KarnatakaTravelDiaries, Travel

Southern Sojourn to Somnathpur Temple | Travel Tales |

Somnathpur Temple

26th January 2011 – Ek raasta… Do rahi… aha aha!! That’s what we ( Sravanti and me) both felt like on the early morning of 26th jan 2011 when we set out for a road trip to Somnathpur in southern Karnataka.

We hit Kanakpura road by 7.00 a.m. and were delighted by the smooth drive with minimal traffic on that road. After leaving the city behind, we could see some amazing scenes on both sides of the road – wide expanses of water with fields of lilies strewn over the calm surface, hump-backed mountains with puffs of clouds hovering overhead, gorgeous banyans with spaghetti like roots hanging by the dozen……… Every scene made us want to stop the car and click pictures.

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Wolfing down our packed sandwiches while driving, we stopped at a local bakery enroute to check for directions and pick up some more goodies to eat.

We had to stick to NH209 (Kanakpura road) and had to detour slightly via Malvalli town to get back on track. We were quite delighted with the road quality and made good time to reach Somnathpur by 10.00 a.m. The road signs were few but helpful passerbys more than made up for it.

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Somnathpur is a small village on the banks of river Cauvery and said to be founded by a Hoysala  army commander Somnath. The temple compound was beautiful, with a high wall all around and wide open green stretches surrounding the main temple complex. We collected our tickets (5/-) at the ticket counter and walked up a pathway to the temple entrance.  A small porch overhang marks the entrance; it has some very beautifully lathe worked columns in stone.

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The main temple itself is on a star shaped base with intricately carved freizes depicting cavalary, elephants, horses, poses of deities, etc. The entire temple has star like folds – all carved with amazing dexterity. The temple itself has three profusely carved pinnacles or shrines and a common Navranga. The three inner sanctum on the West, North and the South used to hold idols of Kesava, Venugopala, and Janardhan. It is an ornately carved temple of magnificent craftsmanship depicting Vishnu, Lakshmi, Ganesha, Saraswati, Rati-manmatha, and Mahishasura. The carvings inside are as intricate as the ones on the outside walls – truly a piece of art!!

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There are inscriptions engraved on a slab standing at the entrance, inside the Somnathpur temple, dated from 1269 to 1550 A.D. that detail the construction of the temple and the grants made to it.

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We encountered bus loads of foreign and local tourists at the temple, surprising us with the popularity of Somnathpur temple. What was even more amazing was the German, French speaking Indian guides with these groups who were explaining the entire architecture in detail to the foreigners.

If temples intrigue you then perhaps you would like to check out these gorgeous ones from Angkor Vat in Cambodia that my fellow travel blogger Pilar Cos Alvarez has written about in this post.

Couple of hours later, we decided to take a break under a large tree and sat down to munch on our goodies. Within minutes we were surrounded by hordes of crows, begging us for some good. The buggers were so bold as to fly in close and peck us to prompt us to throw food at them. One of the temple employees came to our rescue with a broom as he shooed the birds away.

Please Avoid

We had seen a board declaring the way towards Talakkad; curious we decided to head onwards to it. The road to Talakkad from Somnathpur was potholed and a total mess. We were disappointed on reaching the temple as it was a modern one and not an ancient one like Somnathpur. Worse, there were hordes of tourists – everywhere we could see huge surges of people. We decided to abandon the temple and stake out a spot by the Cauvery river. We followed some arrows and reached a spot which looked like a carnival was in progress. The shores were jam packed with people; half of whom were jumping in the water. This was so not our scene and we abandoned it to head for a quieter spot, which we found a few kilometers away.

We parked the car and lazed under a huge banyan by the river while a crew worked on emptying a sand barrage. Soon the guy started punting the upturned bowl on the river for his next load. Meanwhile, loads of birds frolicked on the water surface close by. The quiet of the surroundings, blue of the river, wide shady canopy of the banyan tree and the immense span of the waters was so soothing to the soul; we felt we could while away at least a couple of hours here.

At last, we shook ourselves of our reverie and it was time to head back to Bangalore. With a short stop at the Barista on the Bangalore-Mysore highway, we made good time back home.

Extra Notes:

Route : Kothnur – Somanahalli – Harohalli- Kanakpura – Sathanur – Halaguru – Malavalli – Somanathapur (Distance of about 150 kms from Bangalore)

Temple is open from 8.30-5.30

Entry fee – 5/- Indian nationals and no camera fees

Simply loved the Toilet facility at this monument – neat clean toilets with no bad odour.

