The third part in this back-to-back trip series.

Start

Though I had lot of long-pending, far more important and urgent stuff to do at home, I decided to visit Mosale temple on the pretext of “putting long Dasara weekend to good use”.

My usual Google search for Hoysala temples didn’t give me much info about other un-visited temples around Mosale. So had to do some general search and take chances. And that is how my itinerary was drawn – Kowshika, Shanka, Salagame, and of course, Mosale for the grand finale.

Kowshika

The route to Kowshika was too good. Narrow village roads, some stretches of it blocked for drying corn grown there.

But the temple we visited wasn’t of Hoysalas. For a change, (according to the priest) it was indeed Cholas. He even showed the triangle-shaped impression at the entrance, which apparently is a symbol of Cholas to prove his point. The place and temple has its roots dating back to sage Vishwamitra.

From there we moved to Shanka.

Shanka

Shanka was earlier known as Panchajanyapuri. Panchajanya is the name of Krishna’s conch in Mahabharatha.

The priest had closed the temple and was about to leave. We met him at the exit and requested him to open the temple.

Again, very basic info about temple with locals. The temple is well-funded and well-maintained. But except for the main temple block, there is nothing to remind us that this is indeed a historical temple.

Salagame

The temple is very small. Some family function was going on when we reached the place and the priest was busy in that. So it was a quick touch-and-go kind of visit.

Mosale

Well, we botched it up again. Landed in front of some farm house next to the state highway as we followed Google maps.

We decided to make an exclusive or Mosale First trip next time.

Sidewing

It is common to see Ganesha idol placed on the compound wall of houses facing road at least in Bangalore. Since Shanka temple also faces the road and has a Ganesha idol, this is probably going on for centuries. Now I am really curious to know whether there are any references to this practice in some scriptures or holy books.

Salagame Channakeshava temple priest is a relative of Shanka temple priest.

A family member attending function at Salagame temple said he doesn’t recognize me and asked if I had come to their event. Wonder why he thought so… because I was wearing a kurta or did I look like a freeloader?