Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Chitradurga fort

Finaly I got to see the fort; on a trip organised  by Youth Photographic Society, Bangalore.

A massive one spread over miles and miles of many mountains, Chitradurga fort is a photographers delight, apart from being a nice place to trek, rock climb.
The best of the forts that I have seen until now, one needs to spend at least a day, trekking, photographing and of course visiting the fame Obavan Kindi (crevice) - The brave lady, single handedly killed scores of Hyder Ali's soldiers emerging out of a crevice with a pestle.
Legend has it that Bhima had a duel with the Raksha Hidamba here, and then went on to marry Hidambi, thats the beauty of India, most of the places you visit have some association with mythology.

The Gali Gopura and the hindambeshwar temple are such beauty and charm to photograph at different periods of the day, I could get it in the morning and evening light but would love to get on a full moon day.

The Gali-Gupura - Hidambeshwara temple in the morning light


The Gali-Gupura - Hidambeshwara temple in the setting sun- light


This is the ancient Murga Matha


The fort has an excellent system of rain water, harvesting at different levels of the fort- seven if I get it right. It is told Hyder Ali lifted the siege on the fort when he learnt that the fort could  sustain on its own water suppy for atleast 12 years.

This is one of the rain water harvesting tank