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Travel guide books can be both a blessing and a curse. On the positive side they can give some good tips, and save a lot of time and hassle especially with transport. But on the negative they can turn an adventure into a mere tourist route that everyone follows, as well as hype a place up beyond your expectations leading to disappointment. Don't believe the hype I found out in this case.
Sravanabelagola, pronounced Srav-an-bela-gola (a right mouthful eh?) is a holy town for members of the Jain religion - a peculiar offshoot of Hinduism where every living thing is considered sacred including bugs. In a landscape flat for miles around, the town is distinctive for it's two distinctive rocky hills, each with very old temples at the top. The temples though weren't really the attraction for me, more the supposed promise of great scenery to cycle around, the desire to get off the beaten track away from the popular tourist places, and the 'unforgettable sight' of the landscape at dawn from the temples according to the guide book. However I travelled quite far out the way to get there, only to find in reality that the bike hire shop didn't exist, the landscape was pretty ordinary, many tourists visited the town by day, and the 'unforgettable sight' wasn't actually that exciting.
Arriving mid-afternoon, I checked in at the only cheap accommodation available; in an interesting guesthouse complex run for visiting pilgrims run by a local Jain organisation. I went to hire a bike as planned, to find no such shop actually existed despite what the guide book said. Whilst asking around, a guy offered to hire me his own. He went round the back of his shop, returning a few moments later with something suitable for a twelve year old. I insisted it was definitely too small, but he was having none of it, 'try it anyway' he said, so I went for a test, looking like some sort of circus act on this tiny bike before politely declining.
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| Jain temple on Chandigiri hill |
I changed my plans, and climbed one of the rocky hills to the ancient Jain temples in just my socks, as it's customary to remove your shoes in temples. I had a stroll around the complex and a caretaker ushered me inside a couple and passionately explained a few basics. I looked at the view of the area for a while which wasn't nearly as fantastic as I expected, and descended back to the town. A few people were buying fresh coconuts from a street vendor; a guy in a dirty vest with a thick moustache and big belly, so I followed suit. With a grubby looking machete, he hacked the top off and put in a straw to allow you to drink the water, and once you're done with that, he butchered it some more so you can eat some of the flesh, both of which were quite refreshing.
A little bored for once, and disappointed with the place, I decided to go for a walk for a few miles around the local countryside, passing through a village where people seemed quite surprised to see me. A few kids shouted hi across the street, which was lined by a couple of small shops and some small dilapidated houses, and a few buffalo were tied up beside the road. Interesting enough, and a good way to spend an hour or two. A power cut that evening - pretty common in India due to lack of capacity - was about the only bit of excitement in this boring little town.
The next morning, I followed the guide book's recommendation and headed to watch sunrise at the temple complex on the hill, supposedly an 'unforgettable sight' but a bit of a disappointing experience again. I arrived at the bottom gates at 6.15am to find the gates locked, and after an hour of waiting for the guy to come and open up with a group of eager pilgrims, the moment had definitely passed, and the experience not what I expected. Moan moan moan! A stray dog provided the only entertainment, racing everyone to the top, spending a few minutes there, then strolling back down - on his own pilgrimage perhaps?
Inside the temple complex was an 18 metre high granite statue of a Jain god - the largest sculpture in India, and carved from a huge rock that was placed there naturally; it was superbly crafted and a striking sight. It was interesting to sit and watch Jain pilgrims gathering at the base, who passed their gift of a coconut to a priest, who as part of the ritual poured the coconut water over the foot of the statue before blessing the worshipers.
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| The 18m high granite statue of Gommateshwara |
Sravanabeloga felt like a bit of a wasted visit at the time. On reflection though, the couple of interesting things made it a little more worthwhile, and it's just the nature of travelling sometimes; you travel to some places on blind faith and not everywhere can end up being what you expect, but you can usually take something from it anyway.
I had breakfast nearby to the hill before moving on, trying a couple of dishes new to me - an Idly, which is a kind of sponge pudding made from rice, and a Vada, a savoury donut from lentil flour, both served with a tomato dip and a coconut dip. The good thing about the early start was that by 9am I was packed up and on the road, spending the next six hours on three different bus journeys across the state of Karnataka. We overtook small trucks with two or three cows in the back, another containing a ram died bright pink, and one full of about ten people stood in the back and the roof rack. It was very noticeable though how much better the buses and roads were in the south of India, compared to the north where they can be pretty terrible, and the driving a little calmer to boot. Heading further south to the supposedly beautiful Coorg region, I wondered if this time it would be the real deal or more hype?
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