Nilgiri Hills and it's Tribes

At Nandi Hills Nilgiri pigeons found in numbers. Nilgiri is brand name of so many products. The 1 st recorded word Nila applied to this region can be traced to 1117 AD in the report of a general of Vishnuvardhana King of Hoysalas . The Hoysala Empire was a prominent Southern Indian Knnadiga empire that ruled most of the modern-day state of Karnataka between the 10 th and 14 th Centuries.The King who in reference to his enemies, claimed to have frightened the To-das, driven the Kangas underground. Slaughtered the Pallavas, put to death the Malayalas , terrified King of Kala and then proceeded to offer the pick of Nila mountain (presumably Dodabetta) to Laksmi, Goddess of wealth. The original inhabitants of the Nilgiri Hills were the Toda, Badaga, Kota, Irula and Kurumbas.

Toda Family

The Toda language is a member of Dravidian family. Todas live in small hamlets called munds. The Toda Huts which are of an oval pent-shaped construction are usually 10 feet high, 18 feet long and 9 feet wide. They are built of bamboo fastened with rattan and are thatched .Each hut is enclosed within a wall of loose stones .The front and back of the hut are usually made of dressed stones (most granite). The hut has a tiny entrance at the front –about three feet wide, 3 feet tall. This unusually small entrance is a means of protection from the wild animals. The front portion is decorated with the Toda art forms, a kind of rock mural painting. Thicker bamboo canes arched to give the hut its basic pent shape. Thinner bamboo canes are tied close and parallel to each other over this frame. Dried grasses is stacked  over ,this is as thatch.

Todas and Kotas have shared genes which separate them from the other Nilgiri Hills Tribes. The Toda dresses consists of single piece of cloth, which is worn like the plaid of a Scottish high lender over a dhoti for men and skirt for women .The symbols from traditional costumes are very old Thracian-Danubian culture(dacian/ scytian/getic).

According to the Todas, the Goddess Teikirshy and her brother first created the sacred buffalo and then the first Toda man. The first Toda woman was created from the right rib of the first Toda man.

A passage to Nandi Hills

Those  having mastered seed  under the foot ,looks for holy days around the Calendar .To take a tripe anywhere, in and abord,to get  some relief  from  tress and tension of daily life and for enjoyment, amusement  education and so on .A passage to  Nandi Hills may be taken into consideration. It was called Anandagiri hills of happiness during the period of Cholas of the 11^th Century. Among other stories about the  origin of the name Nandi Hills it is perhaps called so because the hill resembles a Sleeping bull(Nandi).This hill station has a number of things to observe and most important among all a Dravidian Temple which is around 1200 years old. Carved on a rock, the two complexes of the Temple make it more significant. Where one complex houses the deity sculptures and the other had a pond which is known as Kalyani and sometimes as Amrut Sarovar. A beautiful water  lake that brims with lucid water all the year round.It is located at about 4851 feet above sea level .         

Temple Lake

 

An incident dseserve to mentilon here.Till for 11 days (NSS CAMP) atop Channagiri a 46-Members team from a city R.C. College has unearthed seven dormant feeder springs which are oozing water again. It was not an easy climb for the younger stars from their base camp at Doddarayappanhalli village two kilometers to the summit. Nandi hills have a motor able road to the summit, but Channarayaswamy Betta does not even have a foot trail, and trekkers have to negotiate bushes and boulders on the way up. When they reached the top; the students were shocked to see the ’Kalyani’ filled with mud. NSS Officer Tripura said the pond looked like a dump yard, with plastic bags and other discarded items covering the entire area.

       The 46 strong group as many as 22 were girls, began to clear up the pond with a vengeance , and did not let up  for the next five days, They get on  with the digging till late in the evening .

       The patience paid rich dividends .At end of the fifth day, one of the students noticed water bubbling up from a natural spring.  Back at the scene the next day, they found the entire area filled with water .A pump was processed into service to drain off the water and 11 days of preserving labor, seven long dormant springs had been unearthed. Hats off to the students.

Arkavathy River (Source- Nandi Hills)

Palar River (Source- Nandi Hills)

Penna River

Bangalore to Nandi Hills 60 kilometers by road .36 turns to reach hills top and 1175 steps around the hills. On Bangalore Ballary road ,reach Dsevanahalli Cross, which is on the 36 th mile stone Take the deviation on the left and travel 11 kilometers to reach Nandi Cross  The foot of the hill is 3 kilometers from here. On the Dodhaballapur road , turn right to reach the road that leads to the top of the hill. From the foot is 8 kilometers of the Top’.

Tree House

Hill Top

Rain Forest

Mahisasura to Mysore

Mahisasura to Mysore

Mahisasura  mardini  Goddess Durga(Parvati) daughter of Projapati Dakshya,killed the deman ruller Mahisasura. Mysore gets its name from the buffalo headed demon ruler Mahisasura.Mysore situated 770 meters above sea level and embraced by hill ranges  from north to south. Mysore is also called as a Garden City.According to puranic story in Devi Bhagavata,Mysore was ruled by Mahisasura who created havoc to the Gods. Hearing this plea to save them from the Monster, Goddess Parvati wife of Shiva took birth as Chamundaswari and killed the demon king. After killing Mahisasura  the Gods resided atop Chamundi hill where she is worshipped by devotees with reverence even to-day.

       The earliest mention of Mysore  as Mahisarastra is found in the Buddha Depavamsha.In 245 B.C. Ashoke is said to have dispatched a monk to Mahisrastra to spread Buddhism.References about Mysore is also to be find in the great Epic Mahabharata,although there is not much more evidence to support their mention

        Mysore was ruled by Cholas and Chalukyas  for over a Century.  Hoysalas drive out Cholas and establish their rule in the land. They excelled   in the Temple architecture and left so exquisitely carved temple as evidence of their successful  regin.The Mysore dynasty was an among many feudatories of the Vijoynagar Empire.In the 16 th Century Bettda  Chamaraja III built a fort in Mysore. It was once again made  the Capital in 1799 after the fall of Tipu Sultan, and transformation of Mysore from a small fort town to handsome city began during the reign of Krishna raja Wodeyar III.