The Part II of the earlier blog ( Talasi Abbi Falls) started with the beautiful Kavaladurga fort in the morning. We started around 8am from the hotel and then reached Kavaladurga fort which is about 30 mins drive from Thirthahalli.
Kavaladurga fort has been in my wishlist for a long time seeing its beautiful ponds in the monsoon and the fort pictures from a distance with fog and mist around.
This fort takes around 30 mins walk to reach the fort and with little push elders can also visit this. The fort was built in the 9th century, and it was renovated in the 14th century by Cheluvarangappa. Kavaledurga, also called Bhuvanagiri, was a stronghold of the Nayakas of Keladi, who were the feudatories under the Vijayaanagara rulers and later became independent after the fall of the Vijayanagara kingdom.
Venkatappa Nayaka (1582-1629) fortified the place here. Built a palace and made it an Agrahara with a Mahattina Matha. A Sringeri Matha. A treasury, a granary, stables for elephants and horses and ponds. The fort at Kavaledurga has three lines of walls, which are constructed of huge granite blocks following the natural contour of the hillock. Each fortification has a gateway flanked by guard- rooms on either side In between the fortifications there are temples, a ruined palace site and basement of structures.
At the summit of the hill almost at the centre overlooking the western sea is a small temple popularly known as Shikhareshvara or Srikanthesvara temple. The Srikanthesvara temple on plan has a Garbhagriha. A Nandi mantapa and an entrance porch commanding a fine view of the setting sun beyond the western horizon. There is also a ruins of kashi vishwanath temple.
The Ponds in the fort are colorful as ever and with the satisfied feel of visiting a place in my wishlist we moved on to the 2 other falls we had in the plan and the exploration around Mani Resorvoir.
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