Venkatesh K N traces Madhugiri hill’s history and facts as he explores the second largest monolith in Asia.
Madhugiri is taluk head quarters in Tumkur district of Karnataka. Its history can be traced back to prestone age. Travelling to Madhugiri from Bangalore, Tumkur and back is an everyday excess for people of Madhugiri. Travelling to Madhugiri from Bangalore and wandering in its locales becomes the most meaningful experience for oneself. In 1790’s there happened a journey between Doddamalur near Madhugiri of Mahanadu Prabhus, Tippu Sultan to Sri Rangapattana, by British’s army from Bangalore to Sri Rangapattana.
Channappa Gowda had ascended throne of Madhugiri for about nine months, by that time he had become the reason for Tippu’s anger. Channabassappa Gowda had supported the kings of Ratnagiri in a conspiracy against Tippu Sultan, so Tippu camped his army in Doddamalur about seven to eight kilometers from Tereyoor after conquering Midigeshi and Tereyoor from Channappa Gowda. There was a reason for Tippu to camp in Doddamalur. He was informed that Channappa Gowda had pleaded Britishers to get back his forefathers despotic rights and kingdom. In reply Channappa Gowda was assured positively by Lord Corn Wallis. Lord Corn Wallis moved his army via Bangalore towards Sri Rangapattana to attack it. Tippu waited for British in Doddamalur. But unfortunately Lord Corn Wallis was marching towards Sri Rangapattana. Immediately learning this conspiracy against him Tippu took his army back to the capital Sri Rangapattana. In this joyful occasion Channappa Gowda in AD 1791 re occupied Tippu occupied Midigeshi and ruled for about seven months. This was the most peaceful moment he had in his life. In 1972 Mahanadu prabhus ended their rule as in the treaty of third Anglo Mysore war Tippu lost most parts of his land to British, Channappa Gowda ruled, it remained under Tippu Sultan.
The journey to Madhugiri and to the fort there from Bangalore haunts of this incident, of a journey made from Bangalore to elsewhere but not to any place near the capital of Mahanadu Prabhu’s Madhugiri but had a strong impact on the political economies trajectory of Madhugiri.
While climbing almost impossible steep monolith during our second visit which also has a fort built on and around it, we met an interesting engineering student running up the hill. This reminded me of two incidents. I had come here before, a year ago, with my sister and colleagues; we had met an old man grazing his sheep climbing the slippery mountain wearing a smooth Hawaii slipper without any support. My sister asked him tata (grandfather) how are you climbing, he replied with a sarcastic smile to my metropolitan sister finding it hard to climb, ‘its practice!’ Second, I and my friend had made a road trip to Madikeri, on the way we realized we were on wrong route to Abbi falls; we went towards a small hut, a pork shop on road side in Madikeri to ask for directions. To our surprise a stylish looking tall handsome coorgi man came out of the hut and answered in American accented English, ‘go straight, take left, keep going!’.
We keenly asked the engineering student about the place, why he came to the fort that often. He happily shared with us that the fort had seven entrances making it a ‘yelu suttina kote’ (fort with seven rounds in guard) making it very difficult to conquer in those days and as strong as Chitradurga fort. He also told us that there was a secret route to Chitradurga in the nearby hillock which is closed now. All this drove him up the hill every day.
Another local kannadiga family climbing the hill told us that they come here once in a month, since a mantapa in the hill is on a higher altitude to rest of the taluk it is a cooler place and most of the people visit the fort to relax here. While conversing with him about other tourist spots I got to know that he wanted the hill to get infrastructural improvement. He humbly replied we need a nearly maintained grass like garden and the steps that have been carved on the hillocks stone surface should be redone, the iron stone frame welded for supporting the climb should be made in some other material because, as the temperature raise it becomes difficult to climb down holding the rods. To our sadness he was diplomatic enough to not say with what cultural baggage does he consume the hill and the fort that was not so different from each other for him; to be in the fort is to be on the hill.
Second time we visited Madhugiri to find the statue of Nagi Reddy, which we found did not exist at all. This treasure hunt made us move through the taluk looking for different sources. We were told that the statue of Nagi Reddy was in Venkataramana temple. We went to the temple, surveyed the temple and realized we were in empty hands. Enquiring about the statue to head priest, we were informed that there was nothing like that.
Nagi Reddy who really lived a Prabhu’s life has a lesson to learn from. Nagi Reddy was a despotic, who harassed his subjects. He was never directly connected to Madhugiri, the capital of Mahanadu Prabhus. Not resisting the popularity of Mahanadu Prabhus, he criticized and humiliated Mahanadu Prabhus for being lower in caste hierarchy than him. For this reason Chikkappa Gowda III waged war against him and killed him. His wife committed Sati. After this all the lands of Nagi Reddy was conquered by Mahanadu Prabhus. An interesting folk tale proofs for not finding any lineage of Nagi Reddy clan in the region. Kavallamma, Lakkamma and other seven angels were travelling in sky over Reddy Palya, the village of Nagi Reddy. The reddys were safeguarding their crops by hanging birds and animals feeding on their jowar crops. To make them learn their lesson, Kavallamma plicked a jowar crop. This made a Reddy furiously angry, he caught hold of her forehead and started beating. Naturally Kavallamma retaliated by cursing him of extinction by clan and village slowly disappeared.
Madhugiri might have nostalgia of its inflation and politics but not of its beauty. While documenting Madhugiri Francis Buchanan in his book, A journey from Madras through the countries of Mysore, Canara and Malabar Vol I wrote, ‘the view of the Maddagiri hill on approaching from east is much finer than that of any hill fort I have seen’. The beauty of Madhugiri has also been described by Kannada laureates Hoysala, Masti Venkatesha Iyengar, Doddarange Gowda and others. These are true even to this day. The end of summer and before the onset of monsoon will be a perfect season to visit the place. The summer will make hill and region hotter, rainy season makes the mountain slippery. Keeping this criteria in mind june will be the best season to visit the place.
The beautiful part with Madhugiri apart from its landscape is its wonderful messes. On Sundays the hotels don’t serve meals so one has to visit mess in the locales. They serve some of the best rural south Indian rice and sambar. Much more surprising than this is the locally made packets of mysore pak. They are stacked in most of the groceries run by vyshyas here. To my first sight I just could not believe that they were mysore pak. The very packing itself raised doubts about its quality and taste in me. This is unbelievably true, the moment we eat this, all the boasting of pure ghee sweets that we are assured of, in cities are shattered. These sweets do not have extra fat in the name of pure ghee, they are just perfect. The taste of the taluk raise in vapours of mysore pak to tantalize your nostrils. Anyone who visits this place must shop this delicacy.