Be prepared for loads of restoration works happening here; construction material, etc dumped around.


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A trained Interior designer who loves to travel, photograph and write, I have done some boutique stays in limited budgets and some in extravagant ones too. My forte is in using locally sourced/ made products which would provide support to the local community. I am also an advocate of using sustainable practices in housekeeping, laundry,etc which lessens the use of harmful chemicals. The water used for such chores is clean enough to be fed into the garden directly.

You could get in touch with me for:

    • Interior design services for your property
    • Training and implementing of green practices at your property
    • Doing an honest Travel reviews for a unique stay anywhere in the world. If you liked this review and would like for me to visit your property, please drop in a mail at shalzmojo@gmail.com

⇐Check out this gorgeous boutique stay in the tree house at the Vythiri Resort in Wayanad Kerala⇒

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37 thoughts on “Southern Sojourn to Somnathpur Temple | Travel Tales |

  1. Wow Shlaz this post dated back to 2011 ! It is an amazing read btw…if not for wordsante it would have lost the limelight it truly deserves. Loved the way you described your travel…
    And yes some of the sign boards we follow as we travel take us to places that are not so special or have great monuments but certainly they let us explore other places where we find absolute peace like you found that huge tree shade near the river bank 🙂

    1. Yeah Keerthi I am loving this #wordsante a lot and thank you for such kind words for this post. Its one of my very first travel posts on my blog aeons ago! 🙂
      I have some very fond memories of this girlie trip and wish I could go back in time to redo this one!

        1. India is one of the trips that I had to cancel due to Covid. So right now I’m taking this time to revise my itinerary for when it’s safe to travel again. Definitely adding this to my list.

  2. Your post took me back in time. There’s something so quintessential about historic, ancient places and monuments, it’s like entering another time era. Thanks for this wonderful digital tour of Somnathpur Temple. I loved the idea of lazing under the huge banyan tree – simply blissful!

    1. Thanks Vanessa I am so glad you could connect with this post; its one of my favourite posts; loved this trip as it was perhaps a first as a girlie trip and we drove all the way back and forth! Felt such liberated girls!! 😉

  3. Years later when we visited, there was still loads of construction going on, Shalini!. What a fabulous monument though. We spent a lot of time there before heading off to Talakkadu. Wonderful day! So sad that most of the sculptures have been damaged in some way or other.

    1. Vidya I was amazed at the cleanliness of the compound and the way ASI was taking care of the monument. Too bad about the construction on your visit; I hope you got to enter the temple and enjoy its beauty a bit!

    1. Thanks Aditi and I do hope you get a chance to visit this spot- I was so blessed to be in Bangalore for a while and could visit these amazing spots.

  4. Beautiful place, glad you shared this with us. Don’t know if ever get the chance to visit these places in person but virtually I am happy. Love the beginning – Ek rastaa Do raahi 😉 who is chor & who is sipahi… lol
    Cleanliness at the facilities is something hard to find on tourist destinations, glad this place maintained it. A throwback from past worth sharing.

    1. Thanks so much for your kind words and yes cleanliness in our tourist spots can be a pain, Its always refreshing to find them well maintained and well kept. This place was a sure gem for me and I just had to share it.

  5. Being an architecture lover I am adding somnathpur temple to my India list. I love all the architectures, the sculptures there. Hope to cover the temple when I finally head to Bangalore.

    1. Thanks Shibu- I sure do hope you do that! Bangalore and places around it are full of such gorgeous architecture that it takes your breathe away! I wish I could go back and do more there!

  6. I always appreciate bloggers who share what to do when visiting a new place, but also what NOT to do, and the disappointing bits, as well. Great post!

    1. Thanks so much for that and I try to include that in as I dont want anyone else to waste their time and effort. Its so disappointing to while away your precious travel hours on mundane stuff.

  7. Somnathpur Temple looks beautiful. I’d never heard of it before but I’d definitely love to visit now! I’m desperate to get back to India, so will have this one on my list for when I do 🙂

  8. This temple looks so beautiful. I haven’t had a chance to explore Karnataka yet, but I am certainly adding this to my list for when I do. Thank you for putting Somnathpur Temple on my radar, Shalini.

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