A Mukherjee World View

A Few Good Things

The route we did take to reach the Krishna temple, led past two immense statues of Ganesha. The first, housed in the magnificent Kadallaikalu Ganesha temple, which had a large, graceful verandah, was in almost total darkness, invisible to the eye of the camera. The other, equally massive Ganesha was much more photogenic, being in an open-air shelter.

We went on to the Krishna Temple and found that the structure which yesterday had seemed so wonderful, had today noticeably waned in charm and beauty after a whole day's sightseeing of temple after temple.

We walked on to the Badavi Linga, a huge stone linga the base of which stands permanently under water. Next to it, and far more fascinating from the point of view of sculpture, was the towering Narasimha statue. This terrific creature, a half lion, half man incarnation of Vishnu with a fearsome face was most awe-inspiring even in his ruined state. Our guide book said that his consort would once have perched on his knee, the only evidence of this now being an arm sneaking through his, which probably originally encircled him.

Now we had little to look forward to. From here on, the main road ran 3 km straight to Kamalapur. En route we would cross the Turuttu channel, but, having traversed a great stretch of it the previous day, this offered little excitement. Then there was the Virabhadra temple, a practising temple of no great historical importance. A good bit further on would be the Sister Stones - two giant rocks leaning against each other forming a natural arch. But this we had seen from the auto yesterday. Later still would be the Underground Temple. This was the only sight which halted our progress "hotelwards". It was pretty effectively hidden from sight, the ceiling being almost level with the ground, but for the gate which was wholly visible and rather nice. Inside, down a set of steep steps, it was broken, submerged in shallow water and smelled strongly of rats.

And that was the last of it. Our walk along the road followed the fort wall for a while, took us past the Queen's Bath, and finally all the way back to our hotel. The Ganigitti temple was a half-km away, but we had a train to catch. Bhima's gateway, on the Hospet road but in the opposite direction, said to be a strongly fortified gateway decorated with a large bas-relief of Bhima, beckoned alluringly but unsuccessfully; we had a train to catch. And, in addition to time and tide, the Indian Railway too waits for no man. We could only hurry back, still dreaming of the golden era which once had been, and hoping for a chance to return to it again some time.

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