Talakadu
is just three hours by road from Bangalore, on route to Mysore. It is about 130
km from Bangalore, which is the closest airport. You could drive down from the
Kanakpura Road or take the good old Mysore Road upto Maddur, past Mallavalli
and proceed on the road towards Kollegal. About 5 km before the detour for
Shivanasamudra Falls, there are sign boards indicating Talakadu, 22 km to the
right. The road is bad in patches and very often, it is long and winding,
without any landmarks or signboards.
It is
the classical Indian story. A tale told by gods and demons, filled with kings
and queens, replete with curses and boons. There is a little bit of history
here, blended with some geology and topped with legends and myths. Set on the
banks of the river Cauvery, this saga dates back to the 4th century and has
certain intriguing elements, defying the very laws of nature. This is the tale
of Talakadu, the erstwhile capital of the Ganga Dynasty which is now partially
buried under sand dunes. Many rulers have reigned over this once flourishing
city, but today it is a lost forgotten town, blown over by the sands of time
A curse
of a woman he says is the cause of this sand blown town, an erstwhile fertile
capital of several dynasties that ruled over Karnataka. A tale filled with
greed and lust for power. It was the time when Talakadu and Srirangapatna were
under the Vijayanagara Empire. The death of the last Viceroy, Srirangaraya
provoked the Wodeyars of Mysore to declare war. As Srirangapatna fell, the Wodeyar
ruler sent his soldiers to covet the jewels of the late Viceroy’s widow,
Alamelamma. As she fled from her pursuers, she is supposed to have jumped into
the Cauvery, uttering the curses. My guide gets all dramatic as he proclaims
the curse, “May Talakadu be always covered with sand and may the kings of
Mysore always remain without heirs.” The locals fear the curse as they
say that it has come true. Talakadu is mysteriously engulfed with a sea of sand
and the family tree of Mysore rulers show a large number of adopted heirs.
The story moves from being a mere myth to some
startling historic discoveries as well. Recent excavations have unearthed
temples from these mounds of sand and each dynasty has left their architecture
stamp on them. My guide points out that 30 such temples are still buried
underneath the sand dunes as we climb our way to the excavated areas
Panchalingas
Talakadu is famous for the Panchalingas – the
temples dedicated to Lord Shiva called Pathaleshwara, Maruleshwara, Arkeshwara,
Vaidyanatheeshwara and Mallikarjuna .Of these, the first two are the oldest,
built by the Ganga kings. The locals here say that the Shivalinga in the former
is said to change color according to the time of day – from red in the morning
to black in the afternoon and white in the night. To us though, in the cool
afternoon, it was simply black.
We paused to give our feet a bit of rest and
heard the story of Tala and Kada, the two hunters, after whom my guide says,
this town is named. One more story, this time, it fuses a bit of religion as
well. A sage, Somadutta and his disciples were killed by wild elephants when
they were doing their penance. They were said to be reborn as elephants in the
same forest. Two hunters, Tala and Kada watched the ritual of the elephants
offering prayers to a silk cotton tree and out of curiosity, axed the tree
down, only to find it bleeding. A voice then instructed them to heal the wound
with the leaves and the blood miraculously turned milk which immortalized the
hunters and the elephants as well. A temple later was built here around the
tree, and the place became known as Talakadu.
We resumed our journey and reached the
Vaidyanatheeshwara, the largest of them all, which was built by the Cholas. All
these temples are neatly thatched and embedded in pits as we climbed down to
visit them. Remnants of the bygone era were seen in some scattered stones,
broken pillars, an ancient well and even some idols. The Pancha Linga festival
is celebrated with much fanfare once in 12 years during the Kartika season,
where the temples are allowed for worshipping. The last festival happened in
1993 and the next scheduled late this year. The lost and forgotten township
sees throngs of devotees only during this period, while at the rest of times; it
remains a desolate spot, with a few picnickers.
Besides the Panchalingas, another magnificent
temple stands out even in the ruins. The Keerthi Narayana temple dedicated to
Lord Vishnu, built by the Hoysalas, to celebrate the victory of Talakadu over
the Cholas. Scattered stones lie all over the place along with the pillars,
stone inscriptions and some carvings are still prevalent. The main temple,
intricately carved houses an eight foot tall idol of the deity.
Excavations, they say have unearthed a 12-foot
tall stone mandapa along with remnants of Garuda kamba. Work by archaeologists
is still in progress here, as we stroll among the many stones, which my guide
claims are ‘originals’. It looked like each piece of stone was being numbered
and the mantapas were being rebuilt to recreate the splendour of the past.
We had walked for more than a couple of hours,
deeply engrossed in the continuous banter of our guide. Our feet caved in many
a time, as we scaled the steep sand dunes. In the last two hours, we had
traveled back to several centuries. We paused for a moment, taking in the
sight. The silence was overwhelming. The voices of the past were buried under
the layers of sand. We sat there, trying to build castles, but the wings gently
swept them down. This, we realized was the destiny of Talakadu -the confluence
of the historic and the holy spirit, where myths and legends merged, but were
all completely swept away by the blasts from the past.
