Bangalore: Following the Kempegowda Tower Trail

There are a lot of things that seem too big today and there are things that are beyond our imagination at this point in time. But a few generations from now, our descendants might peep into our imagination and smile, try to imagine the world as we inhabited it and may be do a subtle comparison in their subconscious. This Sunday, I along with 3 co-explorers had similar experience. We decided to do a trail around the four Kempegowda towers in the four corners of the erstwhile Bangalore, erected by the Kempegowdas, chieftains of Yelahanka and nearby regions, sometime in mid 16th century when they founded the city of Bangalore. The Kempegowdas are said to have established their kingdom in 13th century with Yelanka as their capital. These towers in four directions were the limits to which the then kings thought that the Bangalore city may extend to. As you would see the trail today, all the four towers are very much in the core city and most of us may be actually living way outside these expected limits of the city.

As a part of the CouchSurfing community, there are a few trails that we are trying to create that help us discover the city that we live in. This is the second trail that we did after the Old Bangalore heritage walk. Now what was amazing was that at every tower we saw something more than just the tower. Each of the towers had a water body and a park close to it, though we are not very sure if it was the way when they were erected or if they were added at later dates. Each tower had the same stone stating exactly the same information about towers, though the information is clearly visible only on the stone in the Ulsoor tower.

We started at 6:30 AM in the morning and since most of us lived in the south of Bangalore, we decided to start from the south tower at Lalbagh. This also happened to be the only tower whose location we knew absolutely. I had been to this tower many a times, but this is the first time I went around it and looked at it more carefully. It is a structure with four pillars and a gumbaj on the top. On all four sides there are figurines of deities symbolizing their directions. There was Shiva in the south, Ganesha in the east, Karthikeya in the North and Vishnu in the west. There were two statues of each of these deities, the top one in sitting position and the bottom one in a standing position. This tower is mounted on a rock that is supposed to be one of the oldest rocks known in the world. It’s an easy climb and if the weather is good, it gives you a good view of the surroundings.

Early mornings in Lalbagh are always delightful, with fresh air, greenery, space, silence and whole lot of people doing the morning walks, yoga and exercises. There is a new gate being erected in Lalbagh in a Japanese / Chinese kind of architecture. As we walked along the pathways, we could hear some soothing music and unknowingly we started walking towards the music. And this was the surprise discovery that there was live music being played at the Band Stand. There was a lady, I was told her name is Shashikala, who was singing with people sitting around her informally. It was a delight to listen to that music right in the morning. As I looked around at the faces of the people who were listening to her, it almost gave a feeling of ‘moments to live for in life’.

After the south tower, it was the actual beginning of our discovery of towers. We proceeded towards the west tower with maps in our hands. We reached Chamrajpet and this is an area which none of us had ever visited before. By this time, the city had started waking up a little bit and I am sure this is the only time when we could drive almost without braking. We had to ask a few times for Kempebudhi Lake or kere as it is known locally. This tower is slightly dicy to find, as it is hidden among the trees and there are multiple structures around the lake that give you an impression of being the sought after tower. There is a kali temple at one end of the lake, KG tower is on a rock behind the temple. This was the worst maintained towers of all. There is a stairway to climb up to the tower, but you get good views of the city if you jump around on the rocks besides the tower. You get to see the topology of the city and see the houses on hillocks around that area. On this tower, there were altars for the all four sides of the gumbaj for the deities, but there were no idols, probably they have either been taken away or have withered away with time.

As you get down from the tower, you would notice two more ancient structures similar to the towers, but without any gumbaj. We tried to figure what they could be but all that we could make out was they were in alignment to the KG tower and were probably used to reach the tower at some point in time. Both these structures have a huge stone in the middle with a hole in it. The whole was smooth enough and gave an impression of being a mill stone.

Kempebudhi lake is a huge lake but is in a very bad shape. Ironically there is a decent pathway that surrounds the lake and leads to the West KG tower. On the other side of the lake is a BWSSB facility that also houses a nice park with a toy train with an engine that looks like steam engine. This was the surprise discovery around this tower. We understand there is a deer park also close to this tower, but we did not venture out to find that out.

Third tower in the North is near Mekhri circle, on C V Raman road and in a park called KG Tower Park. This should not be very difficult to locate, but we did go around a bit before we reached this tower. The tower stands in the middle of a well maintained garden, and is the best maintained tower. The upper part of the tower appears restored. This tower is mounted on a tiered platform. The carvings on this tower are little more intricate than the other towers. Unlike other towers this tower does not seem to be on an explicit elevation, but then the topology of the surroundings may have undergone a change over the centuries. The park timings are 5:00 – 9:00 AM and 4:00 – 8:00 PM. We reached around 10:00 AM and we thought we will have to view this tower from outside the boundary wall of the park, which was quite high for my height. But then we discovered a way to sneak into the park through a gate that was not so high.

On our way back from the tower we discovered the Ramanna Maharishi shrine in one corner of the park, which was open. And you can use the entrance of the shrine to enter the park if you happen to reach here when it is not open. The shrine has a golden statue of Ramanna Maharishi in a big hall with interestingly done roof. It was a quite place and there was just one Pujari there and no one else. Probably you can sit inside this shrine and meditate after a good morning walk in the park. This was the unexpected discovery at this tower.

Between the third and fourth tower we had to stop and respond to out hunger pangs. We stopped at the Jayamahal palace hotel for a breakfast, which was almost as serene as the KG Park with north tower. The breakfast was ok, but we had a chance to read the morning paper, chat a bit, as till now we were all deciphering the maps and trying to match them with the known one-ways to reach from one tower to another.

Fourth or the east tower is also easy to reach as it is at an one end of the Ulsoor lake. You have to go towards the Old Madras road after crossing the Ulsoor Gurudwara. This lake is owned by Madras Sappers, a division of Indian Army, and hence it is usually inaccessible for general public. But it seems the luck was in out favor this Sunday and there was a national rowing competition going on, and we could enter and climb up to the tower without any hassles. Like the south and the west tower, this tower is also on top of a rock and gives a panoramic view of the lake. Like the west tower, this tower also had empty altars. We got to see the national junior rowing championship, reminded me of my long forgotten sports days and participation in such competitions.

We finished around 12:00 Noon and it felt like having lived through a period. There was a joy of discovery when we saw the west tower, there was thrill when we managed to enter the park with north tower, there was serenity in listening to music right in the morning and there was a feeling of serendipity when we saw the Madras Sappers gate open for East tower. And there was a sense of satisfaction completing this trail that we had been planning to do for sometime now.

If you take a comfortable pace, with a breakfast break, the trail should take 4-5 hours, provided you go in non-peak hours.

Some links that helped us design this trail:

History of Bangalore

Kempegowda Trail on Google Maps