Bhoga Nandeeshwara Temple at Nandi

The Bhoga Nandeeshwara temple in Nandi village is one of the oldest temples in Karnataka dating back to the ninth century. The temple hewn out of rock consists of two complexes. While the first complex houses three deities, the second complex consists of a huge and majestic kalyani pond. The foundation of the temple was constructed by the Banas of ninth century. The Chola rulers of the 11th century constructed the roof of the temple. The marriage hall was built by the Hoysalas in the thirteenth century and a wall of the second complex was built by the Vijayanagar kings. (Source)

Recently during a friend's wedding, I could click some photographs of this temple.

The wheels made of stones. In the past these were used for the chariots I guess.

It takes skill to create gods. Certainly!

And when they are created...

Wonder who was in need of these stone made umbrellas. Carvings are just wonderful.

The stone made umbrella inside the main temple.

The top of the umbrella.

Ugra Narasimha on one of the pillars.

Pillars and Colors.

Pillars inside the main temple of Bhoga Nandeeshwara.

A mantap at the north-west corner of the 1st complex.

Snake gods and the red hibiscus.

Pillars at the marriage hall complex

Entry to the huge Kalyani

Mantap inside the huge marriage hall.

The gorgeous kalyani

Pillars and the reflection

Illumination in sleep

from here to eternity

Angles and Shadows

 (C) Srikanth Parthasarathy, 2011

Thank you

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I see the change! What do you think?

This is our great Bengaluru!

They made me sit in Lalbagh always and I watch people who visit this place every day. People come in groups and sometimes they will be alone. Lonely wanderers are more and they come here not to visit me but to visit themselves and explore their sentiments. I have a designation and people call me ‘God’. People respect me and they do all kinds of Pooja to keep me happy. But when they come here, they throw some light at me and capture me on their screens! I am so helpless that I cannot even smile at them. What I can do is to give place for them to sit next to me and rest. Poor guys they will be so tired that they do not even bother that I am right next to them and they throw all kinds of things on me without knowing. Why can’t they use the ‘Use Me’ bin there?

I see people in all kinds; some wearing dhotis, others in suits, some donning white caps and covered top to bottom in a black burkha. I guess there are a variety of people in the world. How do I know? I am just in stone here. I wish I had life to get up and go to change things the way I see it. I feel awkward sometimes that some people hesitate to even touch me and only a few touch me, hoping I will bless them. While these things are happening, I only feel that this is not the right place for me as there is something wrong with people. They are so indifferent. Why can’t they follow one practice and make my life and their lives easy to manage? I only wish I should not be here in my next life. If I do happen to sit here again, I would love to see people with like mindset and like hearts and like beliefs.

So one day, I was lonely, waiting for people to come and disturb me and start my day with difficulty. To my surprise, I saw four innocent looking boys came and they started staring at me. They were looking very different and I noticed they are from the different sect who will not even come towards me. I was very sure that they will not even touch me.

I was wrong, they looked at me, I do not know whether they have realised my presence or not, but they made me one among them and within no time, all five of us were sitting together! They started looking at the flowers which has no religion or sect! Then I thought! We are changing! There is some hope left! If I am accepted by these four gentlemen in Bengaluru, I will be acceptable to everyone, everywhere!

What do you think?

-Beloved ‘Nandi’

Photo Feature at: http://bangalore.citizenmatters.in/articles/view/1362-flowers-lalbagh-bengaluru

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