Musafir

As we enter the temple street, we come to the Ranga Temple.

Madhava (Ranga) Temple: Popularly known as the Ranga temple dedicated to Madhava as per the inscription is built along with its Devi shrine in east west orientation. The Madhava temple has a Garbhagriha, a vestibule and a large 18 pillared Mukhamantapa. The temple is known for its colossal sculpture of Hanuman three meters high, placed in the Mukhamantapa. The Devi shrine is built on a raised Adhishtana of 2.5 meters high. 

An inscription of the time of Sadasivaraya at the temple dated 1545 AD. records of the construction of a Rangamantapa for the god Madhava by Timmaraju son of Vallabharaju exclusively for holding dance, vocal and instrumental music concerts in the temple. The pillars of this Rangamantapa have sculptural depictions of Garuda, Vitthala, Surya, Balakrishna, Hanuman and Alwar. The sculptures of Krishna Leela, Vitthala, Srinivasa and episodes of Prahlada, Matsya, Varaha and Narasimha incarnations of Vishnu on the architrave are of interest.

Currently, this temple is in ruins and excavations are going on to explore many more things about the it. The entrance to the temple is big with the idols of Vishnu carved on it.  As always, there is no idol in the sanctum and the pedestal where the idol once resided is also broken. As mentioned earlier, there is a big inscription in Kannada here in the temple that tells about the history and consecration of it.

Pattanada Yellamma Temple: This temple is unique in its own way. Even if it is an old temple probably consecrated during the 14th century, the construction is a recent one. And moreover, this is one of the few temples in India in which there is a priestess and not a priest. Most of the people visiting this temple are local women. Going along the temple street, there are some unidentified Mantapas and  temples in the vicinity. Nothing much to look for… After the temple street, there is the Pan Supari Bazaar.

It is not known why this was named so, but the Pan Supari Bazaar but there are similar Bazaar like constructions as we had seen earlier. There are basements of big buildings and some Mantapas. 

We can say the Pan Supari Bazaar is the entry point of the Royal Enclosure and the first magnificent and beautiful construction that we see, is the very important Hazara Rama Temple.