After going to the Chaturmukha Basadi Jain Temple, the Statue of Gomateshwara and the Savirakambha Basadi temple of a thousand Pillars , we went to a place called "Kudremukh" for our final destination of the Sunday trip. The Hanumangundi Waterfall.





This is a waterfall thats well hidden from the world. You need to climb down over 200 feet into the thick jungles of western ghats to get this. There are very few photographs of this waterfall.



Although nowhere are huge as Jog Falls, the Hanumangundi Waterfall is definitely more exciting, with you being able to get incredibly close to the waterfall. And incredibly wet. You can see how close I was in the following videos :






I was also particularly happy because I managed to get a great shot of me and a monkey !



W00t ! You can check out the pictures (all taken by my Nokia N82) over on my Facebook album or below, on my Share on Ovi account which includes two very awesome close up videos I took of the waterfall with my N82 :



-Teh Cj

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After visiting the Chaturmukha Basadi and the amazing statue of Gomateshwara ( Btw kudos to Matt for actually being able to pronounce it on yesterday's vidcast, Hehe) , we headed off to see the "Savirakambha Basadi" also known as "The temple of a thousand Pillars" (which is SO much more pronouncable) in a place called Moodabidri. Once again, all pictures were taken by my Nokia N82.



Moodabidri, sometimes described as the Varanasi of the jains, has 18 Jain basadis, although jains themselves are a minority population in the Dakshina Kannada district. This place consists mainly of followers of the Digambar sect; the most famous among them is the 1000 pillared Chandranatha Basadi popularly known as "Savirakambha Basadi".




The uniqueness is that no two pillars are identical. The devotees under the directions of the local ruler at that time - Devaraja Wodeyar of Nagamangala, built this in 1430 A.D. Figures of giraffes and Chinese dragons have been carved on sections of the Temple indicating the trade with Africa and China by the Jain Merchants of the time. The Temple is also called Hosa Basadi since the relief of the Temple always appears as "Hosa" which means new.



This has a powerful presence in the center of the Moodabidri. Three mandapas lead to the main sanctuary. These mandapas have a series of sloping tiered roofs, adapted to the heavy monsoon rainfall of the region. The main entrance, which faces east, opens into a superb monolithic pillar (mana-stambha) in front of the main doorway. The temple has a valuable collection of metal, jewel carved images of Jain tirthankars.



Unfortunately, photography wasnt allowed in this temple.But after travelling this far, I really really wanted to take a few pictures of the place and I honestly hope I do not offend anyone in posting it up here. So whatever pictures you see here, are all unfocussed spy shots with the N82 on Landscape mode.Unfortunately, you cant turn off the camera sound in the Asian N82, like you can in the European Models. Or the red led for that matter. So it made taking spy shots, a lot more harder. You can view them on my Facebook Album or below, on my Share on Ovi account :



-Teh Cj

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Number two of the four awesome but unpronounceable places I visited last Sunday. First was the Chaturmukha Basadi. Second was the Gomateshwara Statue at Karkal. Again ,all pictures were taken on my Nokia N82.



Gomateshwara (The Calm Stone) : Legend has it ,Bahubali or the “ one with strong shoulders” was a local prince who fought his brother Bharata and won the kingdom. Having done so,he was overwhelmed by both the enormity and the futility of the desire for material wealth - a pursuit that sets brother against brother. He gave it all up for meditation and prayer. This went on for 12 long years and even the surrounding creepers had grown around him. In his honour, the ruler at that time Veerapandya Bhairava Raja built this temple and statue.




It was completed on 13.02.1432. The statue is 42 feet 12.6 meters in height and was engraved from a single stone at the foot of the hill on which the temple stands. It was carried up the crest by a forty-wheeled vehicle. In 1907, 212 steps (182 are continuous) were cut into the rock face of the hill leading up to the Temple.



A stone pillar, Brahma Stambha, and holy stone or Kshetrapalaka stand in front of the Temple as protectors. Two steps cut into this holy stone commemorate a Jain Muni or holy man who died during the building stage.



A festival in Bahubali’s honour is held every 12 years and is called the Maha Masthakaabhisheka. It is held for 9 days. The 10-hour ceremony that is estimated to attract over 30 lakh devotees, involves priests climb hundreds of steps leading to the top of monolith, the 2nd largest in the world, and emptying hundreds of pots of tender coconut, sugarcane juice, milk, rice flour, turmeric paste, kashaya (a herbal concoction), shrigandha (sandal paste), chandana (coloured sandal paste), ashtagandha (eight varieties of sandal paste), saffron, gold and silver flowers, precious stones and finally a shower of flowers, all onto the Statue.

