Day 1 of Study Tour- Wayanad Part II

Jain Temple at Sultan Bathery

From our hotel we first went to the Jain Temple at Sulthan Bathery. (It was a  rather short and quick stop mostly due to the annoying rain.)The site is a protected monument under the   Archaeological Survey of India since 1921.It was built around the 13th century and thus at least 700 years old. An interesting thing here is that even though this temple is small and lacking in grandeur compared to other temples of Jainism in India,it is still of great significance because this place 'Sultan Bathery' got that name because of this temple. You see during the invasion of Malabar by Tipu Sultan he had used the temple as a battery(to store ammunition) and thus resulting in the town being called Sultan's Battery. This got modified into Sultan Bathery.According to the caretaker at the temple there are atleast 450 Jain families and they gather here once a year to celebrate their religious festivals. Anyway here's a picture of the temple.

My friends at the ticket counter
Photo courtesy of Akhil A

Our next destination was the Edakkal Caves about  12 Km from Sultan Bathery. The road to Edakkal is a really winding one around the mountain with about 9 hairpin turns and really hard to navigate especially if you are travelling in a large 50 seater tourist bus.But it does offer some spectacular scenery of the forests and the mountain ranges stretching far across the horizon.And going uphill you can see the roads laid out below you in a zig-zag fashion embracing the hill slopes.The bus can take you only as far as the base,from where you have to walk around 1-2 kms to the ticket centre and that too up a sloping path.The rain had gone and was replaced by clear skies and warm sunlight.It was a good walk and I, along with Harish and Binu got there without much effort.But back then we had no idea that it was only the ticket centre and to get to the caves you still had to go more.So lets just say that I was a tad bit surprised. We waited like 15 minutes for the others,some of whom came panting and out of breath.

The way up...

So we all took our tickets (you have to pay extra for your camera) and started up the hiking trail which was yet another kilometre,only this time much steeper and you had to go over,under and around rocks(and the girls are gonna have one a hellavu hike if they're wearing high healed footwear). We move towards the top of the mountain through steep paths laid out amongst the rocks.

Pai and MC getting inside the cave
(click to enlarge)

Step by step....

After some more climbing we reach a small opening in the rocks which leads to a large dimly lit cave with the only source of light the aforementioned entry point and and exit. The air inside was cool and refreshing.Getting out of this place is harder than getting inside.But this isn't what we came to see,so we keep moving and as expected there's more rocks and stairs,then some more rocks and stairs.Here's a picture,you can see what i mean ...

The rock which forms the roof 

The cave drawings

Our ordeal was soon over,right after this very long stairway.We had reached our destination.Going down a set of stairs we enter the Edakkal Caves. Now the thing is,its not actually a cave. It is a small space between two large rock faces covered on the top by a large boulder.The word 'Edakkal' in Malayalam means 'a rock in between' .Eddakal Caves have the oldest cave drawings/carvings in all of South India.Such carvings are rare and carvings similar to this are found only in France.Its at an elevation of 1200 meters above sea level. It was discovered by Fred Fawcett, a British police officer in 1890.The carvings,believed to have been made between 6000-2300 BC depict men and women,their various tools and what seems to be wheel .One of them is a  figure with what appears to be a crown on his head and has a dress.There is also a message written in a script which experts think is the Brahmi Script.Now this here is solid proof that we had prehistoric settlements and  highly developed languages.

That was it. All of us climbed back down and went straight for lunch near the parking area.And after lunch we hit the road by 1:30.

View from atop the hill

To be contd......

Day 1 of Study Tour- Wayanad Part I

4/8/2012
 Its almost 6 am and our first day. The cold is bearable en route to the hotel at Wayanad. The rain is persistent and annoying. We had left for Wayanad the earlier day at 5 in the evening. Through my closed window dotted with rain drops the place looks captivating.I think that the slight drizzle highlights the natural beauty of this place and also gives it a classy look. The landscape keeps changing through this window of mine.Elevated plots give way to gorges and cliffs, fields change into houses and other buildings. But still there is a lot more green scenery than what you'd expect. Far away the horizon is dark,the sun still hidden behind the mountains shrouded in fog.
One by one my friends are waking up. Upon discovering that I am writing this for my blog they all want to be mentioned. Jibin (K.R.P.) who was asleep on my shoulder for the last hour and a half has just woken up. Biju is running around the bus and he just asked me to write about him and two girls. He's a bit more eccentric than usual, may be its the cold getting to him.The girl sitting in front of me (Miss Rakhi) is rather annoying. She cant stand closing the window. Since two rows of seats share a common window,if she opens one it the same as me opening my half. I have to keep begging her to close her window so that i wont freeze to death........

Pai and Akhil with Biju(on the bed), click to enlarge

We have reached Sultan Bathery and its 6:30 am.The town is still asleep. Not many people are out in the streets.The town is  still covered in fog.Our first hotel is Mint Flower.Since we are a bit early the rooms weren't available and we had to settle for dorms. And once the occupants clear out the rooms will be made available to us.This is what our dorm looked like. We had like more than 15 beds and 3 toilets.
  

 

     The new freaky look!

After our morning refreshment we were all ready at the restaurant by 9:00 for our breakfast. Breakfast was a buffet of vegetarian dishes. I had dosas with Deepak,Anas,and Anand Raj.I am calling it Dosas because it looked like dosas,but tasted like.....hmmm,to be frank it had no taste. Now its 9:30 and the rain is persistent and might pose some serious issues.We are sitting on the parking area of our hotel and waiting. I do have to mention about Anand S.R. who is walking around in flashing colors.You could spot him from a mile away with those red chappals and red colored spectacles.We had no idea what was to come next...

To BE CONT"D.........

STUDY TOUR

I haven't written anything for the last two months because i was both busy and lazy.But now i do feel bad for not having produced anything good from my blog lately. And i felt somewhat disappointed at myself for being  lazy enough to lay my hand's off the keyboard for two months. So now i have this wonderful opportunity which presented itself in the form of our 5 day industrial visit/study tour.Yup, tomorrow we leave for this study tour. But sadly this will be our last journey as a group. And this will be the last time that we get to enjoy together as EC A Batch students of CEP.

                                                                                                                   

I am not going into the details of the places we intend to visit,mainly because after i come back,i 'm going to write a detailed description of this tour and post it here.So i have packed my bags,prayed to the gods for a safe journey and if nothing catastrophic happens,tomorrow evening we're leaving town....