The Indian state of Karnataka has 300km of coastline on the Arabian Sea, much of it palm-fringed golden sand, under-developed compared to the popular beaches of Goa to the north. Parallel to that is the mountain range of the Western Ghats, which rises up to 2,000 meters, sponging much of the monsoons, creating verdant slopes perfect for coffee growing and trail hiking, with reserves in the foothills ideal for safaris to see Bengal tigers and Indian elephants. Beyond that spills the Deccan Plateau, warm earth where for two millennia competing kingdoms built palaces, temples and monuments that are the heritage sites we visit today. These are the principal themes of fabulous attractions in this woefully under-visited adventure destination.
The early kings of Karnataka included the Pallavas, Chalukyas, Rashtrakutas, Hoysalas, Haleris and Vijayanagars, who were defeated in 1565 by the combined might of five Muslim sultanates, until the Mughals swept down from the north at the end of the sixteenth century. Much of this land was then seized by the Kingdom of Mysore, led by the Wadiyar Dynasty in the seventeenth century, and later governed by the Islamic military adventurers Hyder Ali and his son Tipu Sultan in the eighteenth century. We will meet many of these rulers and witness their legacies as we travel around.
As the British East India Company expanded into South India in the eighteenth century, and after four successive Mysore Wars (1767-69, 1778, 1789-92 and 1799), Britain finally defeated Tipu and seized his Kingdom. This was the last major native resistance to British rule in India, paving the way for the Raj that presided from 1858 through to Independence in 1947.
The reorganisation of Indian regional authorities (along linguistic lines) in 1956 formally established Mysore State, where the classical Dravidian language of Kannada is the most widely spoken. There are numerous other local tongues, and there are even some villages, the only ones in India, where Sanskrit is primarily spoken. The state was renamed Karnataka in 1973 because Kannadigas from outside the Mysore area felt excluded and wanted the title to reflect Karnata, as it had been known until medieval times.
Today, Karnataka has a majority of Hindus, but with sizeable populations of Jains, Muslims and Christians among its total of almost 70 million people. They have forged a common culture, expressed for example in spicy food. Generally, you are more likely to get what is called pure veg in the south and non-veg in the north, with seafood on the coast. Local speciality dishes include Mysore dosa and Coorg pandi curry.
English is common in the cities and among staff you will encounter in hotels everywhere, though elsewhere you will get by through a routine of semaphore mingled with a few standards terms.
Although the distances are not short, it is easy to get about. For interstate journeys, you can book cars with drivers from hotels as you go along. In the bigger cities of Bengaluru and Mysuru, Uber works for four-wheelers, tuk-tuks and mopeds.
Karnataka has four seasons: winter (January and February), summer (March to May), monsoon (June to September) and post-monsoon (October to December). The consensus goes with winter.
In more than two weeks in Karnataka, we saw fewer than a dozen faces without evident South Asian heritage. So this review has been written with a determination to encourage others to travel in this beautiful but apparently hidden part of the world. I have divided it into the south, the Western Ghats, and the north. We started at Bengaluru, passing through the ancient kingdom capitals at Mysuru and Srirangapatna, before going on tiger safari. Then we headed into the mountains for coffee, hiking and yoga. Finally, we visited the remains of kingdoms at Hampi, Badami and Vijayapura, before finishing on the beach at Gokarna. Plus, of course, we saw various other important temples and monuments along the way.
The South
The south has the modern capital of Karnataka and tech capital of India at Bengaluru, as well as the historic seats of the Mysore Kingdom at Mysuru, which has the magnificent Wadiyar Palace, and at Srirangapatna, where Hyder Ali and Tipu Sultan had a glorious Summer Palace but were defeated by the British. There is also a UNESCO-listed thirteenth century Hoysala temple in Somanathapura, and there are two of the best tiger reserves in India. What is not to like?
Bengaluru
Although it is not a traditional tourist highlight, the natural place to start a visit is the state capital, towards the south of Karnataka and smack in the middle of the V of India. In 2014, a dozen cities across the state were retitled to abandon their colonial names in favour of transliterations of their initial spellings. Bangalore was renamed Bengaluru to reflect its origins, though they are disputed; it was called either Bengaval-uru (town of guards) or Benda-kaalu-ooru (town of boiled beans), depending on your preference. At the same time, the city limits were expanded to take in surrounding towns and farmland.
Today, Bengaluru is one of the most exciting and most fascinating cities in India. With fifteen million residents, it is the fourth biggest in the country, and the archetypical bustling urban sprawl with attendant social problems. Despite a booming economy based on call centres and tech firms, it lacks the glass and steel skyscrapers common these days in Asian tiger cities (though there is UB City Mall for swanky shopping at Luis Vuitton and Jimmy Choo and so on); this is a very Indian success story.