You can view the rest of the pictures from the trip on my Facebook Album or below, on my Share on Ovi account :



-Teh Cj

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Well yesterday turned out pretty interesting. Me and the guys decided to travel to various places which were comparatively nearby when you consider my other travels.

Over the next four days I'll be posting about the 4 places we visited.All pictures were taken by my Nokia N82. First up is the Chaturmukha Basadi.

The Chaturmukha Basadi is a famous Jain temple, situated on a rocky hill at Karkala in Udupi District of Karnataka. Consecrated by Vir Pandya deva, the king of Bairarava family in 1432, the basadi was completed in 1586. It is built in the form of a square mandapa or hall, with a lofty doorway and pillared portico on each of its four sides. Since four identical doorways in four directions lead to the Garbhagriha, it is called Chaturmukha Basadi.





The Temple was pretty amazing. Everything carved out of stone. It reminded me a lot of the temples I saw in Hampi.




The roof is flat and is made of huge granite slabs. In the Garbhagriha, one can see the standing statues of Ara, Malli, and Suyrata. Besides these, the images of the 24th Tirthankar and Yakshi Padmavati can also be found.



There are a total of 108 pillars inside and outside the temple.



You can check out the rest of the pictures over at my Facebook album or below, on my Share on Ovi account :



-Teh Cj

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Since the monsoon season was in full swing over here, we figured it was the best time to see Jog Falls yesterday.

So we thought anyway.

During the monsoon season, you can see a lot of small waterfalls on the way here. But, as we found out later,the best time to visit this place is August-September.Although the journey is very long, its pretty enjoyable due to the constant sight of waterfalls of varied heights. Although if you're not into the aforementioned sights ,you'll be bored out of your skull untill you reach there.

We took a bus from Udipi to a town called "Sagar" (pronounced " Sag-ra " ) from which we were supposed to catch the bus to Jog Falls.

The bus personnel told us it'd take 4 hours to get to Sagar (which turned out to be 6 hours) and 30mins from Sagar to Jog Falls (which turned out to be an hour and a half). Do they use a different method to measure time here or something ?

This is where our bad luck started. I've always said Andre bought us bad luck while travelling because whenever he's along with us , the bus/train/airplane breaks down :P . But i was kidding. BUT I WAS RIGHT ! The bus brokedown in the middle of nowhere at one point. We had to wait for about an hour in this crazy little town in the middle of nowhere before the breakdown bus arrived.

Seven and a half tiring hours later we reached the mighty Jog falls. Its pretty cool to watch the spectacle of the river sharavati taking a leap at a height of about 292 M.There are 4 distinct falls - Raja, Rani, Rocket & Roarer. These names are assigned owing to the distinct characteristics of the falls.

Raja : dignified and serene fall

Rani : Winding and twisting fall like that of the female dances

Roarer : This stream appears out of a mass of rocks making a lot of noise

Rocket : Consists of large volume of water streaming out of a small opening at a high speed.


I had heard earlier from someone that the falls would be a big disappointment.I kind of agree. But its mostly because we caught it at the wrong season. We were totally wrong in assuming that the falls would be in full swing right now because the rainy season's begun.

We spent some time running around enjoying the falls and went around monkeying there with the various viewing spots they have created ,although they have shut off the way which leads to the base of the falls for now which was a huge disappointment.

I heard that there is a point where the sharavati river actually converts into a fall and it is a mindblowing experience to go to this point and that we can literally experience the whole mass of water tumbling down with a big noise. Unfortch , we couldnt check it out because we were way way behind schedule and had to book our Taxi's back to Manipal asap. Noway ,were we going to take a bus back after what we went through in the morning.

After booking the Taxis, we were all a little hungry. The driver told us that there were not many options other than the KTDC (Karnataka Tourist Development Corp) where we could have nice south indian food.So we headed to Sagar in the Taxis for dinner at some random restaurant. The food was okay. My french fries and Masala Papad were burnt beyond recognition though.

There was not much we could do here so started for our next destination , Home ! 5 hours later , we were back in good ol'Manipal . I should mention that our "Andre Bad Luck" made the taxi suffer a tyre puncture TWICE on the way back. Haha you just cant make this shizz up.

Damn i have never been so happy to see this place than i was at that moment lol.

You can check out all the pictures from the trip on My Facebook Album or here :



So Jog Falls..... worth it ? Yup. Just make sure you get a taxi to go there and not a bus. And make sure you catch it at the right season.

-Teh Cj

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