Footprints in the rocks

Kirti Malhotra describes his quest to find the Ganga Tirtha, which drew out several other interesting details

While reading the ‘report of the officer in charge of Archaeological Researches in Mysore, during the year 1914-15’, my eyes were drawn to the ‘tirthas on the hill’ in Shivagange. I learnt that the water bodies, called ‘tirthas’ were spread across a hill, all along its eight-kilometre perimeter. 

During my regular treks to Shivagange hill, I had spotted many well-known water bodies like ‘Onke Tirtha’, ‘Olakallu Tirtha’, ‘Paataal Gangaa’. However, I realised that some water bodies mentioned in the report were lost to history. I wondered if I could find one of them.  

I decided to explore ‘Ganga Tirtha’ since the report mentioned some inscriptions located near it. Initially, I could not find mentions of these inscriptions in Epigraphia Carnatica Volume 9 (1905). Then, I got hold of the supplement to the volume — printed in Kannada language only. 

After the texts were deciphered, I found that out of the two inscriptions near Ganga Tirtha, the second inscription was etched in big letters, below the first one. 

After getting down from the KSRTC bus at Shivagange and traversing the hill in an anti-clockwise direction, I saw an ancient temple, lying in ruins. Ignoring the waste and thick shrubs around it, I ventured ahead and was surprised to find carvings of various gods on all four sides of the pillars. 

Just ahead of this temple, I spotted ruins of a big mantapa. Among a heap of broken stone, I found an old hero stone slab. As I cleaned it, there emerged a beautiful figure of a hero, possibly belonging to the Ganga period.   

Eventually, I moved onto the rocky surfaces near a plateau. Here, I could see a small water body with bunds that were three feet in height.

At a distance uphill was a small mantapa. Closer to the structure, I also observed a neatly designed pond with steps. Nearby were broken parts of an ancient temple, some with nice carvings of a lotus and a conch. That is when I realised that this place might be the Ganga Tirtha, if I could find the two inscriptions mentioned in EC 9.

After a close scouting of all the surfaces of various boulders and small rocks around this region, I found the spot where the inscriptions were. The lower one had big letters, which made me certain that I had found Ganga Thirtha. 

The large inscription near Ganga Tirtha. 

The first inscription in Kannada reads “Kariya mallikarjuna devara shishyarada Chikka Veeranna Wodeyarge prasanna tirtha nadi.” The text dedicates the tirtha to Chikka Veeranna Wodeyar. Interestingly, the second inscription below dedicates ‘prasanna tirtha kola’ to Basavalingappa in big letters. 

‘Kola’ in Kannada means pond, while ‘nadi’ means river. I observed some water trickling out of the rocks, forming a small stream. The stream was flowing towards the square pond which had a broken Nandi on the top slab. While the big letters are preserved, the small letters have not held up to the test of time, due to the weathering of the rock. 

An hour's search

Another reason to go exploring the Shivagange hill was to look for ‘pada-dare’. The report mentions this as ‘footprints’ sculptured onto rocks, generally believed to represent those of Shiva and Honnadevi. 

The hero stone at Shivagange hill. 

My search for the two pairs of footprints made me look again at all the rocky surfaces along this route. An hour’s search under the scorching sun proved fruitful when I located the footprints. 

The inscription near them was visible. Though no water stream trickled here, I guessed it must have many years ago. The name ‘pada-dare’ can be interpreted as such — ‘dare’ means the flow of water in Kannada.

I rested on the rock, taking many photos of the weathered footprints and the inscription, which may not survive the years to follow. 

The joy of finding Ganga Tirtha and the inscriptions, as well as following the path taken almost 120 years ago by Benjamin Lewis Rice and his archaeological team, added a bounce to my long trek back to the Shivagange bus stop.