Srirangapatna travelogue - A day's trip

We had been to Srirangapatna last weekend. Here is an account of our trip.
Srirangapatna is a small island near Mysore in Karnataka surrounded by river Cauveri. Tipu Sultan, known as the Tiger of Mysore and his father Hyder Ali ruled the Southern part of India with Srirangapatna as the capital city. The main attractions of the city now are the Sriranganatha temple from which the city gets its name and some really good monuments of Tipu Sultan's period.
Our itenary consisted of visiting the ranganatha temple, some of the monuments related to Tipu Sultan, ranganthittu bird sanctuary and balmuri water falls. We had planned to return to Bangalore by 7:30 PM as we had a dinner invitation from one of our relatives. So we decided to cover as much as possible before 4 PM, without over doing.
We started from home at 7:15 AM in the morning in our Hyundai accent. There were 5 adults and a kid. We took the nice road and reached kadumane restaurant on Mysore road at 8 AM. The mysore road is pretty good though there are some traffic jam points. We went past Ramnagaram of Sholay fame, mandya, maddur and finally reached sriranapatnam at around 9:45 AM. An arch welcomes the visitors once they enter Srirangapatnam. We went past the arch and crossed the bridge and there was another arch to the right welcoming again. We took that right and went straight. We then went past the fort entrance. "The sword of tipu sultan” serial's famous title music lingered in my mind. We kept going straight..On the way to the temple, there were some historical places of interest which we decided to visit on our return from temple.
SriRanganatha Temple

We reached ranganatha temple at 10 AM. The temple is a small one and unlike its counterparts, the gopuram was yellow in color.. The inside of the temple was simple without elaborate carvings. I guess belur and halebid has one of the best carvings, not even an inch is left without a carved figure.. We had the darshan(Vishnu in sayanam posture, goddess lakshmi, hanuman, garuda, narasimha to name a few) and left the temple premise at 11:45 after having our packed breakfast.

Obelisk

Of the many historical places, tipu's summer palace and tipu's mausoleum are the only 2 places that are covered in a tourist package..The first not very touristry attracton that we visited was the Obelisk. After seeing the obelisk in Egypt, we really could not dare to miss this one. From the temple, we kept going straight in a very narrow road, after getting confirmation from the local people that the road is indeed motoroable. We parked the car when we could not go any furhter. We saw the obelisk from a distance. It was a small one. The surrounding was more fascinating than the obelisk itself..The whole area is enclosed within a fort, though destoyed now. Once we climbed an elevated road, we reached the fort wall from where we saw river cauvery flowing away to glory. It was very scenic with lots of trees dotting the banks of the river. There was also a railway bridge to give it a modern touch.

Dungeon

We spent sometime there and then headed towards the main road. On the way to the main road are a dungean and tipu's death place. There was nothing much to see in the dungeon. It was a big hall with pillars. There were some stones fixed to the dungeon wall. The prisoners were suppusedlt tiesd there and beaten..
Tipu's Death Place

Then we headed towards tipu's death place. It was here they found tipu's body during his valiant battle against the british. Tipu's own men betrayed him by showing the water gate to the british through which they breached the fort.
Then we saw the remains of tipu's palace which was completely destroyed by the British. Apparently, the summer palace of Tipu, our next destination, stays intact and after tipu it was occupied by Lord Wellesely.
Dariya Daulat

The Summer palace known as Dariya daulat(wealth of sea) was built by Tipu to commemorate his victory over british during one of the battles.
The entrance to the palace looks beautiful with trimmed pine like trees on both the sides with a passage for water in between. The walls of the palace are extensively painted mainly depicting the wars that Tipu had won. There were also paitings of Hyder Ali's victories. There were fighting scenes depicting both the locals and the british. The paintings are colorful and well preserved.. It is more like a museum now, with the furniture used by tipu displayed. It also has some potraits of Tipu, Hyder Ali, Tipu's seven sons. There was also a full size portrait of Tipu at the entrance in his war attire which looked really nice. It has a 3D effect in the sense that, you would feel as if the picture looks at you from any direction you see..

Outside the palace there is lot of open space with lawn where we (me and my parents with the kid) rested for a while when my husband and MIL were busy enjoying every detail of the paintings..
Mosque

Next we visited the mosque. I somehow liked the architecture of this mosque. It looked very elegant. One fascinating aspect of this mosque was the presence of 2 pillars that resembled their counterparts in hindu temples..
Mausoleum

Our last historical destination was the masaouleum. It was built by Tipu to rest his father Hyder Ali. When Tipu died, he was also put to rest there. The shape of the tomb reminded me of the citadel in egypt. :-) The place were the bodies are resting has some beautiful colorful paintings.

Sangam

That was the end of our historic trip. Now was the time to spend some time with mother nature. Our first destination was sangam where cauvery from south and north join. I expected some nice scenaries here. But nothing much to see. The water was dirty.
Balmuri Falls

Next we headed towards our last destination for the day( we cancelled ranganthittu wild life santuary due to lack of time), the balmuri falls. The falls was playing hide and seek with us. Finally with local help we reached the spot at 3:30 PM. August is supposed to be the best season. Best season is synonymous to crowd. There was lot of water and people. The sight of water flowing in steps was a treat to the eyes. We did not get into the water. Spent some time there. Had a late lunch at 4:15 and left the place at 4:30.
Scrumptious Dinner

We reached bangalore at . We were invited for dinner at a relatives place near koramangala. Had a scrumptious dinner and left their place at 9:30. Reached home at 10:30 PM.
It was a trip to remember. We have read about Tipu Sultan in our history class during school days. Visiting the place were the great Tipu built forts, patronaged art, ruled and fought various wars and finally died like a great warrior was like truly reliving history. This is also one of the best places to see river Cauvery at its best.