Our visit to TALAKAD - 1

Last week we also visited Talakad along with Shivasamudra falls.Talakad is located around 60 kms towards east of Mysore City and is on the banks of river "KAVERI". This place was once the capital city of "Ganga Dynasty".

Many of the temples were submerged in the sands of river kaveri. Now they have been unearthed by archeological dept of India. The meeting place of two rivers Kapila and Kaveri at this place makes it a beautiful. It is believed that more than 30 temples in Talakad are covered by sand.

There are many legends associated with this place which are amazing.

This is one of the temples at Talkad, one can see the excavation work still going on. I visited this temple from inside, though Pareekh preferred to stay outside. There is definitely something divine about this place. I cannot define it but had a very nice feeling, felt like sitting for sometime inside with eyes closed, but did not as we had lot more to discover in this area.

The presence of a large mass of sand in Talakad amid lush green vegetation is something that is worth pondering. While geologists say that Talakad is filed with sand carried by the wind from the dry bed of river Cauvery, the locals still prefer to go by the age-old tale of Alamelamma and her curse. Several interesting legends surround this place.. About 400 years ago, Srirangapatana is supposed to have been under the control of the mighty Vijayanagar empire. Alamelamma was the wife of the king’s representative named Srirangaraya. Every Tuesday and Friday, Sri Ranganaya-kamma borrowed Alame-lamma’s jewels and returned it after the pooja. Meanwhile, Srirangaraya developed a tumour on his back, resembling the hood of a cobra (the disease is called Bennu Phani Roga or Raja Roga in Kannada). Srirangaraya, along with his wife, came to Talakad to worship Vaidyanatheshwara with the hope of being cured of his ailment. Srirangaraya, however, did not survive for long, and his wife settled down in a small village called Malangi. During this period, the Wodeyars took over Srirangapatna, and started demanding the jewels. When Alamelamma could not bear it no more, she sent a nose ring to Srirangapatana and jumped into a pond in Malangi with the remaining jewels. Before she ended her life, Alamelamma is supposed to have uttered three curses, of which one is “Talakadu Marulagi.” When translated to English, it means, “Let Talakadu be covered with sand.” The locals still believe that Alamelamma’s curse is the cause for the large mass of sand in Talakad.