The centre is crammed with yellow-and-green tuk-tuks, scooters and mopeds tooting along pot-hole roads, weaving between barrow-stalls piled high with coconuts and melons, and elderly women sitting on crumbling sidewalks selling mountains of bananas and corns-on-the cob. Among this anarchy, where disfigured child beggars and sacred cows wander willy-nilly, every hawker has a QR code for payment through mobile phones, proof that modernity is encroaching. Despite the not-new but still efficient metro (the entry to which, like hotels and malls, requires an airport-style scan), there is suffocating gridlock, notably along Mahatma Gandhi (MG) Road, the main east-west artery.
Settlement here dates back to 1537, when a mudbrick fortified trading centre was founded by Kempe Gowda, a Vijayangar clan chief. Now, this area is the nucleus of the city, 40km south of the international airport that bears his name. The old town was subsequently held by the Marathas, the Mughals, the Wadiyars (who replaced the mudbricks with stone structures in 1761) and Hyder Ali/Tipu Sulan (who lost it to the British East India Company in 1791). All that remains of the historic fortress is a small round bastion and the façade of the South Gate.
Just 500m away is Sri Ranganathaswamy Temple, constructed by the Wadiyars, next to a Summer Palace of wood and stone, built by Tipu. Like many palaces and temples (as well as hawkers) across Karnataka, they require a ticket booked online through a rather fiddly process accessed from a QR code found at the gate. All around here are the narrow alleyways of Krishnarajendra Market, full of little vendor-stalls and hidden shrines.
Hyder laid the nearby splendid public garden of Lalbagh, in 1760. From 1856, this was enlarged into a botanical garden by the British. These days It is a popular green lung, with an iconic Glass House copied from Crystal Palace in London that is used for flower shows. There is also a lake, with a waterfall that is turned on and off throughout the day.
After killing Tipu in 1799, Britain restored the Wadiyars to the throne of Mysore, and therefore also Bangalore, as subservient figureheads. During the nineteenth century, the royals built a colossal palace for their maharajahs, modelled on Windsor Castle. These days, it is open for heritage tours, and holds occasional pop gigs by the likes of Aerosmith, Iron Maiden and Metallica that attract upwards of 30,000 fans.
British Residency in the region was initially established in Mysore in 1799, but it was transferred to Bangalore in 1804 (it was abolished in 1843 but revived in 1881, from when it lasted until Independence in 1947). After 1809, British troops were stationed at the Military Cantonment, a city-state close to the old town, where streets such as Artillery Road, Brigade Road and Cavalry Road were homes for European sahibs and memsahibs, including Winston Churchill from 1897 to 1900. The most visible legacy of the British Raj here now is Sankey Tank, an artificial reservoir built in 1882. There is a very nice view point with a waterside walkway open 6-10am and 4-8pm.
The British Resident ruled from Raj Bhavan, which is today the inaccessible residence of the State Governor. It is near Attara Kacheri, the post-box-red High Court building opened in 1868. Both are to be found by Cubbon Park, laid in 1870 and named after a British Viceroy though now officially called Sri Chamarajendra Park, a lovely place to wander among the jacaranda and gulmohur trees.
Opposite is the imposing Vidhana Souda, built in Neo-Dravidian style in 1956, seat of the legislative assembly. All over this part of town in particular there will invariably be vast parties of schoolchildren, many in threadbare uniforms and without shoes, all keen to say hello to strange foreigners.
After Independence, Bangalore invested heavily in education, triggering significant internal migration as rural people were attracted by better learning and employment opportunities from the 1950s. This initially fuelled a manufacturing boom, though by the 1990s Bangalore grew to be the outsourced call centre capital of the world, thanks to its English-speaking, well-educated, cheap workforce.
Meanwhile, local tech firms began to sprout here in the 1980s, mushrooming in the 1990s as multinational IT firms relocated here for the same reasons as the call centres. That led to the founding in 1996 of International Tech Park, known as ITPL, in Whitefield district, 20km east of the old town. This was the first campus in the country for clusters of call centres and software companies, and it has inevitably become known as India’s Silicon Valley.
Not only did this boost the local economy, but it also caused social upheaval. Young people suddenly had work, wages, mopeds and freedom, which put huge strain on traditional family structures and values.
With this youth culture came alcohol, and Bengaluru is also the beer capital of India. United Breweries, which makes the Kingfisher behemoth, has been headquartered here since 1915, and since 2010 it has been joined by a ballooning scene of microbreweries. Today there are more than a hundred, ranging from some of the original boutiques, such as Biere Club and Toit, to industrial-scale chains like Biergarten.
Bengaluru is not far from the coffee plantations of the Western Ghats, so this youth culture also begat an explosion of café culture. There are traditional places like Brahmin’s serving South Indian filter coffee, and there are scores of contemporary comfy environments such as Ajji that would be familiar to residents of Melbourne or Seattle.
