Chennakesava Temple, Somanathapura

There are so many wonderous places to visit that we do not know of simply because they are not well marketed or on the popular tourist circuit. Chennakesava Temple in Somanathapura near Mysore in Karnataka, India, is one such gem. I chanced upon its name when I was reading up on information pertaining to Gandikota and Belum Caves. Not heard of them either? Well, you are in luck; you can read about in my blog here.

Chennakesava Temple is built on the banks of river Kaveri and was consecrated in 1258 CE by Somantha Dandanayaka, a general of the Hoysala King Narasimha III.  It has been built in the classic Hoysala architecture. You can read more about its history and architecture here.

The drive from Bangalore to the temple would take around 2.5 hours. Since we were anyway going that far I decided to include a few birding spots a bit further away into the same trip. So the first half of the day was spent birding. We passed through some beautiful landscapes in doing so. Here is one picture I could not resist clicking.

We finally reached the temple some time post lunch. I had been worried that the temple would be crowded given it was later in the day. But my worries were laid to rest once I entered its premises. It was just us! Well, somebody was really happy.

Was it because we had the whole place to ourselves or was it that we had finally left behind the birding and reached? I dared not ask in case I got an answer that was not favourable for my future ventures 🙂 .

Here are some pictures of us at the temple:

The temple was indeed beautiful. Having no other visitors made it even more appealing. I guess part of this was owing to the fact that the temple was not well known. So should such lesser known places be popularised or not?

What do you think? Let me know by way of comments to this blog