A team of six members consisting of myself, my son and wife, my aunt and cousin along with Anand Hatwar (a friend of mine) set out for Sigandhur. Sigandhur is a small place situated in the Sagar taluk of Shimoga district. The main attraction of this place is the Choudeshwari devi temple. Our journey began at 7 am from Davangere. After filling up the tank we left for Harihar. The road to Honnali from Harihar was good and the drive was pleasurable. From Honnali onwards the road to Ayanur was in bad shape. Although there were no big potholes, the road was single and rough.
At Ayanur, we joined the Bangalore-Honnavar Road (No.206), which was good as expected. Barring a small stretch of road, which was being repaired; the journey was smooth. As we entered the Sagar town, we took a left turn towards Ikkeri. We had to drive another 30 kms from this point to Holebagilu. This road too was single and in bad shape.
We reached Holebagilu at 11 am. We were greeted by a sight of large numbers of parked vehicles.
Since it was Sunday, there was a surge of tourists/pilgrims. The gram panchayat collected Rs.10 for vehicle parking. We were told that if we wanted to take our vehicle on the barge/launch, we would have to wait till 2 pm. We decided to park the car at Holebagilu and walked till the barge. We were fortunately at the right time and the barge/launch sailed to the other side immediately.
Sigandhur got surrounded by the backwaters of Sharavathi River when the dam was built. On enquiry, I was told that the first trip to Singandhur begins at 8.30 am and the last trip at 5.20 pm. The barge leaves back to Holebagilu at 6 pm daily. Two-wheelers are charged Rs.10/-, four-wheelers are charged Rs.15/- and tempo/jeep are charged Rs.20. Individuals have to pay only one rupee per head for the one-way ticket.
There was a big rush at the barge and people scrambled to take a good position. There are few rows of benches to seat the passengers. After a sail of 15 minutes, we arrived at the other side (Sigandhur).
The Choudeshwari temple is further four kms away from this point. There are frequent bus and jeep/tempo plying to and fro. The temple opens daily for darshan at 4.30 and closes at 6 pm. Since there were hundreds of people, there was a mad rush to get a seat. The bus was overflowing with passengers.
After we let the commotion clear, we managed to seat ourselves in a jeep. He charged Rs. 10 per passenger. It took us only five minutes to travel 4 kms.
Choudeshwari devi temple is small in built and the construction appeared fairly new.
After washing our feet, we had to go through a small queue to the temple interior.
Photography of any kind was not permitted inside the temple. After buying a ticket for pooja, we were divided into groups. There were no queue inside; instead people were let in batches. Devotees were made to sit while the other batch moved ahead. Priests collect any offerings made by the devotees and wrote down their names.
The priest announced that the Choudeshwari deity was very powerful and devotees come to her when they lose all hopes. He added that if a devotee seeks her blessings with full bakthi, their aspirations would be fulfilled. Those who had paid for pooja were given prasada (kumkum and sugar candy). Priest announced that after the aarathi, nobody should kneel down or prostrate before the goddess and aarathi would be made available to them outside the garbhagudi. After exiting the garbagudi in a queue, we collected the “Hannu kai” and left for the exterior.
It is believed that the goddess protects people and property against theft and robbery.
We entered the temple premise at 12 noon and were out at 12.50 pm.
There was a hotel near the temple, but we did not feel like having our lunch there. We luckily managed to find seats in the bus. Individual ticket costs only five rupees.
After alighting from the bus, we got into a barge and the sailing repeated.
We were at Holebagilu at 2.30 pm. After a slow drive back, we reached Sagar at 3 pm.
We had a good lunch at Hotel madhura situated near the KSRTC bus stand.
After the lunch and a much desired break, we continued our journey at 4 pm.
Treading on the same route on the way back via Ayanur, Savalanga, Honnali and Harihar, we made a brief visit to Ranganath swamy temple at Malebennur.
We reached Davangere safely at 7.45 pm.
Distance chart Davangere to Honnali: 56 Kms Honnali to Savalanga: 21 Kms Savalanga to Ayanur: 15 Kms Ayanur to Sagar: 54 Kms Sagar to Holebagilu: 33 Kms
my name is a.n.venkatesh.We also visited the temple. We left Bangalore at 4-30 early morning by car and reached Mrigavadhe in Thirthahalli Taluk at 1230 AM and had darshan of Mallikarjun swamy. We left place at 4-00 clock and went to Thirthahalli and reached at 1730 hrs. We had some coffee in nearby hotel and started our journey. As the barge was not available we decided to take the vehicle to the temple. We travelled, via nagar on Kollur road and reached sigandhur at 10-00 night. the hotel was closed. The Dharmadarshi was kind enough to offer some food. We slept in the open hall in the upstairs. at 11-0 nihht. Got up at 3-00 in the morning, took bath in the tap, and assembled in the temple by 4-00 am. the pooja had started by that time. and ended at 0630 am. We were informed that it is in this temple only the pooja is done in brahmi muhoortha. The archak says that Chowdeswari is very very powerful diety . and then we proceeded to Kollur. We enjoyed the temple and the trip and the pooja to the diety the route is Bangalore Shimoga-Thirthahalli-Mrigavadhe-Sigandhur and from Mysore we can directly reach Shimoga and continue the jurney
2 comments:
Thank you very much for the details.Really obliged
my name is a.n.venkatesh.We also visited the temple. We left Bangalore at 4-30 early morning by car and reached Mrigavadhe in Thirthahalli Taluk at 1230 AM and had darshan of Mallikarjun swamy. We left place at 4-00 clock and went to Thirthahalli and reached at 1730 hrs. We had some coffee in nearby hotel and started our journey. As the barge was not available we decided to take the vehicle to the temple. We travelled, via nagar on Kollur road and reached sigandhur at 10-00 night. the hotel was closed. The Dharmadarshi was kind enough to offer some food. We slept in the open hall in the upstairs. at 11-0 nihht. Got up at 3-00 in the morning, took bath in the tap, and assembled in the temple by 4-00 am. the pooja had started by that time. and ended at 0630 am. We were informed that it is in this temple only the pooja is done in brahmi muhoortha. The archak says that Chowdeswari is very very powerful diety . and then we proceeded to Kollur. We enjoyed the temple and the trip and the pooja to the diety
the route is Bangalore Shimoga-Thirthahalli-Mrigavadhe-Sigandhur and from Mysore we can directly reach Shimoga and continue the jurney
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