Statues of India 6: Sir Arthur Thomas Cotton, Andhra Pradesh

Sir Arthur Thomas Cotton, Andhra Pradesh

Also read about few other Statues of India.

Sir Arthur Thomas Cotton was a British general who was instrumental in building many irrigation projects in Tamilnadu and Andhra. His first project was desilting of the great Kallanai. He was inspired by the dam and proposed building upper anaicut where cauvery branches out as kollidam river. His projects in Andhra earned him all the fame. Kurnool Cuddappha canal or K.C Canal, Prakasam Barrage and Dowleshwaram barrage are some of his accomplishments. He also proposed linking of rivers in Odisha but was not approved because of huge cost involved. Due to his contribution Andhra and Telangana today is called as rice bowl of India (Though only 3rd in production). The east Godavari is called the rice bowl of Andhra Pradesh.

He was honoured with title Knight Commander of the Order of the Star of India, K.C.S.I in 1877.

Mypadu Beach, Nellore

Date: 30th Sep 2017

Visitors: Arun, Shilpi and Harsh

Fee: None.

Timing:  None.

Distance: 414 Kms one way.

Parking: Available.

Food: Available.

Photography:  Allowed.

Other attractions nearby:

Mypadu beach near Nellore in Andhra Pradesh was the last place we visited in our trip to Andhra and Odisha. The beach is located around 25Kms from nellore and is a good tourist attraction. The beach was crowded as it was the dusherra weekend. Though crowded the beach was clean and we spend couple of hours playing in water. There is a shiva temple on the shore and it was crowded because of festival. We stayed in Haritha hotel run by APTDC. We generally had good experience in haritha hotels in other places but this was not good. The room and bathroom was not clean. We just brushed and left the room early in the morning.

Few pics from the beach.

Nice waves to play.

Nice picnic place to spend some time.

Swachh bharat. A nice feeling when the tourist places look clean.

A nice clean beach to have fun for the people nearby.

Kanaka Durga Temple, Vijayawada

Date: 23rd Sep 2017

Visitors: Arun, Shilpi and Harsh

Fee: None.

Timing: 4:00 AM to 6:30 PM and 6:45 PM to 10:00 PM.

Distance: 667 Kms one way.

Parking: Road side.

Food: Available.

Photography: Not Allowed.

Other attractions nearby: Undavalli caves, Gandhi Memorial, Krishnaveni river museum.

The temple of Kanaka Durga is located on top of the hill Indrakeeladri. Goddesses Durga resides here with 8 arms in the name of Mahisasura mardini. This is the only temple where the main deity is decorated in various forms during the dasara festival. The main deity was decorated in the form of Gayatri Devi on the day we visited. There are various mythologies associated with the temple and the hill. One such is Goddess Durga pleased by the penance of Keela asked him to request for a boon. Keela asked the goddess to stay in his heart for ever. Goddess promised to come back after killing the demons in Krithayuga and asked him to wait in the form of hill. The goddess after killing Mahishasura came stayed on the hill and now blessing the devotees in the form of Mahishasura mardini. 

Another legend says that the hill was blocking the flow of river Krishna and gods requested the hill to make way for the river to flow. The hill gave a small passage for the river to flow.

Procession deity.

A colorful procession near the hill.

Many school students were involved in managing the crowd and keeping the place clean.

Devotees walk hundreds of kilometers from various part of andhra and reach the temple. 

We were here.

A must visit temple during the durga pooja celebrations.

Undavalli Caves, Vijayawada

Date: 23rd Sep 2017

Visitors: Arun, Shilpi and Harsh

Fee: Rs 15 per Adult. Video Rs 25.

Timing: 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM.

Distance: 667 Kms one way.

Parking: Road side.

Food: Not Available.

Photography: Allowed.

Other attractions nearby: Kanaka Durga Temple, Gandhi Memorial, Krishnaveni river museum.

Undavalli caves near Vijayawada is a four storeyed rock cut cave temple. It was carved somewhere between 6th and 7th century AD during the vishnukundina rule in deccan. The top and the bottom floors are unfinished. The first floor has the idols of Tirumurthi, Lord Bramha, Vishnu and Shiva. The second floor houses the anantha padmanabha swamy, Lord Vishnu in reclining pose on the serpent king Adisesha. There are few more smaller caves nearby but the four storeyed structure was the main attraction. These caves probably were Buddhist caves once and later the idols of Hindu gods were added. These caves looks a bit similar to the Kandhagiri and Udayagiri caves in Bhubaneswar.

