An Overnight at Srirangapatna Part 2

The start of the morning turned out to be wet and cool due to the rains and very soon turned hot and humid. The day was reserved for exploring Off –beat places in Srirangapatna. After breakfast at Pegasus we checked out and went to meet Vinay , he is from Royal Mysore Walk and was taking us around.

We started with Paschima Vahini Ghat.

Though I had passed this place many times on the way to Coorg, this was the first time I had visited it. This is supposed to be the place where one of the tributaries of River Kaveri flows in a different direction as opposed to the main river. This is considered extremely auspicious and ashes of many great personalities like M.K Gandhi have been immersed here.

The next stop was the flag post close to the Mysore gate, this is the highest point in Srirangapatna and one gets a 360 view of the town from here.

This is also next to Tipu’s rocket manufacturing and testing unit which is now used as the sewage control unit for the town.

Vinay managed to connect different occurrences in history with what was happening in Srirangapatna and hence the narration became even more interesting. He also had old maps and pictures that made imagining the events easy.

From here we headed to the Chola temple situated behind the Lal Mahal.

It is said that since people climb the Gopura (Tower at the entrance of temples) of the temple and peeked into the palace, it was taken down.

The priest at the temple have been there for 10 generations and the records of Vijaynagar Empire contains instructions on the amount of groceries that needs to be provided to the priest here. One can find this detail written on a tablet in the temple. Photography is not allowed inside the temple and it closes at 10:30 am

A small drive from here was our next stop, old railway station office.

First look at it one is transformed to Malgudi Days. The pillars in this place are from the Mysore Palace. When the wooden palace was burned down the salvaged pillars and doors were donated. Since it was considered inauspicious to keep remains of a burnt palace, there were few takers and hence they landed up here. With the laying of double track between Bangalore and Mysore this building will soon disappear. I hope this time as well they are willing to donate the pillars; I would love to take 2

Close to the station is the weapon storage unit (Gun room) used by Tipu Sultan.

This is also something that will be gone when the tracks for Bangalore Mysore is laid.

After exploring this part of town we headed to the Obelisk.

This is situated close to dungeon and gives you a beautiful view of the river from the tip of the fort. The Obelisk is built in memory of the British Officers and units who died during the siege of Srirangapatna on 4th May 1799. There is also a theory that the breach of the fort happened here as opposed to near the water tank. Close to this place there is a wearhouse which used to be a hospital built by the British.

From here we headed to the water tank, the last stop for our 2 hours guided trip. This is close to the place where Tipu’s Body was found and one of the stories about the breach indicates that it happened here. The trip ended with Vinay talking about the dying Sultan and the end of an era.

Early breakfast meant that we were hungry by the time our tour ended. We headed to a roadside restaurant towards Mysore called Poojari’s Fishland. This is definitely a place I would recommend to fish lovers. The food was yummmm and really fresh. After stuffing ourselves, it was time to head back to Bangalore and it turned out to be about 5 hours journey.

Pictures

https://picasaweb.google.com/belliappaaishwarya/Srirangapatna#