Kudli

The last part of our trip was to visit Kudli, a small village about 12KMs from Shimoga, where Rivers Tunga and Bhadra meet and start flowing as River Tungabhadra. It was about noon when we started to Kudli.
The road to Kudli was a national highway and can be appropriately called a national disgrace. The 10 kilometers took about 30 minutes to cross and we were told that the road is under construction and thats why it is in shambles.
Kudli is no different from the numerous villages dotting in our rural sides and the poverty is very much on display all around. The only big building seem to be the Shringeri mutt there. We went straight to the steps of the river.
I have seen some of the greatest rivers of the world flowing. I remember watching the Mississippi with awe from a cliff in North Dakota a few years back. The aarti in the dusky evening in Haridwar with Ganges flowing to the brim was a sight to behold. Back in my school days, I remember bathing in Kaveri near the Kadambeswarar temple in Trichy when it was in full flow. I also remember thinking of the description of Kaveri in 'Silapathikaram' while doing so.
While the rivers looked huge there was only a small amount of water flowing in both Tunga and Bhadra. One can clearly see the point where they were merging to become Tungabhadra. The awesomeness of a river in flow is either in the actual size of it (like Missisippi) or the spiritual tales associated with it. The first thing that cropped into my mind is that the Tungabhadra has seen some of the finest parts of Indian history and is still flowing as a mute witness to all that is happening around it.
The numerous temples on the banks, the kings who worshipped it, the lives of so many people living on and of the river. Tungabhadra should be having a thousand tales to tell.

We saw the river and the kids just jumped into the water. There was very little water flowing over pebbles and there are only a few buffaloes crossing the river and it was like heaven just sitting over the pebbles and playing with the kids. The entire trip was worth that one afternoon when we spent about an hour in the water with the kids. So many sights around and explaining to Sibi a bit of Vijayanagara history is what makes these trips worthy of taking the trouble to plan and do.
So after so much fun during the noon, we came out and what do we find next to a small lakshmi Narasimha temple is a small Hoysala temple.

I've never seen a Hoysala temple so far and I was able to recognize the Royal emblem of the Hoysalas on top of the temple and was happier to know that I am going to see one. It was a small temple with the Hoysala style pillars (which I recognize from the pictures I've seen) and only a very few sculptures left.

We returned to the Hotel after that and spent the afternoon dozing. Evening was spent in a modest Gandhi park in Shimoga and Jeysri went on a modest shopping spree in the much more modest bazaar area of Shimoga (saris, sandals etc). It was late evening and time to leave.