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Ancient temple; bustling junction

History: That s Madivala in Bangalore. The temple is said to be a Chola period str
ucture, making it one among Bangalore s oldest. The earliest record dates to 1247
AD and refers to lands donated below the big tank of Vengalur by a resident of Vepp
ur (Begur), writes Meera Iyer
For Bangaloreans,

Silk Board is probably synonymous with

traffic jam .

Non-Bangaloreans perhaps conjure up images of silk when they hear these words. A
lmost certainly, an 800-year-old temple is not what you would associate with tha
t bustling junction which makes the Someshwara temple one of IT city s best kept se
crets.
The temple is in old Madivala, a place where shops and houses open out onto narr
ow lanes that twist this way and that, and where children still play cricket in
the bylanes. And while traffic-induced chaos reigns supreme at the Silk Board ju
nction, peace and quiet hold sway at the Someswhara temple a mere kilometre away
.
The stone temple is said to be a Chola period temple, making it one among Bangal
ore s oldest. And there is ample proof of its antiquity. Large portions of its out
er walls are covered with inscriptions in Tamil and Grantha (an old script used
to write Sanskrit) characters, attesting to the temple s age. The earliest record
dates to 1247 AD and refers to lands donated below the big tank of Vengalur by a r
esident of Veppur (modern-day Begur). Other inscriptions seem to have followed in
quick succession, recording grants made during the reigns of Hoysala king Ballal
a III and Chola king Rajendra. One record, from 1365, mentions a land grant at T
amaraikkirai (meaning the banks of the lotus pond in Tamil). Epigraphy expert H S
Gopala Rao, Secretary of the Karnataka Itihasa Academy, points out that this is
the old name for what we today know as Tavarekere.
Apart from its obvious age, the Madivala area may have much else to boast about.
Gopala Rao mentions how inscriptions have been found elsewhere in Bangalore whi
ch suggest that the illustrious Krishnadevaraya, the most famous king of the Vij
ayanagar empire, himself spent some time in Madivala.
Today, though, there are no trappings of royalty, either in Madivala or in the S
omeshwara temple. The temple underwent extensive renovations five years ago, but
as Gopala Rao says, fortunately, the inscriptions were largely unharmed. The te
mple s outer walls that carry the inscriptions and also idols of various gods incl
uding Ganesha, Durga and Vishnu, remain unaltered.
Inside, apart from shiny new flooring, the garba griha and artha mantapa were un
touched. These inner chambers still remain small and darkened spaces that encour
age a personal and intimate communion with the Lord.
Apart from four carved pillars, the artha mantapa has a large and elegantly prop
ortioned granite Nandi facing the linga. Behind the Nandi, the eastern wall of t
he temple has a small opening that is directly in line with the linga.
In the days before Madivala was engulfed in buildings, the sun s rays entered thro
ugh this small opening to illuminate the linga. According to the priest, K Achyu
ta Rao, the temple s deity is a Swayambhu linga, i.e., it is said to have manifest
ed itself without any human agency.
Source:
http://www.deccanherald.com/content/14855/ancient-temple-bustling-junction.html
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