Doddagubbi is an idyllic village in the outskirts of the City. It it situated about 25 kms from the city, a two kilometre deviation from Hennur Main Road. The village can also be approached through another deviation of about eight kms from Krishnarajapuram.
It appears to have been a flourishing town under Vijayanagara rulers. The place name has been referred as “Gubbi” in a 19th Century record from the same place.
At the entrance of the village is a fine Vijayanagara temple locally called Someshwara. It has been built at an elevated place with a flight of steps leading to it. The navaranga has square Vijayanagara pillars with fine relief figures of Shaiva episodes. There are also images of Surya and Durga standing over the head of Mahisha (with Ganga features) placed in the Navaranga.
The exterior of the temple have attractive relief sculptures found in decorative niches. There are many secular figures like dancing girls, animals like elephant, varaha and deer. Across the road is a tall dwajasthamba installed over a square platform. Around the lower portion of this pillar is engraved an inscription dated around 1426 AD of Pratapa Deva Raya II accounting the installation of the dwajasthambha by one local official Piri Setti.
“Every Monday a priest comes here to perform the pooja”, say the local people here. Rest of the week the temple remains locked, but you can have a view of the sanctum sanctorum from the outside.
The people are well-aware of their heritage. In fact, many villagers, especially the youth, wanted to renovated the neglected temple pond called Someshwara Kalyana, the water of which was used to temple rituals. “The water was once so clean that the people used to actually drink it as thirtha (holy water) directly from the pond. The water was also used for abhisheka (ritual bathing) of the temple idols”, says G S Achappa, president of a local environment and social welfare trust called Suraksha.
The trust along with the support of the people did attempt to renovate the pond. In 2004, a meeting was convened by the Trust in which the Swamiji of Admar Math (the Math has a branch nearby), the then local MLA B N Bache Gowda and about 500 villagers participated. The was a discussion and a consensus on the renovation of the pond but it did not progress beyond that due to bureaucratic hurdles.
Despite the antiquity of the Someshwara temple, it is the temple dedicated to the village deity, Maduramma, that is in the limelight every year. The jatra (procession) of Maduramma is held annually, 20 days after Ugadi.
“Doddagubbi today is a grama panchyat, which also comprises the villages of Angalapura and Ramapura earning an annual revenue of Rs 70 lakhs”, says grama panchayat member s Balaji. Doddagubbi village itself has about 800 families and a population of about 4,000 people. The name “Doddagubbi” means “big well”, but there are no open wells in the vicinity accept one near the Someshwara temple. It has about eight public borewells sunk by the Grama Panchayat. But water is not a problem here. It has a lake with an area of 105 acres with which farmers grow hybrid paddy like IR 20 and Jaya in an area of 160 acres.
“A good monsoon fills up the lake and then the water is enough for two years and four crops”, says Achappa.
  Many NGOs, ashrams and foster homes, who found the city too expensive set up their base here. A few residential layouts also were developed. The boundaries of Greater Bangalore skirt the periphery of the village, but cover its neighbouring villages like Byrathi and Billishivale. Doddagubbi continues to be a village and a grama panchayat. It is easily accessible by BMTC buses from Shivajinagar, Kempegowda bus stand and K R Market, yet it is far from the madding crowds.