Exploring India: Mantanga Hill, Karnataka

Hi dear Hive community,

We've already mentioned in our previous posts that Hampi is the incredible rocky place in Karnataka. The gigantic rocks are nowadays becoming more and more popular for foreigners for rock climbing. Since we are not really into this things we needed to find a different way to get some nice view on the whole area.

Our best pick was nearby Mantanga Hill, which is a holy place in Hindu religion as there the scenes described in Ramayana took place. The story talks about gods Rama and his companion Sita, which was taken away by evil Ravana, and later rescued with the help of monkey god Hanuman.

The legend of Mantanga Hill goes like this:
"According to Hindu mythology, the Matanga Hill was the home of a hermit called Matanga. The evil monkey-king Vali went to the hill, killed the demon Dundhuvi and left him there. The hermit then cast a curse on the monkey that would materialize if he went up the hill. Later, the son of the demon wanted to avenge his dad, so he drove Vali into a cave at the hill. His brother, Sugreeva, stood guard. After convincing himself that Vali had died, he left, causing Vali to wrongly arrest him for treason and banish him from the kingdom. Sugreeva, in an act of desperation, then hid his general on a hill that Vali did not have access to. He was eventually saved from oppression by Rama the god, and appointed ruler of the monkey-kingdom. Vali was killed by Rama in the ordeal." (taken from Wikipedia - Mantanga hill)

We started early in the morning when it was cold and calm. If we can, we try to avoid going to crowded areas specially now in the festival season.

On the way to Hampi we always needed to pass the special place next to the river, where pilgrims took a bath. Even it was early hours many people were already waiting in line to visit the Virupaksha temple.

Beneath the entrance to the path to the top, there are remainings of the ancient marketplace and bazars. From there the path goes up and we needed to climb many big steeps.

After reaching half of the hill, we needed to be more attentive and careful with our steps. There was only one way up and it was incredible. There were in built mini steps into the big granit rock.

The way is not suitable for people struggling with the fear of hight. On the way we helped and accompanied one guy from Punjab who got dizzy climbing the first part.

We continued the way and discovered that the funny mountain of granit rocks hide many hidden temples. Our curiosity lead us inside deep into the rocks. It was fun as we came out on the other side of the hill. From there we had last short summit and finally we reached the top.

There we found ruins of the temple with many pillars and which had two floors. The day was sunny and it was very hot.

We sat on the edge and enjoyed the beautiful view on the Hampi and big temples. It was a bit windy but due to heat very refreshing. There was only three people more, so we were very grateful for the silence and peace.

Thank you for reading. Wish you a nice day!