The Annapoorneshwari temple at Horanadu is quite famous.
We arrived at Horanadu yesterday night and witnessed the Mahamanglaarthi at this temple at 21:15, a beautiful event with a LOT of lighted lamps. The darshan – where you can walk past the diety (in this case, Goddess Annapoorneshwari) as with all big temples, the priest urges anyone who tarries for more than a few milliseconds to keep moving. Food and accomodation is provided at the temple. Accomodation must be quite a nice experience with big long lines of pillows, carpets and bedsheets all arranged by just two servers in a very short time, yet they were doing it unhurriedly and meticulously.
However we stayed at a nearby lodge. This morning I was taking a walk with my sister amidst the very foggy hillside.
We were walking along the main road in the direction of the temple, and there was a small tar road, at the curve. There are countless times I’ve lived by Robert Frost’s Road Not Taken, and this was one of those times, so we ventured in to explore this small road.
The whole district of Chimagalur is really beautiful, lots of green foliage everywhere. Also this particular road, it had rained, so everything from the road to the flowers and the leaves and the tree trunks – all had this strikingly wonderful lustre to it. Along the way we came across a little boy and picked up a chat with him. He was a polite, soft spoken kid who along the way, spoke of a small temple, and showed us a little mud path turning off from the road upwards (I was reminded of the little girl in the movie Tomb Raider every time Lara sees some jasmine flowers). He went on his way to his school I think – as it was Monday morning. (I had taken a day off)
We started walking up that path, and it winded around, becoming steeper along the way, and after a few minutes, we walked around a bush to reach a flat ground that had the staircase to this temple (see photo). The place and the temple was so undescribably beautiful that the photograph here does poor justice to it.
We walked up the staircase, and couldn’t help just sitting in silence for a mesmerised by the ambience. There was just the sound of birds including peacocks playing a symphony in the background. If this isn’t heaven, I don’t know what its supposed to be like 🙂 Vijetha would’ve loved it here as well (but she couldn’t make it to this trip). We soon went into the temple, the serenity was a stark contrast to the rush in the famous bigger temple. Maybe not many people even know about this temple. (Because later on in the morning when we went back with our mom (and when I took this photo) still there was just one family who was visiting). There was no hurry here and we could just meander around. When we spoke to the priest, I felt he was a very simple down to earth man. This temple has this beautiful natural green lawn around it where one can walk around it. Later on, came to know it was a very ancient temple.
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In case anyone wants to try this out, at the curve with an unmistakable landmark – a grilled gate having two tigers in the grills which once one passes will find are the entrance to a helipad.
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