Keladi

Next stop was the Keladi Rameshwara temple. The Nayaks of this area were named after this tiny village but ruled the area from Ikkeri. Again the only remnant of their rule is the Rameshwara temple here. The actual temple by the nayaks has been renovated and the core temple has been left as is and the entire praharam has been rebuilt in a modern way. No gopurams and as has been the case all along no crowds whatsoever.

This is a very small temple but is well maintained with a small praharam. May be, because the temple prahara has been re-built, the charm that Ikkeri has is missing here. Nevertheless there are some interesting sculptures that can be seen still. The Dwajastamba is an interesting piece which has small cultures of a rani and her consorts praying. Intriguing as no I checked with could find a rani who can be linked. Akkamma devi ruled a bit far it seems.

There were some snake carvings in the outer walls and I dont know what it means. But the empty praharams means the kids can play hide and seek and we relaxed a bit and after some time, J joined the kids in the play. It was fun.

We met a guy who came to the temple and a local resident. He took us to a small room in the praharam to show a couple of wooden men about 10 feet in height and told us that they will be taken out only during the 'rathothsava'. It seems when the temple was consecrated in the 16th century, two men were killed per some ritual and were granted this status to go in front of the 'ratha' during the festival times. I am thinking why I never thought to take a picture of the two and I do not have an answer. May be the details of the killings made me forget the camera, after all.

We spent some more time in the temple, while the kids were playing and it was time to leave. The eclipse ended by around 3.30PM that day and there was slow trickle of people coming to the temple. No tourists though.

We started our journey back to Shimoga and though I wanted to go to the Hosgonda Umamaheshwara temple, I was told the roads were bad and the temple itself is undergoing renovations.

While returning, Sibi started wondering why appa is taking him only to temples. J joined the conversation and both were discussing my grand father who used to take us on 10 day trips to Kerala, Karnataka only to see temples and probably some part of that bug is within me. Sibi was not very convinced and I have to tell him that the next day we will try to avoid temples.

So reached Shimoga by 6.30PM and all of us crashed for the day.