The classic breakfast is found at Central Tiffin Room, where people have been queueing way down the street for masala dosas and idli rice cakes since the 1920s. For dinner, Koshy’s and Vidyarthi Bhavan are veritable South Indian heritage institutions, while Karavelli is given a nod by the World’s Fifty Best Restaurants, and Oota is a contemporary place of high acclaim.
The British brought cricket, which of course quickly became the sporting obsession of India. The National Cricket Academy is based at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium, which hosts the Royal Challengers in the IPL as well as international test matches.
The British also brought the “sport of (their) kings”, and horse racing continues to be popular at the Bangalore Turf Club, which is sponsored by the Wadiyars. There are almost no women at the track, but men cram into the betting ring before rushing outside to watch the winner come home. It is great fun to be welcomed among them.
Bengaluru is not especially known as a temple town, though there are of course plenty all over so I recommend you experience a select few. Two important novelties are at a pair founded in the era of Kempe Gowda in the sixteenth century, open 6.30-12.30 for morning prayers and 5.30-8.30 in the evenings. At Sri Dodda Ganapathi Temple, there is an unusual and massive statue of Ganesha made from 110kg of butter (which has to be rebuilt every four years).
Next door, at Nandi Temple, there is a 6m-long and 4m-tall sculpture (this one is carved from granite) of a sacred bull, decked out in full Hindu regalia. Legend has it that a real bull once destroyed a famer’s crops until he hit it with a club, instantly turning it into this stone effigy that then grew and grew! Be that as it may, a bull or nandi is the traditional mount of Shiva, the Lord of Destruction, and there is a statue of one in every Shiva temple, though rarely so imperious as this.
The modern temple built by the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKSON) in 1997 is thought to be the largest Hare Krishna shrine in the world. It is genuinely elegant from the outside, and properly graceful on the inside, where an impressive hexagonal atrium has a lavish gold stage of deities and gurus. As is typical in Karnataka, paying visitors get to jump the line ahead of actual worshippers and have front row places for the Darshana. Exit is through a huge gift shop, where if you want to get away it is almost impossible to avoid purchasing a copy of some scripture they thrust at you.
The Hare Krishna philosophy was popularised in India in the sixteenth century by Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, though it registered in the West only in the psychedelic 1960s. Adherents believe that Krishna, an avatar of the Hindu god Vishnu, is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, a single god. They claim to be orthodox Hindus who follow four simple regulative principles – no illicit sex, no intoxication, no meat eating, and no gambling – in an effort to develop what they see as the four important qualities of human life: Austerity, Cleanliness, Mercy and Truthfulness. Their sacred text is the Bhagavad Gita, held to be a literal record of Krishna’s words, and it is this doorstopper that is most likely to be pressed upon you as you leave the ISKCON Temple.
Bengaluru has all the five-star hotels you would expect. The Leela Palace is often rated highest. It also has the ZLB23 speakeasy, the only Indian place on Asia’s Fifty Best Bars; you have to register in advance, and wander through the hotel kitchens to find the entrance. However, the hotel’s customer service is over-attentive and under-competent, which unlike similar experiences around the region results more in frustration than comedy. It is also a fair way out east, so for more central convenience, I recommend the ITC Windsor, the Oberoi, the Ritz-Carlton, or the Taj West End.
About 40km north of Bengaluru are the Grover Zampa vineyards. Their La Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon-Shiraz blend is popular, and their tasting tours are at 10.30am, 12 noon and 2pm each day. Another 20km north are the Nandi Hills, a hill-station summer resort and site of two important temples dedicated to Shiva.
Mysuru
It is 150km southwest of Bengaluru to Mysuru, renamed from Mysore in 2014. Mysuru is popular these days as a major home of ashtanga yoga, drawing thousands of students from around the world each year, but its fame originally derived from its status as the head of the Mysore Kingdom that dominated this region for hundreds of years.
The Wadiyar Dynasty was established here in the fourteenth century, and they continued to reign as the Maharajahs of Mysore right through to Independence in 1947. In reality, however, for long periods they were subordinate to greater powers, including the Vijayanagaras until 1646, Hyder Ali then Tipu Sultan after 1761, and the British from 1799. This truth did not stop them building glorious palaces, which are what we come to see in Mysuru today.
The grandest was opened in 1912, after fifteen years of hard labour, on the site of a reputedly magnificent wooden palace that was burned down on the night of a maharajah’s wedding in 1897. It is in a synthesised Hindu-Islamic style and is open for tours from 10am to 5.30pm.
It is said to be the second-most-visited monument in India after the Taj Mahal, though not by foreigners on the evidence of our time here, when we saw only two other white faces among tens of thousands jammed shoulder-to-shoulder and toe-to-heel. Shoeless, you join the crush filing through a one-way route for ninety minutes around the ceremonial staterooms. The kids all shout “what’s your name?” and “which country?”, while even loads of adults shake hands and want selfies too.
