The Blue Mountain Goats

1-05-2018

Hi,
That Andhra Pradesh is perhaps not a tourist friendly place was known to me even before I decided to take the break and drive down to Warangal from Hyderabad. I seriously needed a break from working late nights through the week which left me with little or rather no energy to venture out on a Sunday (yes we had six days working) and leaves the less you say about it the better. Pushy bosses and sinking business due to poor due diligence during and after take over….hold on we were going to talk about Warangal.
I decided to take a break. 31st March-Monday-was Ugadi, a Holiday in Hyderabad and I decided to hit the road on Monday after recouping from office fatigue on Sunday. Karim, my driver was to come at 6.30 AM on Monday morning & the plan was to be back the same day.
The signs were ominous for on Sunday I woke up to a loud clanging sound followed by crying of a kid. I rushed out to find that a driver, sans license, who was driving around the colony, had lost control of his car on a turn. He panicked when he saw my car parked on the side around 100 yards down. In his panic he stepped on his Gas instead of brakes. Just before he hit my car he swerved to avoid but alas too late. He managed to make my sedan look like a hatch back……. No boot was visible. Than his car, on impact, jumped off the kerb & banged into my iron gate. Welcome to the thought of travelling in Andhra.
This was not enough to deter me. The travel bug had bit me rather hard. As planned for Monday we decided to go in an old car of our office, diesel variant of “GETZ” that had done nearly 200K. We left a bit late the next day about 7:30 AM and my driver chose not to take Warangal highway, about 5 Km from my home, but a more circuitous route through small sleepy hamlet Bonigar.
The drive was uneventful, passing through small hamlets and a very rocky, dry landscape. It was still early morning and it was hot. On the way, just before we hit the highway again at Bonigar, we were in presence of “Hunuman” the monkey God. What was very invigorating was its sudden appearance after a sharp bend. The monolithic structure was very tall & should have been spied from afar but the sharp rays of sun, whirring of car A/c and desolate landscape,…… I could have dozed off.
And then there was an interesting formation of small loose rocks which were waiting to slide suddenly and bury the unwary.
The rest of the journey with a small break at Harita café (If I recall correctly) of APSTDC for a coffee and a pee. Wash room was well dirty and coffee bland. My plan to have a Dosa evaporated quickly even though the rumbles in my tummy grew louder. We made a quick exit and I dug into my ever present fruit basket to eat 2-3 bananas and an orange. Ten minutes of brown boring landscape & I slept off. Karim was instructed to wake me up at Warangal. I kept dozing off and generally remained in half conscious state when a loud screeching train whistle announced that we were at Warangal and had just crossed the local railway station.

Warangal gave a impression of a small non-descriptive town like so many others strewn around. I woke up and Karim stopped by a road side shack for coffee and idlis. The food taste a bit better but than it could be because of intense hunger pangs also.
                   The Thousand Pillar Temple or Rudreshwara Swamy Temple
This a historic temple in Hanamkonda town in telengana state. TheTemple is approx. 3 km from Warangal Railway station & is dedicated to Lord Shiva, Vishnu and Surya.
This temple, as well as Ramappa temple and the Warangal fort are on tentative list of World heritage sites of UNESCO, I was told.
This temple was built by Kakatiya Dynasty rulers under order of King Rudra Deva between 1175-1325 AD. It stands out to be a masterpiece and achieved major heights in terms of architectural skills by the ancient Kakatiya vishwakarma sthapathis
It was desecrated by the Tughlaq dynasty during their invasion of the Deccan.
The temple is star-shaped with several shrines and lingams. There are three shrines inside the temple called the Trikutalayam, dedicated to Shiva, Vishnu, and Surya.
There are 1,000 pillars in the structure, but no pillar obstructs a person at any point of the temple to see the God.

There is a carving of a Nandi bull in the form of a highly polished black basalt monolith. Interestingly, Nandi is not looking at Lord directly, the way we are used to in North India, but has his head slightly turned away. I found his very curious but this one feature of Nandi Baba is quite common in temples I saw.

The Thousand Pillar Temple is constructed on a platform that is raised to a height of 1 metre (3.3 ft) from ground level. Rock-cut elephants and perforated screens in the temple are characteristic of the then prevailing dynasty.

The temple was a live temple (pooja were performed) but the ambience of the place was disheartening. The garden around the garden that I had read about was not there but it was bare ground and very gravelly (if there is such word). A temple that could have been an awe-inspiring structure was a disappointing temple with sad surroundings & to top it all, there were no guides either and this was a trend that would persist.

YOURS SINCERELY

MY DRIVER KARIM
 

A VIEW
 

Ganesh

A long Drive, Barren landscape, inhospitable eats….. A poor experience. DONOT WASTE YOUR TIME ON WARANGAL…….but then FORT was a different ball game

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