Some Telugu inscriptions on the rocks.

Idol of Lord Vishnu in Narasimha avatar.

Bull taming probably.

Image of Lord Bramha sitting on lotus that sprouts from Vishnu's navel.

Lord Vishnu in Anantashayana.

Way to the top floors.

Idol of Lord Hanuman.

Other smaller caves around the hill.

We were here.

One of the few attractions that can be visited in Vijayawada.

Weekend Getaway 43: Srikalahasti Temple, Srikalahasti

Date: 14th May 2017

Visitors: Arun, Shilpi Aarush, Radheshyam, Usha, Sourav and Harsh

Fee: Rs 50. Free available as in all temples. The price for Rahu Ketu pooja varies from 300-5000.

Main Deity: Lord Shiva

Srikalahasti temple is the only panchabhoota sthala present outside of Tamil Nadu. Other 4 panchabhootha sthala are

• Thiruvanamalai - Fire
• Chidambaram - Space
• Kanchipuram - Earth
• Thiruvanaikaval - Water

Lord shiva in this temple represents wind (vayu). This temple is famous for the rahu ketu pooja and we saw various places offering the pooja service at varying cost. As always the low cost one was crowded and pooja was performed in a hall. The 2500Rs one was performed inside the main shrine and were only limited people. There were poojas for 500 and 1500 as well. The temple is around 1500 years old and its the only temple in India which is not closed during solar and lunar eclipse. There is a smaller temple on top of the adjoining hill for Kannapa nayanar. He was one of the 63 nayanars. The legend says he was ready to offer both his eyes when he saw the blood was oozing from the shiva linga. Shiva moved by his devotion stopped him and gave him back the eyesight. 

The temple was bit crowded when we reached but it was moving fine. There are many smaller shrines inside including Ganesha and Karthikeyan. We climbed up to the kannapar temple on the hill to get the full view of the temple. The view the beautiful and it would have been even pleasant if there was water in Swarnamukhi river. 

Also Read Sri Venkateswara Temple, Tirupathi

Few pics from the place.

One of the famous Hindu temples dedicated to lord Shiva and a must visit place.

Things to remember while visiting Tirupati

We visited Venkateswara temple in Tirupati on 13th May 2017. In this post we tried to give some information that one needs to remember while visiting the temple. The temple gets 50K to 100K visitors everyday. This increases on special festivals. With so many people visiting, the rules are strict and needs to be followed at any cost to not cause any inconvenient situation.

Few things to remember.

Tickets:

Book the tickets online from the ttd website.
Make sure you provide the correct ID proof and make sure to carry the same.
Kids below 5 years does not need any proof. Kids between 5-12 years need to carry ID proof to get free entry. Adults need to carry the exact same ID proof that was given during ticket booking. You can select any time slot as per your convenience. Tickets can also be booked on behalf of others.
Carry the print out of the ticket.

Dress code:

Kids are allowed with pant. Adults are supposed to wear full pant or dhothi. There are people selling dhothi outside and they tell trousers are not allowed and try to sell you their stuff. We saw men wearing jeans and was allowed inside. However it will be good if people went in traditional dress.

Security:

No luggage is allowed inside. There is cloak room in multiple places and all the belongings can be deposited in there. No electronic device allowed inside. Mobile, camera and footwear should be deposited and slip collected. The luggage can be collected from the common area. All the things are transferred from ATC cloak room in small lorries. If you do not wish to click pictures of the temple outside leave the mobile and camera in car else leave it in cloak room so you dont have to walk back a lot.

Check post:

Stop the car, let other passengers to go through the security check. Driver needs to be with the car. Need to open the trunk as well as the bonnet of the car and let the security inspect it.

Drive:

Do not stop the car while driving up unless you spot a really big place to pull over. Since its one way the vehicles turn very fast in the curves. There are many speed breakers (but small ones) while coming down so do not speed. There are few designated parking areas but the hill is too big and there are many places to park on the road side.

Crowd:

It is going to be crowded any day of the year. Make up your mind to wait atleast an hour or more. If you can get darshan before that then you could be really lucky. As in any place where its crowded in India do not expect people following queue.

Others:

You are allowed to carry water bottle. Sometimes the wait gets too long and definitely people need water. The water bottles are allowed in a bag.

You are Welcome.

Weekend Getaway 42: Sri Venkateswara Temple, Thirumala Tirupati

Date: 13th May 2017

Visitors: Arun, Shilpi Harsh, Radheshyam, Usha, Sourav and Aarush

Fee: Rs 300 booked from the temple website. Toll Rs 30.

