Bangluru-Dharmastal-Kukke trip

Trip from Bangalore-Dharmastala-Kukke

Tuesday 28th May 2016,


Weekend of May 28, gave us opportunity to visit Shri Kshetra Dharmasthala and Kukke Shri Subramanya.

This was my second trip to these auspicious places. Last time, I had visited here a few years back and so was planning to visit again.

Though the travel plan was made in a bit haste, with not much pre-planning as such and just a couple of days before the weekend, this idea took root. Generally I take a couple of weeks planning before I undertake any trip.


There is a Railway link, but road is better medium to reach these holy places of Lord Shiva and Subramanya (Kartikeyan) respectively.

From Bangalore, Dharmasthala is about 320 KMs and Kukke is about 290.

As per the local traditions, if someone is planning to visit these places, they should first visit Dharmasthala and then Subramanya.


We started from Bangalore on Saturday morning at around 6:20 AM from Bank colony with our beloved i10.

Beloved I10

We took the route Yeshwantpur – Nelmangala – Kunigal – Hassan – Sakleshpur – Dharmasthala.


Note- "Bank Colony - Yashwantpur - Nelamangala (Take left towards Mangalore road after reaching nelamangala & look for a deviation board and make sure to exit from fly over) - Kunigal - Hassan - Sakaleshpur - Continue towards Mangalore and on the right side you see a deviation towards dharmastala (which is 20KMS). Take that road. The total distance will be around 305KMS."


When we started from Bangalore it was drizzling. Infact the whole night it rained at Bangalore. So the weather was a bit cool and visibility was poor. But advantage was that road was light and soon we crossed the city limits and hit the Mangalore Highway NH-48.

NH-48 near Hasan

We drove non-stop till Sakleshpur, where we halted for much needed breakfast at around 11 AM.

Before Hassan, there is Vittal Kamath Restaurant. It is a nice place to take some refreshment.

From Sakleshpur onwards the ghat road starts. The road is bad from here and very bad in between some places.

This last stretch of 80 KMs took about 2-1/2 hours!!

Small Curves with dense forest

Otherwise the natural beauty is superb at this stretch, Dense forest, mountains and amid them small water falls gives the eyes and mind peace and relaxation. Occasional sighting of Netravati river makes the surroundings even more soothing.


You can enjoy the travel seeing the natures own beauty.


When you reach near shiradi Ghat, you need to drive carefully. Because road is not good and truck drivers are very rash at curves!!

Shiradi ghat

We reached around 1:30 PM @Dharmastala. As the temple trust at Dharmasthala manages the tourist guest houses. There are many guest houses, Nethravati, Vaishali, Sharavati, Gangotri and Saket. The rooms are decent and clean.

We got a room at Vaishali. Took some rest and then started for Temple.

It was about 2:00 PM and we were disappointed to find that the temple is closed and will open at 7 PM.

We decided to explore DharmaSthala town.
The “DharmaDhikari” of DharmaSthala Temple Dr Virendra Heggade has done a lot to facilitate for the comfort of pilgrims. Kudos and thanks to him!!

There are two Museums at DharmaSthala, one is Vintage Car Museum and another is antique Museum. We decided to visit both.

Just before the Netravati Guest House, there is a small Dakota Aircraft housed. This was a gift from Mrs. Priyamvada Birla. This aircraft, built in 1928, is an attraction here.

We first headed towards Car Museum.

Infront of Car Museum, there is a small trainer aircraft from IAF kept, along with two pairs of iron wheels to be used by Elephant carts to carry heavy stone slabs. Also kept nearby is a giant tyre, which has the capacity to carry 120 tons of load and was previously used at Kudremukh iron ore mines.

The Manjush Car Museum is excellent and has a great collection. The oldest Car is of 1903 made, 1 HP Renault. It also has vintage two wheelers, Carts, Mercedes, Limo, Fiat, Austin, Impala, Daimler etc. It also proudly houses a 1929 built Studebaker, which carried Mahatma Gandhi, when he visited south India.

Then we visited Manjusha art Museum.

It has an excellent collection of antiques. Old sketches, paintings, coins, weapons etc, takes one to the distant past. The dress of "Bhoot Pooja" of Tulunadu is amazing. The old models of cameras, radio, typewriters etc are excellent.

