Melukote Cave temple ಮೇಲುಕೋಟೆಯ ಗುಹಾಂತರ ದೇವಾಲಯ ಗುಹಾಲಯ Pandavapura Mandya Karnataka Tourism ಕನ್ನಡದಲ್ಲಿ
Now we are at Melukote's cave temple this cave temple is located near to the Melukote Yoga Narasimha temple this is on the northern side of the Yoga Narasimha temple there are two cave temples, this is the upper one another is a cave temple at at the lower area of this mountain near to this i got to know about this place first by the Kannada movie named Janumajanumada Anubhanda during lockdown time when i watched this movie, during one of the scene they have shown these caves on watching the movie, the entire movie was shot at Melukote on seeing this cave i realised that this cave is located some where in and around Melukote watched it during lock down i was planning to come and search for it at Melukote by then Madan Rao made a video of this place and uploaded it in his channel this cave temple is not marked in google map i am marking it on google map the google map link too i will add it in the description all can come and see the place but we need to ensure that we should not spoil this place that is all of our responsibility the link to Madan Raos video is available above in the i button and also i will include it in the description box. along with Madan Rao come let us see the Melukote cave temple vehicles can only come up to this point from here we need to walk around 1 kilometre this here two kalyanis are near by this is one kalyani the restoration work of it is going on here one kalyani is there this may have been renovated the surrounding area has been built with cement they have also painted the surrounding area do we need to go from here there is no proper way to go there we have to do a little adventure and go there we parked the car there and we came walking it appears that they are making a road here in front of this is a mantapa, it is a mahadwara yes from here we can see the two caves i am not sure if we will be able to go to the upper cave we may have to take a round about route now first we are going to the lower cave temple here is a mantapa kind of structure here is a kalyani as well in this mantapa we can see a peeta here it may have been a place where there would have been a statue and where pooje was offered in front at the lower level is the kalyani in Melukote there are hundreds of Kalyani the cave temple above the mountain it is common to find a kalyani infront of all temples in Melukote similarly this too may have been we if go there the areas are all low lying since it is covered with bushes and shrubs many of it has disappeared may be similarly this too may have been a place where Pooje would have been done here we can see embossed carvings here are the pillars if we see the bricks here it appears to be 400 to 500 years old these bricks are not of recent times it is not possible for you to stand straight here isnt it no not possible you can see the height of the structure how old is this place? it is said that this was built during the times of Kalyani chalukyas is this a Jain temple? there is no record or document which mentions about which temple this is generally jains used to do meditation about the mountains this may have been that kind of a provision as well as we can see here may be they had some plan to do some carving here here and there we can see that some embossed statues may have been planned for carving at that place and the height of this area would have been increased by carving out the rock below our feet like we have seen in the Badami Videos they generally make it such that a person can stand up straight that is after doing the carvings on the roof, then they would dig out the floor to increase the height after carving all the statues there after they will dig deeper they will remove the stones of the floor area such that a person of even 6 foot can comfortably stand up inside that is how it should have been as per me this is a incomplete cave temple What do you feel? i too feel that this is a incomplete cave here is no statue for which pooje could have been done in the upper cave is the Keshavas statue that we should see we do not know if they built this area first or the upper portion first in this area of Mysore, Bengaluru, Hassan only small cave temples are the bigger ones are at Badami not many know the existence of this cave temple here when i used to travel by bus i used to be very curious that what is this cave like structure in between the mountain you had seen it when you used to travel by bus is it? every time i visit with my family and travel to and fro by bus i used to see the caves when i asked thee college students they said that a small cave is there, we need to climb up to go on top, no one will be there no where else locally are such cave temple available i had planned to cover this place and made a video of it 5 to 6 months ago there after when you said i had not gone to the upper cave since when i visited it was raining and the mountain was slippery so i couldn't cover it the upper cave was pending so coming with you it would be a special experience hence i came today see here how clearly we can see the quarrying work they have done there too only little gap is there it is in a way that after cooking that space can be used to pass the food to the other side there are five portions here, hence it is also said that the Pandavas stayed here Pandavas cave is on Yoga Narasimhasway temple hill below that temple is the cave, it is said that the pandavas resided there here too if you notice there are five parts, 1, 2, 3, 4 ,5 it is part by part there is no present documentary evidence that they resided here but in the puranas it mentions that pandavas had come here in chamundi hill there is a portion known as the Pandavas steps thereafter at Pandavapura you have already