India: The wonders of Srirangapatna

India – December 14, 2013

Our first full whirlwind day in the state of Karnataka, India, started after we had slept in a bit. We woke up in our hotel in Bangalore and waited until easily 9AM for the breakfast buffet to be set up. They had some wonderful choices, including a slightly sweet tomato soup, crispy dosas, idly, a couple of chutneys and sambar; the perfect South Indian breakfast!

It’s good that we departed from the hotel only around 10AM. By that time, traffic was no longer an issue, and it didn’t take that long before the city streets melted behind us and we found ourselves in the countryside, watching more for traffic from herds of sheep and farm equipment than from zigzagging vehicles on all sides.

There were several sites that we had planned to see that day, and we knew the approximate direction of some of the sites, but not exactly how to get to them easily. In India, it’s very common to ask people for directions, and we wound up doing this several times. There were five us in the vehicle including the driver – the perfect number of passengers for the car.

At one point, when we stopped for directions, the man we had stopped said that he was a guide and could help us get directly to the places of interest, show us around, and show us a couple of other “off the beaten path” destinations along our route. Per usual, he had no credentials to show, but that’s India, so we said “what the heck” and picked up this skinny hitch-hiker guide and squished him into the back seat. But, keeping in mind that India is a country without seatbelts, this wasn’t such a big deal. Off we went!

Our first stop of the day took us to Sultan Tipu’s burial place, Gumbaz, in Srirangapatna. Sure enough, our hitch-hiker guide got us exactly to the right place. For those who are not familiar with the sultan, he ruled the Mysore Kingdom in the last couple of decades of the 18th century and was quite powerful in his day. Tipu built the tomb for his father and other family members, and the sultan himself rests there too now.

The tomb area is quite lovely and includes the burial chamber and mosque. There used to be a working sun dial on site as well. The original dial itself is missing, but the rest of the mechanism is still intact. You can enter the tomb chamber as well. We saw several devout people praying at the site while we were there.

As we were leaving the Gumbaz, a group of Indian male tourists immediately spotted me (hint: I’m not Indian), and wanted to have their photo taken with me. I reluctantly agreed and then we moved on.

A short distance away from the tomb, there is a lovely Hindu temple which our hitch-hiker guide said is 1,000 years old, that sits nearly forgotten on the banks of a river. We did see a few people there, but it was mostly very quiet. We enjoyed observing some of the birds and squirrels in the area.

Heading back towards the Gumbaz, we made another stop next to a small temple that sits relatively abandoned by the side of a very small road. Upon entering, we were greeted by a gentleman who lives nearby and spends a lot of time here, hoping that people come to see the temple and he shows them around just to educate. He spoke excellent English and described how the place is relatively forgotten, but it needs to be remembered.

He then walked us across the way through a farm field to see two more temples that are almost completely forgotten to time. One is almost completely overgrown with vegetation, and the other will be overgrown in a short amount of time.

As we were walking through the field, I came across this amazing little Jewel Beetle. Depending on the viewing angle, you could almost see a full rainbow of colors in this bug! The top side is metallic green with blue spots, and the underside is orange. I’ve never seen a beetle that I considered beautiful, until I saw this amazing creature.

We continued our day with a few more stops related to Sultan Tipu, which will be continued in the next blog post.

Wishing you safe travels,
Marisa