Here I put down the article I wrote for Terrascape magazine. The published article has sketches from my previous post on Kavaledurga, but here I share several photographs, hoping to complement the sketches.
Kavaledurga is kind of eerie. It is a ruin, the expanse and at the same time depth of the jungle, with its sounds and air, makes it even more so. One has to visit it to get the feel.
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| Small gate on the first Terrace near the ramp |
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| A ruined temple in the jungle |
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| round bastion near the first Terrace |
It was
this place, this fort in some remote faraway place from where I thought I
was now settling in life, shrouded with mystery, reachable only till April-May
before the ever wild jungle took over the place for its own in the monsoons.
"Plenty of leeches would climb up from the ground and snakes will fall
from the trees on top of your head. You have to walk holding a stone on your
head!" This is what I was told.
Just this
description was enough. I felt the place was calling me, and
had delivered its first message. It kept calling on me
while I seemed busy with other things. I eventually
made plans to visit some sites of Shimoga, along with Balligave -
another place that has continued to call and succeed in bringing me
to it, year after year, for 5 years now. This time, I would go beyond
Balligave - I would go instead towards Tirthahalli and make my appointment with
Kavaledurga. Having tasted Malnad and its monsoon, Kavaledurga was
just supposed to be more hilly, deeper inhabited forest – much more wild,
ruined, unknown and desolate. Yes, it was desolate - and that made its call
even more deeply appealing.