heard of Kunti betta these all are places related to puranas once when i called Historian Selva Pillai Iyengar he said that this cave was constructed during the time of Chalukyas he also informed that there are no documentary evidences for it even now there exists no documents but this kind of a stone carved cave temple related to these kind of places, the related Archaeology department the state archaeological department should put a notice board, or name board such that it is visible then this will remain for few more years if not, this place will continue to remain unknown to many people this is like a room we will go there and have a look as well there is alot of cobweb here cob webs as you can see here infront they have made some plan to make embossed carving may be they had some plan as such in the Badami video you may have seen as the guide mentioned at the initial stage they roughly cut the rock chunks there after in the second stage they will carve the statues they would make the embossed carving and move out ward similarly here in the first stage they have roughly quarried the stone they have done the second stage what was the plan, that we may know if we see the cave above may be we can figure out i think notice the height at which we are standing and the height of this cave if we roughly measure it, it is only around 10 feet height when we stand up inside, it is roughly 5 feet, so we need to bend our head when we stand there the place is not very tall either as you can see the area width may be 30 to 35 feet each of the rooms how big it might be? it may be approximately around 6 X 7 feet the rain that falls will fall off the roof edge you can see they have neatly carved the edge of the roof this is west, if from the west the rains droplets fall it may fall inside or to avoid it from falling inside they may have made it such notice this pillar it is similar to the temple pillars they have carved it in a similar way bottom to top that is in the sides here they have left some space provision for keeping the lamp or any other thing the stone carved in ancient times if it is cracking now has it cracked due to the temperature why we dont know since all the weight is standing on this they have attempted to do it step by step hence this is a incomplete cave temple notice the marks of the quarrying notice here how neatly the pillar needs to be constructed they have done so but on this side it is not complete this is Khag stone, they have left it incomplete why they left it incomplete we do not know this stone here they have roughly carved it on this side we can see the chisel marks as well they have just left it incomplete there may be they planned to do a provision for steps but that was not possible as we noticed in the first two pillars here is no provision to keep any thing or stop kind of structure is not there here we can see a little but on this side there is nothing but here is a small small enough for a person to squeegee through that so much space is there in present day kitchens the exhaust system that we have that kind of system it may have been this has been carved out of stone when was this constructed there is no documentary evidence for the same Selva Pillai Iyengar mentioned that this was constructed during the period of chalukyas here they have made a small griniding area kind of hole here other than here, this kind of hole is not see anywhere else here this may have been made to grind small plants or herbs or when a rishi muni when doing tapas when they have to survive eating roots and shoots of plants at that time for small ill health or fever or any physical ailments, they would make a paste of the medicinal plants it may be for that purpose, other than here no where can we find it we have seen the small cave temple at the lower portion of the hill after seeing from here it seems like it is near from here if we cannot go from here then we will have to go walking from there even that way if it is not possible then we will have to take a round about route of around half to 3/4th kilometre it is near from here but there is no steps there is no full clear cut, also this is the first time we are going previously when i had come, i had covered only this portion this is the first time we are climbing up so if we can easily climb up from here then we will go this way if not we will go that way this we need to figure out after we climb up as we have never been up there before would it be possible to go there is it not possible? are there chances of slipping? this route is a little easy but here it is a little steep that part is difficult from that side it appears to be easy it will be a little longer route from there it was not possible as it is too steep so planning to climb up from the right side should i put a slow motion of your jump is it possible from here if we cross that then we should be able to last time i did not climb here as it was raining yes if it rains there are chances of slipping here much more than we expected they have made steps to all the way up there our ancestors have done this, this you can focus from near the cave we saw below seem to be a trial carving of a cave they say that there is a Keshavas statue there they have made steps, so it is best to leave our footwear here there a drop of 45 to 50 feet drop from here, need to be comfortable when coming here see here clearly made provision of steps as you can see here are some five steps here notice the system of the pillar they have made it with all provisions this is not so incomplete like we saw in the below cave the construction does not look incomplete here it seems to be complete here as we saw earlier they may have made a provision of placing the lamp here there is a hole here here a person of 5 to 6 feet can stand in here it is not that