Keladi Rameshwara Temple

The last trip of 2014 was planned well in advance. Deepu started an email thread almost two months earlier, so everyone could apply for leave on December 26th. The dates were finalized even before we decided on the destination. As always, Deepu and Seena took charge of organizing the trip.

The first challenge was deciding where to go. Initially, we planned a bike ride to Kanyakumari, but at the last moment, we changed plans because we managed to get a slot at Honnemaradu. We had been trying for permission for almost a year, and finally, we got it for December 26th and 27th.

Even though our booking was for the 26th, we decided to start the journey on the night of the 24th to explore places around Sagara. Initially, we were a group of 15, but as always, a couple of people dropped out at the last minute. In the end, 13 of us went on the trip, leaving Bangalore in three cars around 11:30 p.m. on the 24th.

Sanju and I reached Seena’s house by 9:00 p.m. and waited for the rest of the group to join. During that time, Sanju accidentally locked his car keys in the trunk while grabbing his jacket. We only realized the keys were missing when we got a call from the others. After 30 minutes of effort, we finally managed to open the car and start the journey.

For some reason, none of our trips ever seem to start without some drama! 😊

Sagara is around 350kms away from Bangalore, since after crossing Tumkur its single road night journey will take more than 8 hours to reach including all our breaks.

Reached Sagara around 8.00 a.m. in the morning, managed to find a hotel to stay. Hotel Sri Krishna (decent hotel in that town) booked 4 rooms and freshened up and decided to visit nearby places. Nearby Sagara we can fine couple of historical places.

Ikkeri – Aghoreshvara Temple.

Ikkeri is around 5 Kms from Sagara town. The temple was constructed in the 15th century with a blend of Hoysalas, Vijayanagara and Chola style of architecture. The Aghoresvara temple has Lord Shiva as its presiding deity. The word ‘Aghoresvara’ means “The lord of 14th night of the darker half of the month of Bhadrapada”, this is to honour the good deeds performed by Lord Shiva in protecting the universe.

Varadamoola:

Varadamoola is located 6 Kms. from Sagar town. Varadamoola is the source of the river Varada. Varada flows through the town of Banavasi before joining Tungabhadra.

Keladi Rameshwara Temple:

Keladi is a village situated around 10kms from Sagara town. This place was the first capital of the Keladi Nayaka Kingdom, who rose to prominence after the disintegration of the Vijayanagara Empire.

Shri Rameshwara temple or Keladi Rameshwara temple is the prime attraction of the destination. Dedicated to Lord Rameshwara, this temple also contains shrines of Goddess Parvati and Lord Veerabhadra. This temple is noted for its Kadamba, Hoysala and Dravidian styles of temple architecture.

We could not visit Keladi Museum (it was closed, when we checked with localities they told because of government holiday its closed…!!!).

Came back to hotel, celebrated Shetty’s (Vinay – many of us don’t know his original name :P) birthday and we were done for the day.