Holenarasipura...

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Recently, On Aug-14th, I had been to my "Native" Place. It had been a really long time
since I had been there, like eternity!!

For starters, I am from Holenarasipura.
Holenarasipura is a town in Hassan District. It is situated on the banks of the river Hemvathi. Recent Claim to fame - H.D.Devegowda's hometown, he was born in Haradanahalli village,
in HNP taluk!! He was elected to the Karnataka assembly about 4 times from here.

The Journey -
We started at around 9AM from Bangalore; we took the KSRTC bus, which goes to Madikeri thru HNP. It takes about 4-4.5hours to reach the place. The roads are good, NH48, till channarayapatna. After which the roads are a bit "shaky". But, once you reach HNP its
returns back to normal.
The Place -
HNP and its surrounding villages offer sheer scenic beauty. A river with clear water, Lush green fields, and a historic temple. It houses Narasimhaswamy Temple which is supposed
to be around 500 to 600 years old!! It's famous for its "Rathotsavas" which are held every
year.

"Santhe Nodrappo Santhe"!!
Every Mondays, a "Santhe" is organized. Rather than saying organized, it just happens
or "takes place". "Santhe" literally means a market place. Since, Aug-14th was a Monday
we had a chance to visit and experience a real "halli Santhe". It was good to see all
those "fresh" vegetables, "colorful" Kumkums, different types of Grains, I believe i saw
some 8 different types of Jaggery!!

The River -
After the Santhe, we wandered towards the River, which is just round the corner from
the "Santhe". Hemavathi, is the river that flows thru HNP, It is a tributary of the river Cauvery. The river bends away from the town here. This time around, thanks to the rains,
we could see the river in its full glory. The Green fields across the river are picture
perfect and when the sun shines down on the river, the glistening effect that it gives
is worth watching!

The town actually derives the name from this river, Hole (Ah, you know very well
how to pronounce it!) actually means "River" in Kannada, "Nara" coz it has
"Narasimha swamy" Temple and "pura" = City/Town. So, as a whole - Holenarasipura.

We went back to our "Ancestral House" after spending about 2hrs near the riverbank. The house is supposed to be built by my Grandfather's Father, that's my Great Grandfather! Although, some minor changes were made to the house, it still retains its ancient flavor.
A good dinner (as a note - The vegetables for the dinner came from our own backyard!!)
and nice sleep took us to the next day.

The next day, the Aug 15th, we left for Ramanathapura.

RamanathaPura -
Ramnathapura, is an another historic place. It is a noted pilgrimage centre and is
supposedly called as "Dakshina Kashi". We had a stop over at Arkalgud, from there a
"Kempu Dabba" to Ramanathapura. The Total distance is around 25Kms from HNP.

The route is quite enjoyable with quaint neat villages and several streams and canals that passby. This place is supposed to be older than HNP and according my uncle, it has
figured in all the four yugas with a different name each in each yuga. In Kruthayuga,
it was called Samvarthakapura which was named by Samvathakarushi. Then followed
names like Vanhipura and Vasavapura before (as legends say) Lord Rama glorified this
place after killing Ravana.

Ramanathapura has a long bridge built accross the river, this bridge divides the town into northern and southern parts. The Southern side, houses the Chaturayuga Murthy Temple.
The temple, besides the "udbhavalinga" also has Vishalakshi, Meenakashi and Hanumantheswara idols. About 40-odd Shivalingas carved around the Temple walls.
After this, we had been to "subramanya swamy", "Agastheshwara Muni" and
"Pattabhiraman" temples, which are on the northern side of the bridge, the other side.
The "Agastheshwara Muni" temple looked truly ancient compared to the "Pattabhiraman" temple, which is more of a renovated temple, complete with its granite slabs and
fancy idols.

A little further is a small temple of Vyasanjaneya. It is supposed to be "installed" by Sri Vyasaraya, this is one the 732 Hanumantha idols by the saint. Here, the Hanumantha is represented in a distinct form with canine teeth, a dagger in hand and a bell tied to
the tail. This form is supposed to be assumed while Hanumantha slayed Kumbhakarna.
Behind the temple there is “Gayathri Shila”, a stone pavement in the middle of the
river where Vishwamitra is believed to have performed a penance!
It was quite late and since the river was flowing quite rapidly with no boats in sight,
we couldn’t see it :(.

After all this, it started raining, quite heavily. We had to return back to HNP.
After some hot "bondas" @ home, we started back to Bangalore. We had just one more
thing to do before retruning back to Bangalore. We had to go to Hassan. The one and
only reason to go to Hassan was get sweets for my project mates!! We finally “caught”
a Semi-Deluxe KSRTC bus back to Bangalore.

Conclusion: HNP is a damn cool place!! Do Visit!!

Getting there: Drive on NH 48 to Hassan and take road to HNP (28 kms) or turn at Channarayapatna and follow the road.
Many buses ply frequently between Hassan and HNP. Also, There are direct buses
from Bangalore to HNP.

Man!! Such a long post!! Well, it took quite sometime compose this and it took a
hell lot of time to format this thing!!
So many testcases executed that my counter actually shot up by 50!!