Karnataka Chitrakala Parishath, Bengaluru, in association with Higher Education department,Karnataka Government, organized music program in their premises, first in the series of Cultural programs, according to the President, B L Shankar.
Dr B Jayashree
Program titled "KALA SANDHYA" and the one for today was "RangaGeethegalu" by the versatile actor, singer and director, Dr B Jayashree and her team.
The Team
B Jayashree is a veteran Indian theater actor and singer with a rich voice, has acted in films and television, Born in 9/6/1950, is creative director of Spandana, Theater based in Bengaluru.
She was nominated to Upper House of Parliament (Rajya Sabha) in 2010 and was awarded Padmashri in 2013.
with Jayashree
with Rohini
She is the grand-daughter of Celebrated theater director Gubbi Veeranna.
SELFIE
Today she sang many songs from drama, Bhakthigeethe and folk songs with her team, notably Rohini, who also compered and gave explanation of the song.
90 - minute program was quite enjoyable and refreshing.
There has been widespread opposition to construction of steel flyover of 6.7km from Chalukya circle to Hebbal flyover in Bengaluru. Congress Government headed by Siddaramaih adamant on going ahead with project, as they claim, it will reduce the TRAFFIC CONGESTION to KempeGowda International Airport.
Large number of citizens doubt about the intention of the Government including the cost of Rs 1800 crores and transparency involved, felling of more than 800 trees. Experts also of the opinion that steel bridge increases the temperature and spoiling the beauty of the city.
Citizen's group including many organizations and celebrities called for a protest on Sunday 16th Oct. forming a human chain from Chalukya circle to Mekhri Circle and thousands have participated to express their displeasure to the project and suggested alternates ways to reduce traffic congestion.
Hopefully, the Government respects the opinion and concern by the large number of Bengalureans and will shelve the project.
From KudalaSangama, we proceeded to Alamtti Dam, a distance of 15 km and reached there by 9.30am. The security do not allow visitors to go on the dam and we went towards the reservoir and spent more than hour in the terrace garden on the side of the Dam. The reservoir is named as "LalBahadur Shastri Sagar", in memory of Late Prime Minister.
Almatti Dam is in Bijapur (Now called Vijayapura), a small town in North Karnataka. It is built across the Krishna river, and is hydroelectric project, completed in 2005 and has target power output of 560 GWh.The dam height was raised to 524 metres and 200 TMC storage capacity in reservoir.
Seven terrace gardens have been developed as picnic spot in the dam area.Boating, musical fountains have been set in the area. On the side of the dam, "Rock Hill garden" contains artificial forest with ceramic wild animals and birds.
There are 28 gates and water released after the power generation, used for upper Krishna irrigation project.
After visiting, we left the place by 11 am and reached Hospet at 12.30, had lunch at Swathi Hotel, preceded for our return journey to Bengaluru via ChtraDurga and reached home by 7 pm
It was a pleasant trip and saw many places and Raghu's driving was sooper throughout.
After visiting Aihole, we left at 5 pm for KudalaSangama a distance of 50 kms, and reached the place by 7pm. Hotel room booked was at Kamath Yatri Nivas, we freshened up went to see the Sangameshwara Temple nearby.
Kudala Sangama is one of the important pilgrimage place for people of Lingayath faith, established by Basavanna in 12th Century. The Krishna and MalaPrabha river merge here at this place and flows east towards Srisailam. The Aikya Mantapa, or holy Samadhi of Basavanna, founder of Lingayath faith along with linga believed to be self-born (Swambhu) is here. The linga is below the riverbed and one can reach there by more than 100 nice spiral steps, constructed to reach the place, separately for going down and coming up.
At the Confluence (Sangama)
The Sangameshwara Temple
The Sangameshwara Temple is beautifully stone carved temple and is a marvelous piece of Art. The temple premises are neat clean, well maintained by Kudala Sangama Development Board.
AIKYA MANTAPA, SWAYAMBHU LINGA
NANDI
Basavanna, a saint, social reformer, was born in 1134 CE at Basvana Bagewadi, was a true devotee of Lord Shiva. He started new religion VeeraShaivism (Lingayith), preaching and writing religious literature in Kannada.
ANUBHAVA MANTAPA
There is beautiful Basava Dhrama Peetha (Anubhava Mantapa), where many images and idols of the followers of Basavanna and writing of the great Saint. The nicely maintained place is tourist attraction center.
The next morning also we visited the temple premises and Confluence (Sangama), for the beautiful view of the rivers and the sun rise.
After breakfast at the hotel, we left for visiting Almatti Dam.
After spending more than an hour at Badami Cave temples and temples, we proceeded to PattdaKal, a distance of 22 Kms. It is on the banks of Malaprabha river and the place is testament to the architectural prowess of Chalukya Dynasty from 6th century.
The temples are confluence of Dravidian and Nagara style of architecture. The whole place resonates with power of Shiva and large number of tourists visit every day.
The Chalukyas are famous as patrons of art and culture and they were blessed with some of the most dkilled artisans of their time and their combined efforts gave rise to some of architectural edifices of incomparable beauty.
Some of the main attractions are:
1. Virupaksha Temple - Largest temple built in 8th Century. It is adorned with intricate carvings and inscriptions. It houses several of Hindu Gods with remarkable craftsmanship and real that King Vikrmaditya employed archirect and sculptors from south to express admiration of art of Pallavas,
2. Jain Narayana Temple - The architectural vocabulary of the edifice is Dravidian and it dates back to 9th century with immense religious and historical importance.
3. Kashi Vishwanatha Temple - The temple dates back to 8th Century and was constructed by Rashtrakutas. The style is predominantly Nagara, and is famous for figurines engraved on the wall.
4. Galaganatha Temple - Dates back to 8th Century and faces east and located on the banks of Tungabhadra river.
5. Sangameshwara Temple - One of the oldest and dates back to 733 AD by the King Vijayaditya Satyashraya. It has Dravidian style of architecture and famous for intricate design and architecture.
6. Mallikarjuna Temple - The monument dates back to 7th century and contains both styles of architecture. It has four storied Griva and Shikara. The porch contains exquisite image of Narasimha killing HiranyaKsahipu.
7. Papanatha Temple - Dates back to 7th Century, and ceiling is adorned with images of ShivaParvathi with Gandharvas and Vishnu. Scenes and Ramayana and MahaBharatha are depicted in several carvings all over the temple.
AIHOLE -
After spending more than an hour and the guide explaining the place, we left for another historical place AIHOLE, a distance of 12 kms on a bad road. We had lunch at only one decent hotel available, Mayura, by KSTDC and proceded to see the monuments at Aihole.
Aihole was once the capitol of Chalukya Dynasty and is city with rich with illustrious history. It is an archeologist' delight with several temples dating back to Chalukyans times. The famous Chalukya King Pulakeshi II was follower of Jainism. The inscriptions have been composed by Jain poet Ravikeerthi, dating back 634 CE.
The main attractions of Aihole were:
Durga Temple - Dedicated to Lord Vishnu, most elaborately decorated monument, has the elements of Dravidian style of architecture with exquisite carvings adorning the columns at the entrance.
Ravanphadi Cave - Dates back to 6th century. It has carved panels on either side and has a triple entrance. Its adrnments dedicated to Lord Shiva, with MahishaMardhini, the greta Dancing ShivaLinga with Ganesh and SaptaMatrikas present in the sanctum.
Unexpectedly it rained at that time and we could not visit other temples and we proceeded to another place, a distance of 25km, Kudala Sangama for the night stay.
