A Day’s Essence Of Malnadian Bliss (Part-1)
The tag line of Karnataka tourism is, “One state many world”. Monsoon is great time to explore few of those worlds and the Western Ghats or Sahyadri mountain ranges have set the euphoria to be experienced.
All of us were together, we the school mates had meet after a long time. This time, we planned a day’s trip. After few searches, we finally agreed upon visiting these places:
- Kundadri
- Agumbe
- Sirimane falls
- Shringeri
All the above places are around the 60 km radius from Thirthalli ( 60 km from Shivamogga).
Kundadri is a hill (826 mt) with dense forests in the Western Ghats located at about 20 km from Thirthahalli town. After a picturesque journey on SH-1(ussually called Agumbe road) till Guddekeri, a left deviation leads to the foot of the hill.

There is proper all season road till the top of the hill, our car was growling in 1st and 2nd gear to pull the load of seven people. Soon we could feel the altitude, wind was misty with raining clouds. Initially it was not raining but everyone’s hair was already wet, excitement was all in the air. Finally, after some 4 km of climb, a flat platform arrived. We hopped out of car and climbed the steps to the top of the hill to find a Jain temple dedicated to tirthankar. On top of the hill there are two pounds which are engraved on the huge ground boulders.

The view was vast, covered with dark green forest till horizon and few dots and snaky roads of human intervention.


After a long session of selfie in mist and clouds around, we entered the temple, it was sudden blindness inside. The priest noticed our arrival and offered a arthi ( fire ritual) on our behalf. He was kind enough to tell us significance and history of the place.

Two thousand years ago Kundakunda Acharya ( a Jain sage) stayed there and prompted the birth of Jain holy place. The main deity of temple is Parshwanatha, 23rd tirthankar. The priest told us, the temple is constructed in such position that the rays of both raising and setting sun falls on the feet of Parshwanatha idol. The dark bliss inside had dissolved the excitement into peace and tranquility, the warmth of arthi had touched the soul our of hearts and it was raining outside. It was time to move on for next destination, we ran down the steps drenched in rain and got back into our seats.
Then we headed towards Agumbe.
To be continued…