Monday, January 17, 2011

Gummanayakanapalya Kote, Near Bagepalli

   "Gummanayakanapalya", is a small village located in Bagepalli taluk of Chikkaballapur district . This place is home to a lesser known fort built by a local chieftain with the help of a wealthy farmer Gummi Reddy. The history of this place is not very well known .The board put up by the Government of Karnataka Tourism reads  " Welcome to the historical place of  the Vijayanagar Kingdom " and gives  details of the facilities available here . But none of the facilities exist today .
Welcome Board
     This place was on our to-be visited list since a long time. Finally,when we landed here, the only  thought in our minds was how could such a beautiful place be a lesser known and talked about place.
Initial View
Closer View of the Magnificent Fort
      The journey was an amazing one for two reasons -  the long bike journey and the pleasant weather all along .
  NH 7-A Pleasure to Ride
A Beautiful Lake
Smooth as Butter
The Sunny-Shady Road
Lovely !
Bike Park
     After interacting with a few locals , we started to walk towards the fort.  The entrance to the fort is very grand. On entering the fort , we spotted two small temples, one dedicated to Lord Anjaneya and the other  to Lord Ganesha .  Proceeding further, we found an other entrance, which had wonderful carvings on it . It was surprising to see erotic carvings on the wall .
The Main Entrance
Top of the Inner Entrance
 Entrance- View from the inside
Lord Anjaneya
Lord Ganesha
Dancing Couple
Carvings on the Wall
Man Fighting a Tiger
Snake Charmer
Erotic Carvings
Use of a Gun
               We also found the remains of a palace, probably built by an Islamic ruler since it resembled the Indo-Islamic style of architecture .   
Remains of the Palace
A Portion of the Palace
      There were many ruined structures on the way to the top of the fort .The inner tiers of the fort walls are intact . The last (inner most) tier opens up into a plain land with some ruined structures.
The Fort Wall
Temple
Walk to the Top
The Summit
Eternal View from the Top
Truly Breath-taking
Aerial View
Bird's Eye View of Gummanayakanapalya
Directions from Bangalore: Bangalore - NH7 - Right turn - Bagepalli - Travel about 8 kms - Left turn (there is a sign board )-  Travel about 16 kms - Left turn (there is a sign board ) - Travel about 5 kms - Left turn - Proceed further to reach the village of G N Palya

Distance from Bangalore: 150 kms

To be continued .............

12 comments:

  1. Superb! Just the kind of place I would love to visit too over a weekend!

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  2. Fantastic post as always! And such an amazing, beautiful place! Your photos are superb, of course. How I would love to visit there! Does look as though you had gorgeous weather. Thank you for the tour and the fascinating information you share with us! Have a wonderful week!

    Sylvia

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  3. Stunning! Loved the place, and would definitely love to visit it someday!

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  4. As Siddharth opined, it will be a great week end spot.. Very good photos and nice write up TGS.

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  5. You do get to visit wonderful and exciting places ! Enjoyed reading the informative post with detailed pictures.....sad to see the walls crumbling away.

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  6. would like to be there someday..... very colour full n informative post

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  7. Interesting pictures, especially the one depicting use of gun. Thanks for sharing the directions ...hope to visit this fabulous fort some day.

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  8. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thollapalli

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  9. Great work TeamG .love your enthusiasm

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