The star turn, upstairs, is Durbar Hall, where the maharajahs received guests between ornate pillars under a ceiling carved with symbols of Vishnu in all his forms and the Signs of the Zodiac.
Not far away are two other important nineteenth century buildings: the Wadiyars’ Jaganmohan Palace, now the Sri Jayachamarajendra Art Gallery, and Government House, the former British Residency.
Mysuru is a very bovine-friendly place, and cows are especially evident around the main square of Devaraja Central Market, where there is a maze of alleys with hawkers selling fruit and veg, herbs and spices, orange and yellow chrysanthemum garlands.
The protector-deity of Mysuru is believed to be Chamundeshwari, a lion-riding manifestation of Durga. There is a temple to her, with a large yellow gopuram gateway, at the top of Chamundi Hill, messy with marauding monkeys. There are invariably long queues of pilgrims stretching back through long lines of vendors selling temple flowers and other religious paraphernalia.
A short walk down some of the 1,0000-steps built into the hillside brings you to a 350-year-old 5x7m statue of Shiva’s bull. Carved from a single boulder, this is one of the largest nandis in all of India.
About 5km east of the centre is another magnificent Wadiyar palace, the Lalitha Mahal, this one in Renaissance architecture with striking white walls, stained glass windows and mosaic tiles, apparently fashioned along the lines of St Paul’s Cathedral in London. It was built in 1921 to welcome the British Viceroy, and it has been converted into a shabby-chic heritage Hotel with heavy furniture, a marvellous restaurant and a club bar straight out of central casting. This is the ideal base to explore Mysuru and several sites beyond the city.
Srirangapatna
It is just 15km north of Mysuru to the town of Srirangapatna on an island in the Cauvery River. This was the capital of the Mysore Kingdom in the eighteenth century when it was governed by Islamic soldiers Hyder Ali and Tipu Sultan.
Hyder was a fighter for the Wadiyar Kingdom of Mysore, who rose to Commander-in-Chief, came to dominate the titular Maharajah, and was de facto ruler himself by 1761. Though illiterate, he forged successful alliances with France that expanded an empire he bequeathed on his death in 1782 to his son Tipu. Tipu in particular is now a popular folk hero from his legacy as a successful pluralist leader who oversaw a growing economy and a powerful military, including pioneering rocket artillery. However, in the past five years, his reputation has come under attack from Hindu nationalists, and the Modi government has reportedly even threatened to amend school textbooks that glorify him; it is no wonder there are noticeably more Muslims among the visitors around here.
Hyder and Tipu together constructed a fortified settlement, where some of the walls and the two main gates – facing Bangalore and Mysore – remain intact. Inside, there was once a reputedly splendid palace, Lal Mahal. However, that was destroyed by the British during a month-long siege in 1799 that ended with Tipu’s death, the downfall of his empire, and the restoration of the Wadiyars to the Mysore throne under the suzerainty of the British.
The disconsolate foundation of Lal Mahal is all that is left, thought there is an obelisk marking the landing site of the British forces, and a monument commemorating the spot where Tipu’s body was found.
Around here today are hordes of beggars, sandalwood carving-hawkers, silk scarf-wallahs, site-guides and tuk-tuk drivers all making a commotion. The Jama Masjid, built in 1784 and still today a working mosque, is a comparative island of tranquillity amid the chaos.
Sri Ranganathaswamy Temple, also inside the citadel, pre-dates Tipu’s mosque by precisely 800 years. It continues to be a crowded attraction for pilgrims come to worship Ranganatha, a manifestation of Vishnu.
Just 2km east of the fort walls but still on the island is Tipu’s Summer Palace, Daria Daulat Bagh. After the paramountcy of the British in 1799, it became the home of Colonel Arthur Wellesley, who became better known as the first Duke of Wellington for his defeat of Napolean at Waterloo and term as prime minister than for his defeat of Tipu and role as Governor of Srirangapatna earlier in his career.
Daria Daulat Bagh has survived intact. It is a special building, in a stunning garden, where the walls are adorned with mosaics of the war processions of Hyder and Tipu, along with unusual portraits of various royals.
Nor far from here is the impressive mausoleum where Tipu, as well as his father, Hyder, and his mother, Fatima Fakhr-un-Nisa, are laid to rest. Their three tombs are side-by-side under a huge gumbaz or dome.
Somanathapura
It is just 35km southeast from Srirangapatna, and the same direct east from Mysuru, to Somanathapura. Both routes go past paddy fields and sugarcane plantations, where the roads are dotted with bullock-carts loaded with sacks of the recent harvest to take to market.