Timing: I guess full day. Cars are not allowed up from 12 midnight to 2 AM.

Main Deity: Lord Venkateswara, incarnation of Vishnu.

6 year ago we were pushed, pulled, crushed, waited for 4 hours and finally came out without worshiping. 6 years later it was the same except that we stood only for an hour and finally had the blessing of Lord Balaji. We had booked for 4 PM slot on 13th. We reached haritha hotel in kalahasti at 11:45 AM itself. The hotel is bit faraway from Tirupati. We rested for couple of hours and started at 1:30 from the hotel. We reached the base at 2:00 PM. After the checking at the toll we drove up the thirumala hills. The good part about the drive is its a separate route for climbing up and down. The view from the hills was beautiful but there are very few places to stop. The view especially while coming down in night is breathtaking. The view of tirupati under light was truly mesmerizing at while coming down after sunset. We struggled a bit to find the ATC parking area where the Rs 300 ticket holders need to report. We parked the car a near the Indian coffee house and walked to the parking area. We had few pain moments and a separate post on what to do and not to do coming up soon. After we got our tickets checked we joined the line. We kept moving at slow pace but we thought its fine as long as we move. We were expecting huge crowd as it was saturday evening and holiday season. We managed to get the darshan of Lord venkateswara in an hour and half which was not bad. We had more trouble in the crowd while coming out than while going in. The exit was closed for 15 min for the uthsavar to be brought in. This caused more people to be gathered to get out and it became unmanageable. The door is small and either people can go out or come in. The guard block one side and let people in and then block other and let people out. Harsh and I came out first but other got stuck and came out after 10 min. One thing i regret is leaving phone in car. The temple was decorated beautifully with serial lights. We did not have any phone to take pic. We could have deposited the phone in the cloak room and took it back after coming out. Anyway we came out had some snacks and again made a long walk back to car. We reached the hotel around 9:45, had dinner and fell asleep immediately.

Also read about Srikalahasthi temple near Tirupathi.

Few pics from the visit.

Expect the pushing, shoving and squeezing. If you do not like it just don't go instead of cribbing.

Photography: Flower

Taken during our trip to Horsley Hills.

Thoughts, comments and suggestions?. Please share it if you like.

Weekend Getaway: 20. Belum Caves and Gandikota: Part 2

After leaving Belum caves we passed though these barren lands and winding roads to reach Gandikota.

We reached Haritha hotel around 5 PM.

We called it a day and decided to just walk around the resort.

Each room has a private terrace from which you can see sunset.

Just too beautiful.

Sun gently kissing the hill top.

The hotel was maintained by APTDC. The was spacious and has a small kids play area, individual cottages, restaurant.

The hotel is not listed on APTDC for online booking.

Call 09848190361 for reservation.

There is no other place nearby. The hotel is less than a Km from the fort. 

The room and bathroom are clean.

Its 1250+Tax for a AC room.

We were sitting in kids area and talking while harsh was busy playing in sand.

We finished dinner and had a very good night sleep.

 Next day we started from room at 7:15 and reached fort. Its 3 min drive. Park the vehicle at fort entrance and explore the places by walk.

 First there was charminar (not so charming minar) ;)

A cool drink shop and the only shop inside the fort. We decided to visit the gorge first and everything else later.

The rocky path will lead you to the Penna Gorge.

This is the main attraction of Gandikota.

My parents were able to climb till a certain point. After that it was bit difficult for old people.

View of Grand canyon of India ;)

 Panoramic view of the gorge.

The walls protecting the fort along the river.

Wondering how they built it and how long it took.

Shilpi and Harsh on top enjoying the view of the beautiful landscape and river.

Shilpi climbing back after going to the edge of the hill top.

Photo time ;)

Harsh saying something to his grandparents.

Its rocks everywhere.

Penna river flowing below.

Ranganathaswamy temple. This is next to the gorge. The temple has beautifully carved stone pillars. 

The temple is not worshiped currently. There is no statue at the garbagraha.

View of Madhavaraya temple tower from ranganathaswamy temple.

Granary. There are plenty of parrots and squirrel on this. May be they are still thinking animal feed is still stored here.

Jama Masjid

The path to Madhavraya temple is not so clean.
The hen, goat and cows defecated in the middle and humans on the sides :(

Iconic tower of Gandikota. The temple was closed and we just took a walk around the temple.

Two parrots having private time ;)

Sorry for intruding into your privacy :)

The walls protecting the fort and the village inside.

A Jail.

That ends one of our memorable trip.