Snap Well

Every year during her workshop in Bellur Rita Keller take students to some historic places giving a break to yoga regimen for a change. For last two consecutive years we visited Melukote with her. Melukote is on Mysore road around 200 kilometers from Bellur which is probably a 4 hour road journey if started early avoiding Bengaluru traffic. It is one of the ancient towns in Karnataka with great religious importance. Melukote is a sacred place for Hindus and also an important place for Guruji and his family. A very ancient Library and Sanskrit college, the Raya Gopuram, Cheluvanarayana Temple, Pushkarini, Yoga Narasimha temple etc. are some of the highlights of the place. We reached the library and Sanskrit college in around 11 A.M. I will now try to guide you through images what you can find in Melukote. This is the first sight that come across you the moment you enter the Vedavedanta Bodhini Sanskrit college. A huge monolithic rock behind the college.  Since we w

Bellur is a small village in Kolar district 55 kilometers from Bangalore in Karnataka, India with around 500 houses and an average population of 2000 people. It is in this village, the Legendary Yogacharya Sri. B.K.S. Iyengar was born on 14th of December 1918. Bellur was an 'Agrahara' during Guruji's time of birth. agra means front and hara means the garland. According to traditional Hindu practice of architecture and town planning, an 'agraharam' is held to be the two rows of houses (mainly of Brahmins) running North-South on either sides of the road resembling a garland, at one end of which would be a temple of 'Shiva' and at the other end would be a temple of 'Vishnu'. The two temples of Shiva at one end of the village and a temple of Rama (incarnation of Vishnu as per Hindu Mythology) are still present in the village of Bellur. Both these temples are quite old and are chosen as National heritage sites by Archaeological Survey of India. Both