These two museums are worth visiting and I thank again to Dr. Virendra Heggade, for his contribution to establish these museums.


It was about 5:30 PM now, so time to move in queue.

Dharmstala Temple

We got the fortune to enter the sanctum at around 7:15 PM. The Lord of Lords, Deva-dhi-dev Shambhu is here to bless all.

It was about 8:15 PM, when we came out of shrine. There was a big queue at BhojanShala “Annapoorna” so we headed towards a hotel and took some light dinner.

Annpoorna Bhojanalya

Food in Annapoorna Bhojanalya was awesome.


I could not sleep properly as I could not had proper darshan. My wife suggested me to have another darshan in morning.


I got up at around 3 AM. Then waited till around 4:30 AM to take bath and got ready to visit the temple again.Again about 1-1/2 hours of queue and now I was lucky that Lord Manjunath blessed me with his divine darshan. At around 7 AM, I was back to my room.


We had lite breakfast and started our journey towards Kukke.
Weather was very good.

Beauty near Kukke

This road is full with natural beauty and dense rain forest. As we inched closer towards Kukke, the Majestic Kumara Parvat showed us its view.

The clouds were kissing its peak and winds were playing with dense trees and vegetations, any ordinary person will also move into meditation by just the glimpse of these divine views….

We were there at this holy abode by 11 AM.

Kukke Subhramanya Temple

We proceeded towards darshan of merciful Lord Kartikeyan. I took special darshan ticket and so we were allowed to have the immediate darshan avoiding the long queue.
This temple is also famous for Sarpa Dosha pooja. Many people come here for Kaal Sarpa Dosha Pooja etc.

We entered the main sanctum and soon we were infront of the merciful Lord Shanmukha, the elder son of Mahadev and the commander in chief of Gods!!

After blissful darshan, we proceeded towards “Aadi Subramanya” Temple, it is behind the main temple on the banks of Kumara Dhara.

Rush was not that much here and we had a good darshan here as well.

It was time to take lunch. Temple provides free prasadam to all but as there was queue so we proceeded towards hotel “Kumara Krupa”.

We still had sometime, so we went to “Bildwara”. Its about 1 KM from temple on Bangalore road and at walkable distance.

There is an cave going below the earth surface, here Serpent King Vasuki was hiding and worshipping Lord Shambhu to protect him from Garuda. AS one descends down the cave, it becomes dark and as I was not equipped with any light, I did not entered inside the cave.

We walked back to main town and started our journey back to Bangalore. It was around 2 PM.

 As we crossed Sakleshpur, It started raining, but we continued. We stopped for a few minutes at Kamath for some refreshment, after crossing the Hassan and then drove non-stop to Bangalore.

It was 9 PM and we were at the warmth of home, sweet home.


Do’s and Don’ts

1. Dharmasthala temple timings are 6:30 AM till 2 PM and then 7 PM till 8;30 PM.
2. Subramanya temple timings are 7:00 AM till 1:30 PM and 3:30 PM till 8 PM.
3. There is no special darshan facility at DharmaSthala but at Subramanya its there.
4. Children below 2 years of age are not allowed at DharmaSthala Shri ManjuNatha Swamy Temple Sanctum.
5. As you enter the sanctum at DharmaSthala, first you will have darshan of Shri Manjunatha Swamy, then Shri Annappa, Mahaganapti and then divine mother. Be sure not to lose your sight from shrines as gate is small and the rush pushes you consistently and sometimes very forcefully.
6. All males should not wear anything above waist to enter into the sanctum of both these temple.
7. Mobilephones are allowed inside temple, but keep them in “tone off” mode. Cameras are strictly prohibited.
8. Both temples run “BhojanShala” where all devotees are fed with prasad without any charge.
9. Materials made of animal skin should not be brought inside the temple.
10. Please maintain cleanliness and meditate.

Expenditures:

1.  Petrol cost : 3000 Rupees (2 way)- 610 Kms

2.Breakfast : 200 rupees (for 2)- ವಿಠ್ಠಲ್ ಕಾಮತ್ (Vittal Kamat) restaurant

3.Tea- 50 rupees.

4. Snacks- 100 rupees