If you happen to be a
Bangalorean (one of the many who flock to the city of gardens/lakes/traffic/IT), the chances are high that you may have visited Nandi hills. Well, it is a cool tranquil place situated 2 hours from the city and is like a convenient weekend getaway. But, there's more to the Nandi hills excursion that what I had thought and this led me to a bit more research about the surrounding villages and voila, I found a sweet nugget called
Sultanpet.
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| View of the hill from Sultanpet |
Situated at the foothills of the Nandi, this village is a quaint one. With vineyards grazing its boundaries at one end and a magnificent temple at the other,
Sultanpet is one of those pages it the Nandi book which gets skipped. I visited the place with a colleague and we decided to flock through the bylanes of this quaint village to unravel the small kernels of knowledge and make the Nandi excursion more meaningful.
We started of with an abolished mosque situated right across the fields. This mosque in shambles is not used presently and serves as a cemetery. The tamarind trees highlighting the main gate of
Sultanpet with the monkeys hanging reminded me of the childhood. The village school just opposite the main gate had sounds of some Kannada rhymes being chanted in unison. And then there was the village barber, who was kind enough to understand my Hindi (people rarely know Hindi in remote pockets of Karnataka) and lead me to the potter's workshop.
Next, we headed to the
Bhog Nandeeshwara temple, just next to Sultanpet village. The temple is apparently 1000 years old and houses the motifs of Shiva. The temple courtyard is gigantic and again flocked with monkeys. We were happy to do the
darshan (worship) as the temple wasn't as crowded that day. The temple presents one of the more pretty views of the Nandi betta.
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| Bhog Nandeeshwara Temple |
A two kilometre walk from this temple, leads you to
Nandi halt. This essentially is a railway station and connects
Chikkaballapur district to the other districts of Karnataka. The station though dilapidated provides a panoramic view of the magnificent eucalyptus groves and is a feast to the eyes.
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| Team Explorers |
As we treaded further to explore the balmy countryside, we visited the museum as well as the samadhi (resting place) of Sir
Mokshagundam Visvesvaraya. He was a statesman, engineer and a Bharat Ratna recipient; a stalwart from these part of the globe.
We next drove to the Nandi betta and explored the panoramic view from the summit. The Summer Palace and the adjoining gardens were enriched with the flora of vivid varieties and hues.
The
Sultanpet tour not just unravelled the rustic countryside with pleased the eyes but also the timelessness and the simplicity of the life that is rare to observe in a city. Our senses had a field day as we conjured the ingredients that satiate the soul.
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| The Hill |
