Arunachaleshwar

The temple of Arunachaleshwar stands bang in the middle of the village of Harohalli in the Bangalore Rural District of Karnataka. This village seems to be of little importance as after repeated searches on the internet i could gather no details of the place barring its name and the census figures. Anyhow, it never really figured in our get-away destinations except as a convenient base for scenic spots around its vicinity like, Billikal Betta among others. Finding our way in towards the temple was difficult, not because of anything but bikes and autos parked in the already narrow streets. Getting off the car, lifting and shifting the bikes every now and then was...one hell of a job! Though, we finally made it to the temple and with that inviting and imposing gopuram or the entrance-arch, we made our way in.

 

the gopuram of arunachaleshwara  temple

view of the temple from the entrance

Surprisingly, we were the only people there with hardly a soul in sight. As expected, there's nothing special about the place- a typical dravidian-style temple which this part of the country abounds in. Things like- a garishly painted new shrine in the complex (not in the pics), part of the boundary wall brought down for some reason, heaps of rubble all around and no flooring but mud to walk on, really put me off. This was all done in bad taste and utter disregard to the heritage of the place. Maybe the place was under  restoration, or so i thought for a moment, when suddenly a harsh fact dawned on me that it  was more of  a 'renovation' than anything else, which has become so popular among our populace now days - beautiful old structures giving way to ugly designs.

a pillared corridor in the complex

the main shrine

courtyard in the temple premises

The only things of interest were a few odd structures in the complex like, the shrine of the bull Nandi facing the main temple, the tiny Nandi sitting quietly beneath the huge peepal tree and the colorful reliefs on the pillars and other elements of the main shrine.

nandi facing the main shrine

relief on the pillar of the main shrine

a peepal tree next to the nandi shrine in the courtyard

a peek inside the main shrine

Two unusual looking stone contraptions caught our attention that lay on the ground outside the temple, which actually turned out to be `chakkis' or oil-mills in disuse - the only things worth seeing here, i guess. So, all in all the place has nothing great to offer (both for the pilgrim and the tourist, if any!) and should be bypassed and best avoided.

oil-mills or "chakkis" outside the temple