Trip to Malnad - Kuvempu Memorial

We had several plans in mind for this year end holidays. Nothing worked out due to various factors. One of them was a trip to Delhi. The ticket costs were prohibitive and we dropped that.  At the end it turned out to be a good decision after reading flight delays and diversion in Delhi due to fog for last few days. At the last moment we had to decide on a getaway and we decided to visit my cousin sister in Mangalore. On the way we planned to stay somewhere in Malnad and see some places there. I searched for homestays and found a reference from one of my colleagues about Bananki Homestay in Tirthahalli.

We started in the morning from Bangalore and took Tumkur road.  We then took NH206 from Tumkur towards Shimoga. Till Tumkur it was toll road which was excellent. NH206 was not as good but a descent road. But it is far far better than the road I was to travel in the later parts of this trip. From Shimoga you have to take NH13 to go to Tirthahalli which was a narrow but good and scenic drive.

We reached Tirthahalli around 3PM and Bananki Homestay was around 8km from the town towards Koppa on NH13. The homestay is run by a couple and their parents. The house is in the middle of a farm comprising of Aracanut and rubber cultivation. Aracanut seems to be a big crop and business in the Malnad area and you can see it everywhere you turn.

Bananki Homestay at Tirthahalli

As soon as we reached there, lunch was served to us. It was typical home made Malnad cuisine and very delicious. I later found out that it was for food many travelers choose this home-stay and they continued service excellent food to us till we left. After taking some rest we inquired about nearest places to see and decided to visit Poet Kuvempu's house which was around 6km from the home-stay. Kuvempu (Kuppali Venkatappagowda Puttappa) is a noted Kannada writer and poet.  Since I haven't visited such memorials before, we decided have try.

Kuvempu's ancestral house at Kuppali

It was almost 5pm when we reached there. They had Rs.5 entry fee to visit the house. It was a typical Malnad house with three levels. Many of Kuvempu family's household things dating many decades old were well preserved in this house. They had guides who explain every aspects of the house which I have rarely seen in many other similar memorials. It is one of the best preserved memorial I have seen. They also had many of Kuvempu's books on display and many awards and accolades he received during his time.

Near to the house is his final resting place called Kavishaila.  After visiting the house, we went to Kavishaila which is around 1/2km from the house on top of a small hill.  When we reached there, we were stunned by the magnificient rock structures built at the place.  It reminded me of Stonehenge in England and never thought any remotely similar structure will be present in India.  The supporters of the poet had constructed these mega structure to pay homage to the poet and it was wonderful to see.

Panoramic view of stone structures at Kavishaila. Kuvempu's resting place can be seen on the left most part.

There is a rock structure at the entrance to the place and many more surrounding the resting place of the poet in a circular arrangement. A raised platform in the center of this formation is the poets resting place. We also found some people doing meditation here.  By the time we reached here, it was past sunset and the light was very minimal limiting my capability to take any better pictures.

Stone structure at the entrance of Kavishaila

It was getting dark and we returned to the homestay.  Rachan who was running the homestay offered us homemade wine.  We spent some time around the bonefire lit near the house sipping wine.  It was tasting good and they sell it to the visitors if you want to take some home.  We had a very delicious dinner before hitting bed.

I will write the rest of the trip in my next post.