Delicious Delights

One of the things I miss about Kanpur is Baba Foods which is an eatery in Kanpur, near Parade. I came to know about it relatively lately, may be in my second year at IITK or in early third year, from one of my seniors. From then on I used to visit it regularly, at least once in a week on an average. It was some 13 or 14 kilometers away from IITK and if it was not for the arduous journey of one hour or so through the filthy and polluted Kanpur, I would have visited it more often to savour it's special dish Chicken Kaleji.

Not many varieties of dishes were served at Baba Foods, but whatever were served, they were delicious. Dishes which were on the menu included chicken kaleji, tandoori murgi, chicken biryani etc, first one being it's speciality. Till today I have never come across a dish made of liver which is as tasty as that dish. It used to be some what oily but that never mattered to me. That dish brought me to Baba Foods week after week, on an empty stomach. Nothing to write home about biryani, but tandoori murgi used to be good. I used to take two plates of kaleji, one plate of biryani, half tandoori murgi, one glass of lassi and my friend who was an athlete with larger apetite used to eat one biryani more than me. :-) When that pieces of kaleji or tandoori murgi goes in along with lassi, one forgets that arduous journey. Satisfaction worth ten times the money spent is guaranteed.

I am waiting to visit this place again since long. Dont know when I will get a chance again. :-)

Get the directions to Baba Foods HERE.

Pennahobilam

Pennahobilam is located around 50KM away from Anantapur on the road to Uravakonda. It is on the banks of a rivulet of Penna river on which PABR project (Penna Ahobilam Balancing Reservoir) was built which is nearby.

Pennahobilam is famous for the Narasimha Swamy temple which is on a small hillock. According to the mythology, Lord Narasimha left a big footprint here on his way from Ahobilam to some place in Nellore. Inner sanctum is built on the footprint.

I don't know who built the temple but my guess is someone from Vijayanagara ruling fold. It is built in granite stone locally available, so that leaves no scope for any sculpture on the pillars or the walls. There are four gopurams on the four sides of the temple which are renovated recently. Even the tops of the mandapam (temple hall) and inner sanctum are renovated recently. New constructions don't appeal to me much. Temple is enclosed in high walls just like a fort which was a practice developed during Pandyas. So my guess about Vijayagara period may be correct.

One peculiar feature of the temple is there are two high columns(dhwaja sthambham) side by side, excluding the one in front of them. Commonly only one dhwaja sthambham is built in any temple.

A Fair (tirunaallu) takes place here in summer which is quite good. Pennahobilam temple is a popular venue for marriage ceremonies in Anantapur. My parents married here, some of my relatives too. There are many choultries (colonnades) here built over centuries for the convenience of the marriage parties. Some centuries-old choultries indicates that this place was popular for marriages even centuries before.

Whenever Penna is full of water, this place looks beautiful. The "kona" here springs to life during rainy season. Otherwise it is quite dull.

I visited this place 5 times or so in the last 15 years, the last time being after a gap of 10 years or so. What I noticed is, the place has become dirtier. There is pond here which was a living pond even 10 years back. It was thriving with lotuses. Now it is in a sorry state with lot of garbage. Practically dead!!! The river too has become dirtier with the garbage. Urgent steps are needed to restore their beauty. 

Tadipatri Temples (cont)

Chintala Venkata Ramana temple is located near Bugga temple, nearly quarter kilometer away.

This temple is also built by Gandikota Nayaks just like Bugga temple. But I dont know who exactly built them. There are some inscriptions but I couldnt read them. :-)

The temple and gopurams are rebuilt just like Bugga temple. And just like the rebuilt parts in the Bugga temple, these also look awkward (but to a lesser extent) over the beautiful lower structures of the temple which are still remaining.

The sculpture is as exquisite as the Bugga temple. There is not a square-inch of area remaining empty. Ramayana tale is carved over the walls.

But what caught my attention was the rock chariot which reminded me the famous rock chariot in Hampi. This one is not that beautiful but very nice.

I was thoroughly disappointed because of the lack of services of guides to guide us at both these temples. May be that is because these temples are living temples and not very famous outside my district. Archaeological department, tourism department should have at least placed description boards for our convenience but not even one such board is present at Chintala temple. Only two such boards are present at Bugga temple. Because of this I couldnt even know who built the Chintala temple.

Worst thing is we dont find much material on these temples even on the web. Concerned authorities should wake up atleast now and start publicizing the temples by publishing online material in their websites. Guide services needs to be provided  to all the visitors. Conservation efforts should be taken up to preserve this heritage which we should feel so proud of.

On the whole, Tadipatri temples are wonderful, I had a pleasant experience.

(I will write more on the architecture of these temples when time permits)

Tadipatri Temples

There is are some temples in Tadipatri, but two are famous and majestic. They are Bugga Ramalingeshwara temple and Chintala Venkata Ramana temple. Here are the photos of these temples.

Bugga Rama Lingeshwara temple

Chintala Venkata Ramana temple

My interest in these temples was kindled by a documentary aired on DD Saptagiri long back. Till then I didnt even know that such beautiful temples existed in my district. From then on I tried to visit these temples and finally last month I visited them.

Bugga temple is located on the banks of river Penna. This temple was constructed by Pemmasani Timma Naidu in 16th century. He was a general of Vijayanagara empire. Might be under Sri Krishna Devaraya, but I am not sure.

Gopurams are located on the north and south side of the temple. One gopuram is left incomplete, I dont know why. The other gopuram which is the entrance is rebuilt over the remains centuries later as the original gopuram collapsed because of earthquake. (I am not sure about the earthquake thing). This rebuilt part looks awkward. The beauty of the remains of the original gopuram makes the rebuilt part look more awkward.

Some pillars in a hall in front of the main temple are tilting and most probably they will collapse in the near feature. Already some of the famous temples in AP collapsed like the gopuram of the Kalahastishwara temple and a temple in Guntur district. Archaeological department needs to take proper care of the temple.

The sculpture is exquisite and intricate all carved in black stone. One of the best I have ever seen.

River Penna water seeps into the temple, and somehow drops of that water springs out of the linga in the garbhagriha (sanctum sanctorum), possibly due to capillary action. Note that the point on the linga where the water comes out is 2 meters above the river flow.

Belum Caves

Belum Caves photos

Here is the link to the wiki page on Belum Caves. Everything you need to know is given there.

Because of my laziness, I always postponed visiting all the famous places in my district or near my district. Finally last month, shrugging off my laziness I started to Tadipatri from where Belum Caves are 30 KM away. After 2 hours of journey, I reached there.

There is a bigggg statue of Buddha, made of I-dont-know-what, on the way to the caves from the entrance. That was nice.

Caves are not fully explored and developed. Developmental work was still going on. In total the length of the corridors currently accessible to the visitors is around 3 KM. That 3 KM is enough in my opinion. At first, caves appear to be nice. But after 5 minutes every thing becomes repetitive, every cave appears to be same as the other. Even guides start saying same things over and over, this only reinforces the feeling of repetitiveness.

Inside the caves, fresh air is pumped by motors through holes in the caves. But when we went there, there was power cut and so I felt suffocated for sometime. Even after the power returned it became difficult for me to stay, I was already suffering from headache. After I came out of the caves, I felt relaxed.

AP Tourism department provides the services of guides for free to everyone. Not many tourists came on that day. Guides were saying that per day on an average 250-300 visit the caves. On peak days (holidays) numbers may go up to 700-800 it seems. There is a restaurant near the caves run by AP Tourism department if I am not wrong.