Old Bangalore Trail – Exploring The City Heritage

It can be fun to be a tourist in your city. And explore the areas that you usually do not get to go to. Most days courtesy of the traffic, you would not even dare to go. This Sunday morning, along with two of my friends, went exploring the heart of the city or the Old Bangalore Trail. Though a larger number of people wanted to go. But I guess getting up on Sunday morning is as big a deterrent as it can be.

Explore Old Bangalore Trail

We started our excursion with Tipu’s palace, which is obviously located on Tipu’s palace road, close to the city market. Now we reached there at 7:30 AM. Only to realize that the palace opens only at 8:30 AM. Our research said that the fort is also very close by and you can see it only from outside as you are not allowed inside. But interestingly we saw a kid jumping around in the fort compound. Upon enquiring came to know that the Fort does open at 9:30 or so. So we walked around the place, trying to go around the fort wall and see where it extends. But to our disappointment, it ended very soon.

And was surrounded by the crowded marketplace which was beginning to wake up at that time in the morning. We had breakfast in a Udupi restaurant and reached Tipu’s palace just as it opened.

Tipu’s Palace

The person at the ticket counter took his time to do his morning Pooja. Before he gave us the tickets and made us enter through the gate. As we were the first ones to reach the palace, it felt almost as if the palace belonged to us. We read the details on the information board, which was written in somewhat amusing language. Palace is a two-storied structure. Which looks like a single story from the outside. Built mostly from Sandalwood, though there is no smell left anymore. It’s a simple small palace with a place for the women of the palace. And a place for the king to see the public and run his kingdom.

Venkataswamy Temple

Right next to Tipu’s palace is a Venkataswamy temple, which has existed for at least long as the palace has existed. Now is this not a perfect example of secularism where Sultan’s palace almost houses the temple, or the Sultan chose to be so close to the temple? As far as the temple is concerned, to me, it appeared just like any other temple. Which must have been beautiful at some point in time, but has been destroyed by commonplace iron accessories. And not so great new construction.

But we got to see the ‘Abhishek’ of the idol with milk, curd, etc, as it was still morning, and none of us had seen this earlier.

Bangalore Fort

Some distance away from the palace is the fort. Which we discovered does open to the public. Though the portion that is open is very small and hardly tells you anything about the heydays of the fort. But amidst the busiest and filthy part of the city, the fort is very well maintained. The information board at the entrance tells you about the gates of the fort and the brief history. There is a Ganesh temple inside the fort. I think this temple is the only thing that you can see inside the fort. The entrance walls to the fort have nice carvings, which have shades of a hybrid culture.

Bull Temple – Old Bangalore Trail

After this, we drove down to Bull Temple, located on the road named after the temple. The Nandi bull statue in this temple is the second-largest bull sculpture in the world. Next only to the one at Lepakshi. This particular bull is said to have the perfect proportions of a bull and is supposed to be ‘Swayambhoo’. That is something that happened naturally and is not man-made. The temple is located amidst a lot of natural surroundings. Giving you a feeling you are out of the city and probably in some jungle. The terrain is also a bit hilly. There are gardens and there is a musical fountain on the premises.

There is a monument that has the sculptures and names of all the Gyanpeeth award winners of Karnataka. It is very interesting to see a monument dedicated to the literary personalities of the state. But it is sad that probably not many people know about this.

Ramakrishna Math

Almost across the road from Bull Temple is Rama Krishna Math. And huge premises with the usual serenity of Ramakrishna Mission. It was almost lunchtime and it was closing time for the math. We could only visit the bookshop and buy some books. I think I will have to visit that area again for the math and for the Dodda Ganesh temple.

For all those people who have recently made this city their home, and have not seen these places, this half-day trail is definitely recommended.

Recommend you read the following Places to visit in the city and nearby day trips.

MTR Bangalore – Quintessential Local food

Munching Street Food at Food Street

Road Trip to Magadi – Weekend Getaway

Bheemeshwari & Shivasamudram Waterfalls Travelogue