The simple reason for diverting to Somanathapura is to see its outstanding example of the architecture of the Hoysala Kingdom that ruled most of Karnataka from the eleventh to the fourteenth centuries. The Keshava Temple, built on the banks of the Cauvery River in 1258, is dedicated to Vishnu. Thanks to the intricate carvings on its outer walls, sitting on raised platforms, it is on the UNESCO list as part of the Sacred Ensembles of the Hoysalas, the first in a trilogy along with those at Halebidu and Belur not far away in the Western Ghats.
Bandipur & Nagarahole Tiger Reserves
In this southern portion of Karnataka, there are two reserves that give you the best chance in all of India of spotting tigers: Bandipur and Nagarahole, which meet at the Kabani River. Spoiler alert, the odds of actually seeing one in these gorgeous jungle landscapes are very long, though it can be done; we got lucky with two less than 5m from our jeep.
Bandipur Tiger Reserve is south by 100km from Somanathapura and 75km direct from Mysuru. It is at the confluence of the Western and Eastern Ghats (the Eastern Ghats is a much smaller group of discontinuous mountains).
Bandipur is believed to have 150 tigers, though they are spread across 900km2, along with elephants, sloth bears, gaur and antelope. You can try to seek them out on expeditions from jeeps, vans or busses booked from Bandipur Safari Point (not more than two weeks prior to the date of your safari). However, the website struggles to accept foreign credit cards, so you may need to resort to asking your lodge for help.
The park gates are closed from 6pm to 6am, though there are several decent lodges inside the forest, including the Country Club, the Serai and the Windflower.
It is another 100km northwest on to Nagarahole Tiger Reserve, a drive past fields of stubby ginger plants, bushy banana trees, and smiling yellow sunflowers until you reach the wide zigzag backwaters of the Kabini River itself.
This park gate is closed overnight too, but most of the better lodges are outside – probably because even the main park roads are so poor – on the banks of the river in the east. These include another Serai and an Evolve Back, a major luxury brand across Karnataka and the best place to stay here.
Water safaris in open-sided boats go between 6.30-9.30am and 3-6pm – -ish – starting at the Kabini River Lodge in Karapura village, also in the east. This is well worth doing, not least as you are likely to see bathing elephants, basking crocodiles and gambolling otters, as well as endemic species of egrets, herons, eagles and kites, plus migrants like ospreys from Scotland. Above all, though, it is just stunning.
Nagarahole also claims to have 150 tigers in its 700km2 territory, along with leopards and jackals. Their land safaris go between 6-9am and 3-6pm and are easier to book online than at Bandipur; go to Kakanakote Safari Centre.
Western Ghats
The Sahyadri, known internationally as the Western Ghats, is a UNESCO-listed contiguous mountain range that runs for 1,500km from north of Mumbai down the spine of India to the bottom. Almost a third of it passes through Karnataka, where rocky peaks up to virtually 2,000m are reached through lower slopes cultivated with coffee and spices, and higher slopes covered in forests.
The two main areas are the districts of Kodagu, Christened by the British as Coorg, in the south, and Chikkamagaluru about 175km away in the north. There are several gorgeous five-star lodges up in the hills, as well as many plantation homestays, coffee estate tours, hiking trails and pretty waterfalls. Other key sites include Madikeri Fort, Namdroling Buddhist Monastery, and the UNESCO medieval Hoysala Hindu temples at Halebidu and Belur.
Kodagu
The highest peak in Kodagu district, on the eastern slopes of the Western Ghats, is Mount Thadiyandamol at 1,748m. There is a four-hour round-trip hike to the top that starts at View Point Café, 6km south of Kakkabe village and 2km past Nalknad Palace.
Nalknad Palace was the residence of the Haleri kings who reigned here in the seventeenth century. They are interred in domed mausoleums in the main Kodagu town of Madikeri, 70km northwest of Nagarahole.
The Haleris established Madikeri in 1681 when it was called Muddurajanakeri, though the British later named it Mercara. Between times, its heyday came under our old friend Tipu Sultan, who built an imposing granite fort known as Jaffarabad on a hill in town. There are good views from a walkway along the ramparts, and in the centre is a palace constructed in 1814 that currently houses a local government and court complex. The British added barracks, a church, and two life-sized masonry elephants in the nineteenth century.
Not far away at Bylakuppe is a temple with a huge, and hugely impressive, centrepiece that is a cultural oddity in these parts. We came to Namdroling Monastery over Christmas, when Hindus, Muslims and all Indians are given a week’s public holiday, so this Buddhist Temple was rammed with people of all faiths and none. Established in 1963, it is understandably also known as the Golden Temple.
Kodagu was formerly a self-governed area, but it was folded into Mysore State when that was formed in 1956. The mountain slopes had historically grown spices including cardamom, chicory, chili and cinnamon, all sold today in wholesale and retail outlets by the sides of roads. In the seventeenth century, coffee shrubs were added after they were imported from Arabia, and by the nineteenth century they had grown into prosperous plantations, thanks to the perfect ratios of sunlight and rainfall.
