June Photo A day – Day 1: B is for

Okay! I have decided to take a plunge into yet another challenge to keep this blog going. I seem to stick around only when there is a NaBloPoMo or the likes happening and so this is the best way out 😀  Esp. when you have just returned back from a 10-day long exploration – I call it so because we had only booked our to and fro tickets and chalked out a route we would drive along and saw everything we felt like on the way 😀 – like they say, more about the journey than the destination! We also slept in a different town/village/city every single night – can you believe that? 8)

So the first in the series of 30 prompts for this challenge says I should post something which starts with ‘B’. And here it is:

This is from a place called ‘Southadka‘ where devotees tie these bells once the Lord answers their prayers and fulfills a particular wish they had.

The specialty of this temple is that it is totally in the open and devotees can visit the place 24*7. I asked the priest there about the legend of the place and he was telling me even animals are not stopped from entering the temple, true to which I saw cows and dogs too! Infact, even those who offer special Pujas are instructed to share the Prasad (offerings) with the animals without fail.

The name of this place is derived from ‘SOUTHE‘ meaning ‘Cucumber‘ and ‘ADKA‘ meaning ‘Meadows‘ (Both in Kannada) Legend has it that a Ganapati temple revered by a royal family was once destroyed by enemies. Not to let the enemies destroy the beautiful idol of Ganapati that was at the temple, cow herds of the place carried it along with them and installed it in a place where cucumber was grown in plenty.The farmers of the place reaped huge harvests of cucumber, offered it to Lord Ganapati and even wished to build a temple there. But, according to a popular belief, Ganapati graced their dreams and asked them not to build a temple for him at Southadka as that would mean restrictions on devotees visiting the place to seek his blessings. The Lord expressed his wish to remain in open air with no formal structure surrounding him so that devotees could access him round-the-clock.

These are lesser known places though (or because!?!) they are very close to other famous places like Kukke Subramanya and Dharmastala.

You can read more about the place here.

This is posted as a part of June Photo A Day.