Half-day Trip to Kurudmale and Avani

Took me long to write this .. but still here it goes…

We went on a short trip to Kurudmale and Avani couple of months back. We packed breakfast and lunch from home and started around 8am.

Bangalore -> Hoskote -> Kolar -> Mulbagal -> Kurudmale  . Approximately 110 Kms. There are signages that lead you to Mulbagal. From there you have to take a left turn to reach the place.

Took us 2 hours since we stopped on the way on the highway to have breakfast (approx.. 20 mins).

Kurudmale Ganesha is a famous place locally. It is in Kolar district. The temple is believed to be constructed by Vijayanagara kings. The idol is around 13 feet in height. As per mythological story, Ganesha’s idol was installed by Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva. This place is believed to be the meeting place for all devathas. Hence locally people come here for worship before they start any important work or new job or marriage, etc. The temple is mostly in ruins.

There is a 750 years old Shiva temple (Lord Someswara) right opposite to the Ganesha’s temple. The low ceilings of the temple remind you of a cave temple. There is another Ganesha’s idol at the entrance and a Nandi on the side.

From Kurudmale we proceeded to Avani. Hardly 20 kms from Kurudmale. This is to the left when you are going towards Bangalore. There is signage to guide you.

Avani is known as Gaya of the south. Avani is famous for its Sita temple situated on a hill. There are temples of Ramalingeshwara, Lakshmaneshwara, Bharateshwara and Shatrugneshwara. It is said that Sage Valmiki stayed here and Sita Devi gave birth to twins here.

Beware of the monkeys, if you intent to eat anything within temple premises.

After temple darshan, we stopped near the fields at the outskirts of Avani for quick picnic lunch. We drove back to Bangalore and were home by 3pm.