These days, the greatest appeal of Kodagu for visitors is to wander these beautiful coffee fields. Almost every plantation holds guided tours all day every day that also take in their roasting facilities. We joined an excellent one at Mountain View.
There are two hotels of choice in Kodagu: the Evolve Back, on its own Chikkana Halli Coffee Estate, and the uncharacteristically minimalist Taj Madikeri, outside the town.
Halebidu & Belur
As we know from Somanathapura in southern Karnataka, the Hoysala Dynasty built spectacular temples, before they were toppled in the fourteenth century. Their Kingdom had capitals at Belur from 1048 to 1062 and at Halebidu from 1062 to 1300, just 20km apart here in the Western Ghats. They are roughly 150km from Kodagu but only 25km from Chikkamagaluru.
These two towns each have a temple that along with that at Somanathapura are on the UNESCO list as part of the Sacred Ensembles of the Hoysalas.
The complex at Halebidu, formerly known as Dwarasamudra, was constructed in 1121 and is devoted to Shiva. There are two large nandi bull sculptures sitting in their own pavilions at the side, but akin with Somanathapura and Belur it is especially lauded for its extravagantly delicate friezes, chiselled in rows on the outer walls.
The biggest, and busiest, of the three Hoysalas temples is at Belur, where it stands at the centre of a large walled courtyard with four lesser shrines at the sides. The compound was started in 1117 and took more than a hundred years to complete. Even by the standards of these things in these parts, this is crazy crowded. That is because unlike the other two, this is not only a protected heritage site (though only nominally protected given the sheer number of people scrambling all over its intricate carvings). It is also still a working temple, where pilgrims pour in to worship Chennakeshava, a form of Vishnu.
Chikkamagaluru
It was to near the town of Chikkamagaluru, in its eponymous region, that Sufi Baba Budan returned from Hajj in 1670, bringing with him the seven raw coffee beans from Yemen that catalysed an agricultural revolution. Today, there are of course legions of coffee plantations around here, amid the lakes, waterfalls and hiking trails that form the basis of the local tourist economy.
The two main species of coffee grown in Karnataka are Arabica (popular with global chains such as Starbucks) and Robusta (for your bog standard filter or instant). They come from evergreen shrubs that burst into red flowers in January and February.
The town is situated in the foothills of the tallest mountain in Karnataka, Mullayanagiri Peak. From the top, at 1,930m, there are supposedly excellent panoramas, though it invariably has its head in clouds that block the view. Your car will have to park at the barrier, 5km from the summit, near Mullappa Swami Temple, devoted to Shiva. From here, you can either walk the road, or flag one of the many little jeeps that enterprising locals charge you to drive up to the crest.
The premium addresses in Chikkamagaluru are the Serai and the Trivik, which is close to the summit of Mullayanagiri (for which the gate closes at 6pm).
The North
In the north, there are several UNESCO World Heritage Sites, including the trashed capital of the Vijayanagara Empire at Hampi, and the triplet of Chalukya Kingdom temples at Badami, Pattadakal and Aihole. There is also a fun temple on a hill at Hanumanahalli, and important relics of the Adil Shahi Dynasty that ran the Bijapur Sultanate from Vijayapura. Finally, there are Karnataka’s best beaches, at Gokarna, which lack the crowds of nearby Goa.
Hampi
Crossing the Western Ghats back into the Deccan Plateau, this time in the north, it is a long drive of more than five hours to reach the ancient ruined city of Hampi, almost 300km from Chikkamagaluru.
Hampi was known as Vijayanagara, “City of Victory”, with half a million inhabitants, when it was famed as the regal capital of its Empire, established in 1336. It reached its zenith in the sixteenth century, under King Krishnadevaraya, when it subjugated almost all of South India’s ruling families. It was finally conquered by an alliance of the five Deccan Sultanates in 1646, though the pivotal moment in its decline came almost a century earlier, in 1565. This is when the Sultanates from the north, on agile cavalry, attacked Rama Raya’s army, which was larger but stuck riding on sedate elephants. At the Battle of Talikota, Rama was captured and beheaded, his forces were routed, and his capital was plundered, reduced to the rubble it remains today, and renamed Hampi. These vast ruins are now a must-see UNESCO World Heritage Site and this was the only place in the whole of Karnataka we saw any other Western visitors, though there were only a handful of them.
For starters, this is a spectacular setting: on the banks of the Tungabhadra River, in a landscape of gigantic boulders ideal for carving medieval buildings and statues, littered with monkeys, and surrounded by fertile lands rich with green trees of bananas and coconuts.
The remnants of the city are scattered over a wide area that takes a full day to explore. The drill is to hire tuk-tuks to take you from site to site, then wander around each one on foot. To reverse the famous aphorism about golf usually attributed to Churchill, it is a great excuse for a good walk.