small, though this obstructs yet here it is ok this appears like a garbhagudi now we came from below to see this garbhagudi notice below on the peeta is the picture of garuda above that is the statue of Keshava here if you see the stone slabs it appears to be made at a later period these are pillar shapes made out of the mountain,they have been given shape of pillar but are not pillar these are all the pillars for this using these kind of slab stones they have made this small mantapa kind of structure as you can see the carving on the door sides but the door is not there if we see the peeta and the statue then it appears that this provision was made at a later period this is not the idol which has been carved out of the same mountain this is a later addition in the cave below they tried they did not succeed for the same reason they may have done it on top even the floor if we notice they are not stone slabs but this is the mountain stone they have not given it a smooth finish not smooth like a floor since this is the Kagh stone here they have made provisions to put more pillars in here but they have left it such when we look at all this it seems may be they wanted to continue in the cave below we saw a hole for grinding here it is clear that it is the grining stone here the stone slab that they have built as i mentioned earlier these all are later additions to make it a temple they have used it to give it the shape of a temple all that are the ancient ones carved out of the mountain boulder here it has turned black, may be due to some homa done here or something that they have done which has caused this carbon deposit here the roof edge that we showed in the cave below here we can see that work has been done neatly of the roofs edge here it is protruding outside it is approximately around 4 feet fro above roof from here to here it is around 4 feet this has been created with provisions and well planned manner in comparison to the cave below this cave is double its size and length there is space for around 50 to 60 people to sit here here in front they have made a sit out area here to 60 to 70 people can be seated so much space is there they have cult the mountain boulder and made it plain like a sit out area that is a lot of work as i mentioned earlier it was constructed during the time of chalukyas there are no records of this Badami, Aihole, Pattadakal other than that area in this area only here, this kind of rock carved cave this is the only one as far as i have seen carved out of the mountain by removing the stones from it, in this region i am not aware of any such cave the tourist who come to Melukote generally visit cheluvanarayana swamy and yoga narasimha swamy temple which is located above the hill some take few photo in the kalyani and leave but should come to this kind of beautiful places too, below you can see a number of kalyanis mantapas are there also here the NSS and such youth groups who are there come and have cleaned this place well or ASI or State Archaeology department if they protect it for the next generation history will be available for them to see we can pass it one to the future generation if not one by one the stone will keep falling the kalyani will get dirty lot of change of property will take place in this places such provisions should not be made be it the religious organisations or related temples or ASI or State Archaeology department should protect this nobody comes here but we should make it such that people should visit here tourism should pay attention to this place proper provision to reach this place or put information boards make provision for drinking water when these things are done people will come to visit many people come to enjoy nature people come to the temple too this way the cave temples on the mountain too it exists here, not many are even aware of it people should come and see it is for people to come see and celebrate it has been built in ancient times but as on date it is orphaned and no one comes here it has become such that it does not come to anyone attention this area of the mountain stone itself is protruding by looking at it, it looks like they had some plan of carving a statue here but they have not done it in both the places they had some plans but they have not executed it may be they had a plan of carving a embossed statue here they have made, may be to keep something or like a peeta notice here to get the shape of the sit out area they have made holes, to remove the stone of this part to separate it how much effort they have put from this itself we can make out this boulder they have separated and made into such a shape we can say that this itself is an wonder in this place as we all know Melukote is a place of temples and kalyanis in that this place remained hidden and orphaned notice the carving they have done here they have done it with an intention of getting the work done if we look at it completely this is a single stone mountain similar to Shiva gange which is also a monolithic stone mountain this is a monolithic stone mountain in that mountain below is a cave temple on top is another cave temple, here we saw a statue even in the hot scorching sun in this cave temple it is very cool reason being we are in the middle part of the boulder outside on the boulder the temperature is around 36 degree in some more time sun will come above our head at 12 noon this you cannot feel then, then we will have to move inside the cave and sit down along with the places at Melukote this cave temple too should be made popular as a tourism place if people get to know then definitely people will come here my request to all concerned departments please maintain this place neatly make provisions for tourists to come here so let us meet in another video. Namaskara
2021-07-03 21:38
