Palamalai - the Quaint little hilltop temple

Quite often we plan and go to so called exotic and extravagant places, yet we fail to discover and see great gems of places that are right next to our backyard. Palamalai, some 25 Km from my hometown Coimbatore is one such beautiful place. Visited only by some regulars of the temple, not many in Coimbatore visit this place, if at all they have even heard about this place. Palamalai is a quaint little village atop a hill about 25 km from Coimbatore, and is known more for its temple - Arulmigu Palamalai Aranganadhar Thirukkovil, (A Perumal (Vishnu) Temple) than its hilly locale. I have heard that the route was bad, but when I had visited – June 2011, the road was freshly laid, and was in best shape. The road can take you right upto the temple and you need not walk any further.

The route is as follows : Coimbatore ==> Mettupalayam road ==> Periayanayakan pirivu ==> Kovanur ==> Palamalai

After Kovanur, there doesn’t seem to be any human inhabitation and the roads are completely empty and peaceful. The road atop the hills is very good and even had a few hair pin bends on the way. After some 6/7 Km of winding hill roads amidst some scenic views, I reached the Top of the hill.


Route from coimbatore to Palamalai:

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The top of the hill reveals the large temple, nearby tea shops, and a few boys playing cricket with a bunch cut coconut tree branches.  At the top, you get fooled that the entire place is just about the single Temple which forms the central pivot of the place, though it is true, there is also an entire village that came after a ride down the road a further 1 Km. However we rather parked our bike at the temple and walked about on our foot to discover more. 

Farmyards along the way

Road near kovanur

Farther from Kovanur

Snapped En-route

Empty road stretch

Hair pin bend no 1

Viewpoint along the way

Cricket alongside temple

Bike parking area..!

Path to Theppakkulam..

The Theppakkulam

Near the theppakkulam

House along side the village

Lake near the village

MGR's midday meal hut

Whers my Midday meal...!

village backyard

yet another viewpoint

We enquired a few villagers around. We heard that there is a Temple pond / ‘Theppakkulam’ once you go down a small path behind the temple. A walk down this path for about a Km took us to this rather deserted and beautiful theppakkulam amidst thick cover of trees. We further ventured ahead towards the villages and small settlements and were surprised to find a beautiful lake alongside as well. The settlements were completely serene with hardly any one around to be seen. There was even a small elementary school with barely 10 students, we saw more of them infact queuing up for the free midday food than any class at all. A complete roundabout walk around the village lead us back to the main temple. A brief visit inside the temple gave a glimpse about the its history, where all we could find was that the temple was quite old and full of stories, hinting that it would be a must visit place for any ardent temple visitor. Further walk lead us to few more view points for our cameras. The local tea shop nearby served hot and spicy ‘black ginger tea’ (sukku kaapi !) which went just right with the Ragi thattu vada. This was the only place I have seen Ragi vada which tasted very good indeed.

After spending about 2.5 hours exploring the place we started back having spent one of our most satisfied and peaceful time of our lives.

DevarayanaDurga - the lovely hill temple

We were all set for a fine road trip towards Mysore with a plan to start as early as 5 am. However the regular evening summer showers was still continuing over the night and did not let us start with our bike trip early enough till 9 am. A random search in Google led us to a lesser known place called Devarayanadurga , off the Tumkur road which was closer to Bangalore at about 75 Km from the main city. Without much expectations and under dark and looming cloudsets, we started at 10 am towards Tumur highway. Starting  from Bannerghatta road it made sense for us to go via the NICE road, which turned out to be the best part of our bike ride. Awesome road, exotic weather and a lovely ride, NICE road is well worth a visit just for the love of biking.

The national highway towards Tumkur was very good and we had to take a deviation (north eastern direction , right turn) at Dobbasapete. From here on it was pretty much a straight road towards Devarayanadurga. After a small town called Uradigere (where there was a small mess where we had our lunch), the picturesque country side roads started appearing. Further on the road narrowed and started climbing towards the hill. We went straight to the Yogi Narashima Swamy temple, which is atop the Devarayanadurga hill. There were quite a few snacks shops here, but you would not get proper lunch anywhere near the temple. We had to climb some 100 steps to reach the temple. The view from temple was very good. We went past the temple atop the hill, a short and steep climb through the rocks will take you to the top of the hill.

The panorama from the top was indeed breath taking, and the setting was completely amplified by the overcast stormy looking conditions. The small temple spot at the top was particularly beautiful for photography. However I do not know how climbing over the rocks would have felt on a typical sunny day.

We came down with a heavy heart, and on our way back a 5 km ride took us to a place called Namada Chilume, a place where water supposedly oozes from rocks. It’s believed that Lord Ram was thirsty without water anywhere and he shot an arrow at the rocks which started oozing water henceforth. However the deer sanctuary at this place was good, enabled us to spot some deers for the camera. There was another temple closeby called Sri Veerabhadra Swamy  and  is also worth a visit for all those religious enthusiasts. 

Road on the way

Route view from the temple

At the templel

small sanctum atop the hill- notice the rain in the backgroud.!

View of the temple from hill top

Lovely panaroma at the top

Ringing the precarious bell.

NICE road was indeed nice!

Driving right into the rain

With some enquiries from locals, we found that Madhugiri fort is about 1 hour ride from there. I am not sure how good is the place, Moreover we did not proceed as the dark clouds  looked wickedly threatening, waiting to pour down at any time. I would advise those who come here to start early enough to cover all the places.

Its also worth visiting Sivagange, a temple town which is about 10 km in an another direction from Dobbasapete.

Route: Bangalore=> Tumkur Highway => Dobbasapete (Turn here for Sivagange and come back  ) => Dobbasapete  => Devarayanadurga

Best time to visit: Not on a hot day

Distance: 75 Km from Bangalore

I have heard that there are direct buses from Bangalore Majestic to Devarayanadurga, though I am not sure about the frequency.