the journey continues…

This beautiful cave temple dedicated to Lord Murugan is in Malaysia.The temple is inside a cave and the cave is made up of lime stones.
Wikipedia says the limestones forming Batu Caves are said to be around 400 million years old.Initially these caves were used as shelters.In 1890 an Indian Trader,KT Pillai promoted them as temple by installing the statue of Lord Murugan.
A huge and nicely carved statue of Lord Murugan painted in golden color is very catchy.There are around 300 steps you need to climb to go to the top.Inside the cave its very cool and calm.You can really feel the pleasure of being close to god.

(below picture is inside the caves)

(Lime stones on top – beauty of nature !!)

Its an imprtant piligrimage center for many hindus(specially tamilians) and thousands visit this place during Thaipusam festival which is held in the month of Jan/Fed.

This ancient temple of Shri Lord Ranganatha Swamy is located in Magadi which is around 50km from Bangalore.The temple was built during the period of King Cholas and further developed by the kings of Vijayanagara Empire.Gopuram of the temple is in Dravidian style while inside the idol is in standing posture which is Vijayanagara Empire style.

Lord Ranganatha is in standing posture with 3 arms holding shanka,chakra,gada and the other one in abhaya hasta (Asdsuring hand).
Usually the idol of Lord Ranganatha would be in reclining position.But here it is in standing posture.The priest said, originally it is the idol of Lord Venkateshwara and the elevated place were the temple is located is called Tirumale.
During the period of Tippu Sulatan,mughals started destroying many hindu temples.To save this temple,they called Venkateshwara as Ranganatha, as Tippu Sultan was faithful to his god RanganathaSwamy at Srirangapattana.
One more interesting idol inside is Beleyo Ranga( Growing Ranga) which is a small idol of Ranganatha in reclining position.

We visited in a family group with food,water etc.Had a nice darshanam,food and spent a whole day.Ideal place for family outing.You can also visit other near by places like TG Halli,SavanaDurga etc.I came across this link which was interesting.

This ancient and beautiful temple of Doddamalur is dedicated to Lord Aprameya Swamy.

The word Aprameya means “One who has no vices what so ever”.The idol is in the posture of Abhayahastha. Lord’s two upper hands are holding Shanka (Conch shell) and Chakra (disc) and the lower arms are holding Gadha (mace) and Hastha (Asdsuring hand).
It is believed that sage Vyasa installed the statue of Lord Navaneeta Krishna(Benne Krishna) in the temple.
The idol of krishna is small,beautiful with butter in hand.The idol flaunts several ornaments including a tiger claws pendant. Priests say that the Lord wears it to avoid bad eyes from his many devotees.Childless couples come here to pray to AmbegAlu Krishna and offer cradles after the child is born.You can see so many wooden and silver cradles hanged up in the temple.

It is also said that Purandaradasaru composed his popular song — “Jagadoddharana Aadisidalu Yashode…” after seeing the beauty of Lord Navaneeta in the temple. Purandaradasa Mantapam in front of the Rajagopuram of the temple is a tribute to the great poet for immortalising his ecstasy on seeing Navaneeta Krishna here.There is also a lakshmi (Aravindavalli) temple beside the main temple.
The temple maintains a official site which gives the contact details,best time to visit,festivals etc.
You can also visit the Nadi Narasimha Temple which is in front of the krishna temple.There is no tar roads to reach this temple.By walking it would take around 25 minutes.