Day Picnic to the beautiful Jain basidhi near Bengaluru – Mandaragiri

 

Bored from the daily monotonous schedule, decided to visit nearby places, as I was browsing on social media found this place interesting and very close, planned to visit after looking at various videos on youtube, hence planned to visit it with my uncle Sri R.S.Chopra and a friend of mine Mr. Janag, who is retired from the Army. 

 

Apparently, it was a Sunday we started from BTM layout after picking up my uncle from his house we began our drive towards Nelamangala and drove towards Bangalore – Tumkur NH 48 National Highway. 

 

Mandaragiri is a lost Jain heritage site, which is just ten km before Tumkur town after Dobbospet. 

On the Bangalore- Tumkur National Highway you take a right turn from the highway while driving from Bengaluru and enter inside the Arch and cross the railway track, from here drive for a two km, you will find the big Peacock statue and few yards away from there you can find a hillock, which has around 400 steps carved out of the stone, also there is a railing which acts a support for tourists to climb it, the hillock is around 500ft above the ground, the uniqueness of the railing is, this a water pipe, even it transports the water to the top, also in the scorching sun this metal railing will be cooler and it will protect from the heat.

We parked the car nearby and began to climb the steps, as we started the climbing, we met many youngsters and started a conversation and trying to know their interests, also learning their hobbies, it was one way of socializing and good to enjoy the company and my uncle is extrovert and very outgoing, he keeps speaking to everyone and no aire.

He loves meeting people and sharing jokes and some chocolates/sweets which he carries from the house. 

The views become more beautiful by looking at the surrounding hillocks, the farms, fields, and the lake nearby, and also you get a break from the breathtaking climb while you take a rest and take pictures, hence reaching top becomes more pleasurable.  Once we reached the top it is a great achievement and satisfaction and we entered inside the sanctum to look at the three Jain temples, which was under renovation and we started wandering beside the hillock and found a small pond and a large lake at a far distance, hence we started walking down towards the lake so we discovered a couple of old structures, small pond, and it becomes very interesting to understand the history about this place, so started browsing the google, then I found this interesting website www.chaloghummne.com where I learned the great history of this place and understood it. 

This is a wonderful day picnic spot for families to drive down from the city and also has good roads to reach here. But one needs to carry food, water, and snacks as there aren’t any places to have food nor a shaded place to spend time. Kindly travel with enough preparations.