The landmark temple is Vittala, at the centre of which is the icon of Hampi: a life-sized Stone Chariot, the official vehicle of Lord Vishnu, which is represented on the fifty rupee banknote. To stand any chance of seeing it, rather than lots of people standing in front of it, you have to go first thing in the morning. The site opens at 6am.
The largest, and busiest, temple is Virupaksha, dedicated to Pampa, a form of Parvathi. Opposite is a 700m-long series of double-storied structures running down to a main gate that forms the backbone of Virupaksha Bazaar.
The Royal Enclosure is thought to have contained as many as fifty buildings belonging to the ruling Vijayanagara family. The standouts here include the Indo-Islamic Lotus Mahal…
…and the magnificent elephants’ stable.
There are many large statues dotted around, carved from single boulders. These include two gigantic Ganeshas, though the highlight is a monolithic 7m-tall Narasimha, an avatar of Vishnu, the God of Time, consort of Lakshmi, the Goddess of Prosperity.
The place to finish is near the Malayavanth Rayunatha Temple, where thousands assemble for the sunset.
It is a privilege to be allowed so close to these open-air treasures, though there surely cannot, should not, be many generations after us who are able to gain such access. For it is not sensible to allow tens of thousands of tourists to trample on them like this every single day. Meanwhile, enjoy it while you can, and undoubtedly the place to stay is the Evolve Back.
Hanumanahalli
Rather than charging west out of Hampi straight towards Badami, it is worth a 20km detour to Hanumanahalli, which means going east and looping anti-clockwise over a bridge that leads back west on the north bank of the Tungabhadra River.
This route takes you through the spectacular fertile river valley in the Deccan Plateau. Here there are endless straight lines and geometric patterns of paddy fields that have been imposed alluringly on the random wilderness, a scene hardly changed from the time that Vijayanagara ruled its world. Here also there are tiny villages, in which not only cows rove free but also pigs wander around nosing into the sewers and the trash, where you may well be halted by a local festival parade of costumed drummers, and you are certain to be held up by goatherds with scores of animated animals only just about under their control, giving insights of contemporary rural life.
No more than 5km from Hampi on the other side of the Tungabhadra is Hanumanhalli, famed locally as the birthplace of Lord Hanuman, the monkey-god who serves as the patron deity of martial arts. At the bottom of the mountain is a hubbub of vendors, with milling pilgrims in saffron scarves, symbolising purity and sacrifice. At the top, up a covered walkway of 575 steps, is Anjanadri Temple and a great view of Hampi across the river.
Badami, Pattadakal & Aihole
From Hanumanahalli, it is 130km northwest to Badami, where the Chalukya Dynasty rose in 543 until falling to the Rashtrakutas in 757. In the meantime, they produced some of India’s most remarkable sculptural art, in caves and on temples across Badami as well as at nearby Pattadakal and Aihole, all of which are a combined UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Now we have reached more obscure heritage destinations, foreigners are so exotic that I advise you never to stand still. For as soon as you do, you yourself become a more popular tourist attraction than the sites themselves and are completely mobbed by selfie-hunters. To complete the post-modern sequence, we ended up taking as many photos of them taking photos of us, as we did of the monuments. It is fun for a couple of weeks, but if this is the level of intrusive attention famous people get, count me out.
At Badami, there is a series of four cave-temples in an orange cliffside that are easily reached by steps up the hill, as long as you can pick your way past the unusually acquisitive monkeys and run the gauntlet of the local visitors. It is believed they were damaged by the Pallava Dynasty but were then restored by Tipu Sultan when he ruled the Mysore Kingdom, and just below them on the southwest corner of the large green fifth century Agastha Theertha Tank is a mosque he built that bears his name.
To get around the Agastha Theertha Tank you will need a thinner vehicle than a car, so you need to flag a tuk-tuk. On the other side of the tank is North Fort. There are steps up near the Archaeological Museum that lead to an extremely narrow passageway between two boulders and on to a bare little structure. From here there are good views across the tank and up to two small Shiva temples beyond, which date from when the Chalukyas made a return to power from 975 until 1189. Further around the tank is the Bhutanatha complex, with the Rashtrakuta Temple on a hill and the main late-period Chalukya Sri Paigara Shridhara Bhuteshwara Temple standing by the water.
Finally, seventh century Dravidian-style Malagitti Shivalaya Temple is atop another little hill. It is the best preserved early Chalukya monument in Badami. Indian visitors swarm all over the major sites but few venture beyond them to these other magnificent monuments nearby. Here there is nobody else at all, which is some relief after all the harassment at the caves.
Pattadakal is 20km east of Badami, where in the centre of town there is a cluster of half-a-dozen early Chalukya monuments set in a lovely garden. The most impressive are Virupaksha, Kashivishveshvara and Mallikarjuna.
