various incarnations of Shiva, Devi and Vishnu, was an unassuming statue of the two headed, three-legged Agni. As I examined it, a small line formed behind me and I was forced to move forward. The little tunnel led back to the inner sanctum of the main Shiva-linga and I surprised both Prashant and Pranav by suddenly emerging from the other end of the cave.

Once outside again, I followed a large family as they walked to the back of the temple, where I found two modern additions to the temple.
If you walk behind the temple you will see the first and only flaw brought by modernity to the temple – someone had the great idea to paint to roof of the cave temple in a bright brick red and outline little rectangular tiles on it which seems to shock you into the 21st century. In addition they have added two, modest and simple looking cream coloured vimanas to mark the location of the Shiva Linga and Parvathi sanctums. It looked so... mismatched and confused. I wonder why they felt the need to paint over the existing rock? It would have been quite beautiful as it is. I liked the vimanas, however.

Finally finished, as we drove down the hill back towards home I realized that Gavipuram and Basavanagudi must have been such beautiful places – indeed still they make one remember why Bangalore was once the Garden City.

Gavi Gangadhareshwar park or Thimmesh Prabhu Park is a must see as well – although our visit was cut short by the clouds constant threat to shower on us, and Pranav’s fast approaching bed time. We did see the Mallikarjuna temple up on the hill, in the middle of the park, as well as a stone parasol located in the corner of the park, to the left of the temple. Apparently it is very old – but I wonder – what is its purpose, what is its story? Will do some reading.

Overall it was a trip well worth our while, and will be well worth anyone’s while.
But be sure to club it with other visits in and around Basavanagudi instead of being utter dopes like us, who just keep having to drive up there every weekend as we learn about newer and newer parts of this incredible locality.