We, a group from my office were going to attend a marriage function in Tumkur and we decided to visit Devarayana Durga on the way. It is around 72 KM from Bengaluru.
We started around 2 PM from the electronic city and opted for NH 48(includes NICE Road, toll Rs.180). At Neelamangala we took half an hour tea break at Sree Rathnam restaurant and they serve a really tasty masala tea. Then Continued on NH 48 till Debaspete police station(its a 4 point crossing) and took right from there, under the flyover. The road that goes towards Madhugiri hills and Devarayana Durga has clear signage. its a state highway and smooth for driving. on the way, we crossed many small villages. Its a straight road and you can totally play along with the GPS. after around 40-45 mins, we were at the gate of Devarayana Durga forest reserve.
Devarayana Durga is also known as Karigiri which means elephant hill in Kannada.(Kari= Elephant; Giri=Hill). Later, after it was captured by Mysore king Chikka Devaraja Wodeyar in 1696, it became popular as Devarayana Durga. The altitude of the hillok is about 3940ft.
Just after crossing the Forest reserve gate, we saw Jayamangali river that originates from this hillok. A lovely place for taking selfies and groupfies. But beware, some limelight-loving monkey families may accompany you. After 2-3 km comes to the entry of Yoga and Voga Narasimha swami temples. You can either climb through 200 steps or decide to take your car up which can save you at least 150 steps. The last 50 steps to Yoga Narasimha temple everyone needs to climb. Be careful if you have taken a large vehicle as parking on the hilltop needs skill. The view is awesome and surely make you feel good.
Once you start climbing the stairs, you can notice the remnant of the fort. At the base, there is a hanumaan temple and voga narasimha temple. Its better if the elderly people decide to visit these two only as the stone stairs are quite steep. There are plenty of monkeys on the way and for reasons unknown they just loved to eat Chrysanthemum flowers!
Once you reach the Yoga narasimha swami temple on the top you can wash your feet in the small pond just beside the temple.
A pond on the top of a hillok! The beauty of Nature always surprise. The temple remains open till 5 pm and we reached just in time(4.30 pm. it took around 2 hrs driving with a 30 minutes break). The place is serene and you can offer Puja inside if you have come prepared with the necessary arrangements. There are many priests inside the temple. Along with Yoga Narasimhaswami, there is also Lakshmi-Narayana temple. When we entered the priests were doing aarati and the lights from the diyas were reflecting in the eyes of the deity - making him look fierce. Completely in-sync with the aura of the first avataar of Lord Vishnu who emerged in half lion-half human form.
We took prasadam and applied tilak after the aarati and quitely came back. Two important festivals that take place at Devarayanadurga are the car festival during March/April and the Narasimha Jayanthi during May.
On our way to Tumakuru then we shortly visited Namada Chilume - a natural spring from where the Jayamangali river originates.(around 4-5km from Yoga Narasimha temple) The Folklore says that the spring was created by Lord Rama who hit an arrow against the hard rock as he was searching for some water to put tilak on his forehead. There is also a deer park nearby but since we were in short of time we could not visit that.
An interesting place with greenery, folklore, monkeys and temples. Recommend for a day-out but be prepared with your tiffin boxes as you would not find any restaurant inside the forest reserve.