Another 15km east is Aihole. Here there are more than a hundred early Chalukya temples spread around town. The major ones include Meguti, Ravanaphadi and Durga.
Most of the local visitors stay in Badami so the accommodation there is heaving, including at the prime place, the four-star Sterling Banashree. By staying in Aihole you will avoid the crowds, and the Wada 1 is a lovely heritage boutique built inside an old temple just below the fort.
Vijayapura
It is just over 100km each way to Vijayapura from Aihole so it can be done as a day-trip. This is advisable as the accommodation options in Vijayapura are paltry; the three-star Kyriad Hotel may be about the best of them.
It is immediately noticeable that Vijayapura has a strong Muslim core, lacking the hordes of local tourists who cause rampant melees elsewhere, and even poorer than the other temple towns we have visited. It was hardly out of the blue when we came across demonstrators with banners and drummers marching through the streets, and ending at a political rally outside the commissioners’ residence, protesting against their treatment at the hands of Bengaluru.
Vijayapura, historically known as Bijapur, was the capital of one of the five Deccan Sultanates that formed at the end of the fifteenth century. Bijapur controlled much of Central India, including Goa, and led the alliance that in 1565 surged south to destroy the Vijayanagar Empire based at Hampi. During its 200-year reign, the ruling Adil Shahi Dynasty built mausoleums, mosques and palaces that are well worth taking the trouble to see.
There are five main sites spread across town and you will need to get a tuk-tuk between them. The most prominent is Gol Gumbaz, or “round dome”, visible from miles away. This is the mausoleum of the seventh sultan of Bijapur, Mohammed Adi Shah, who died in 1656. Its immense floor area of 1,703.56 m2 is the largest under any domed building in the world. There is a narrow staircase that twists up to a whispering gallery near the top of the dome where predictably people come to yell their heads off to create an echo.
Outside Jama Masjid, there is a “no ball games” sign where children play cricket, and a “political activities prohibited in this premises” (sic) sign, the like of which I have never seen at any Hindu shrine in India. This mosque was commissioned in 1576, just twenty years after the sacking of Hampi, whose pillage helped cover its costs. It has a beautiful open-air courtyard still used today.
There is almost nothing left of the Citadel that once had a 1.5km moat and formed the nub of the old town. However, two impressive structures nearby still just about stand. The skeletal arches of Bara Kaman amount to the unfinished tomb of the eighth sultan, Ali Adil Shah II, son of Mohammed Adi Shah who is interred in Gol Gumbaz. This was intended to have surpassed even that mausoleum, and while that ambition was never realised, this has left an eerie memorial nonetheless.
The nearby Gagan Mahal royal palace may be dilapidated but it is also monumental. This is where the ninth and final sultan, Sikandar Adil Shah, was imprisoned and surrendered to the Mughals in 1686.
Beyond the old walls, the beautiful Ibrahim Rouza garden complex holds a pair of stunning buildings built side-by-side and covered in Arabic calligraphy. The slightly larger is the mausoleum of the sixth sultan, Ibrahim Adil Shah II, and the smaller is a lovely mosque.
Gokarna
Karnataka’s glorious coastline, much of it of rugged rocks mingled with palm trees on sandy beaches, stretches from Kerala to Goa, and after all this temple-bashing it is time to end with a rest.
The best of Karnataka’s beaches are in the north of the state at Gokarna, 350km southwest from Vijayapura. It is a seven-hour car ride but the second half, over the Western Ghats and down to the Arabian Sea, is lovely. This is not far from the famous beaches of Goa, which attract not just the hippies of yore but these days also families on fortnight breaks and retired couples on extended retreats from European winters. Gokarna has a much more local feel.
Gokarna is on the north side of Aghnashini River, and around the headland south of town there are four strips of sand between mountains, smothered in trees, that drop straight into the ocean. None have sun loungers, though there are loads of cafes and bars. None attract many Westerners, and while most locals wander around fully clothed there are some who wear swimwear in the sea.
Kudle and Om are long buzzy beaches, with plenty of trinket-vendors and coconut-hawkers, plus cows, of course. Half-Moon and Paradise are much smaller and much quieter. It is easy to flag a little boat that ferries people between them, as well as takes short trips to the lighthouse to see dolphins near where the river empties into the sea.
To sleep, and loaf by the pool, Kahani Paradise on Paradise Beach is exceptionally highly rated, and Swaswara on Om Beach is a lovely retreat, one of those specialising in ayurvedic programmes, yoga, massage and meditation, if that is your thing.
From Gokarna it is only 130km up to Goa, with its international airports. It takes less than three hours by car or by coast train, which leaves from the cutest little station at Gokarna Road, where naturally cows inhabit the ticket office and the platforms.