travelandleisureindia.inTHE DETAILS
GETTING THERE
Mysuru is 144 kilometres
from Bengaluru, the nearest
airport. The Flybus from
Kempegowda International
Airport to Mysore KSRTC
bus stand costs `790 and
leaves at 8 am, 10.30 am,
6 pm, and 9 pm. The drive is
just over three hours. From
Mysuru, the Keshava
Temple at Somanathapura
is 35 kilometres via Bannur.
Drive 11 kilometres to
T Narasipura and continue
to Talakadu, 15 kilometres
away. Shivanasamudra is
30 kilometres from there.Melkote is 55 kilometres
away via Srirangapatna. Hire
a cab for excursions.
STAY
Grand Mercure Mysore
on New Sayyaji Rao Road
(doubles from `4,800; accor.
com) offers 146 rooms
and the best restaurants in
town. For some old-world
opulence, try Lalitha
Mahal Palace Hotel
(doubles from `4,000;
lalithamahalpalace.co.in) at
the foot of Chamundi Hills.
Royal Orchid Metropole
Hotel (doubles from `4,500;royalorchidhotels.com) is
another charming heritage
hotel originally built by the
Maharaja of Mysuru in 1920.
TOURS
Royal Mysore Walks, now
called Gully Tours, has
been organising city tours
for almost a decade—
heritage walks, Tipu trail,
and culinary and bicycle
tours. gully.tours
BEST SEASON
The city is at its festive
best during Mysuru Dasara,
the nine-day annual festival
in September-October.worshipping at each temple within a day.
Intriguingly, Talakadu is covered entirely in
sand, said to be the result of a woman’s curse.
Tirumala Raja or Sriranga Raya was a
representative of the Vijayanagar royal family at
Srirangapatna. His pious wife, Alamelamma,
was a devotee of Sri Ranganayaki, the divine
consort of Sri Ranganathaswamy. Every Tuesday
and Friday, Alamelamma offered her jewels to
the goddess and took them back after the puja.
Tirumala Raja was afflicted by an incurable
disease and came with his wife to Talakadu to
propitiate Vaidyeshwara. After Tirumala Raja’s
death in 1610, the Wodeyars captured
Srirangapatna and Raja Wodeyar demanded that
the ornaments be returned, assuming they
belonged to the temple. Alamelamma sent her
nose ring, and the incensed king dispatched an
army. To escape capture, Alamelamma jumped
into River Kaveri with the jewels and uttered a
curse as she drowned: “Let Talakadu become
sand, Malangi become a whirlpool, and the
Mysore rajas fail to beget heirs.” True to her
word, a flourishing town became a desert, the
river turned treacherous, and the Wodeyars
became a dynasty of adopted scions.
Led by my guide, I plodded through a sea of
sand akin to the Thar, marvelling at a 500-acre
patch of desert in the middle of nowhere. Some
ascribe the sand dunes to the shifting course of
the river. Starting from the Vaidyeshwara
shrine, we covered the Shiva temples on foot,
ending at the Keerthinarayan Temple, the
largest of Talakadu’s temples. Ongoing
excavations continue to reveal a half-buried
treasure of temples and monuments.
The excursion had worked up my appetite,
so I took on a North Indian spread of galouti
kebab, nalli nihari (flour-based stew), dal, naan,
and kulfi at By The Blue, Grand Mercure Mysore’s rooftop
poolside resto-bar. Lunch was a grand ‘Kingdom of Mysore’
thali—gorikai kara (cluster beans) from North Karnataka,
tili saaru (tomato rasam) from Udupi, chitranna (lemon rice)
from Davangere, donne biryani from Bengaluru, akki (rice)
roti from Malnad/Coorg, along with kosambri (salad), palya
(stir fry), gojju (thick curry), and of course, Mysore pak.
On the way back to Bengaluru, I stopped at the temple
town of Melkote to see its beautiful Pushkarni (temple tank),
Cheluvanarayana Swamy Temple, and the hilltop shrine of
Yoganarasimha perched at 1,777 m (hence the name mel-kote
or ‘high fort’). As I climbed the many stone steps, happy to
burn my Karnataka-thali calories, the sweet taste of Mysuru
still lingered on my lips.The opulent lobby of Grand Mercure Mysore. Bottom: The Karnataka thali at
La Uppu brings together regional flavours from around the state.