A visit to my native place: The Village of Music, Rudrapatna

Overview: Situated on the banks of the river Cauvery, Rudrapatna is a beautiful small village in Hassan District of Karnataka with rich history, and happens to be my ancestral village too. This is one of the places where the people from the Sankethi community initially settled around 700 years ago, and were instrumental in modelling this as a 'village of music' or 'Sangeetha Grama' as it is known today. The village is also known for its Sanskrit Paathashaala, at Shankara Math near the Rama temple, which is trying to keep the traditions alive in the village.

Rudrapatna

Rudrapatna

Sankethi community is known for music, and this village has produced many Carnatic musicians like R.K. Suryanarayana, R.K. Srikantan, Rathnamala Prakash, R.K. Padmanabha and several others. The Tamboori shaped temple is a tribute to all the musicians from this village and was built under the leadership of Vidwan Shri RK Padmanabha in the 2000s.

Tamboori temple, Rudrapatna

Rudrapatna

Another great personality from this village is R. Shamashastry, who found one of the copies of Chanakya's Arthashastra from a heap of manuscripts which the Britsh considered as 'lost'. The original treatise was composed in the 2nd-3rd century BCE and R Shamashastry translated the text to English in 1905. This was later presented to the Oriental Research Institute in Mysore headed by BL Rice.

Copy of Arthashastra in Mysore

The Sankethi community settled here during the Hoysala period, and Rudrapatna also has a Chennakeshava temple from the Hoysala period. Outside the temple there is an unpublished inscription, mentioning the earlier name of the place as 'Hayagreevapura'. There is another big inscription stone a few metres away from the river bank, but its worn out and nothing is visible now.

Chennakeshava temple, Rudrapatna
Unpublished Hoysala inscription, Rudrapatna

There is also an ancient Shiva temple, and just further down the temple is a Brindavana of a yogi, who meditated in a cave below the boulders. The cave cannot be seen now though.

Cauvery at Rudrapatna

There are a series of villages around Rudrapatna which are historically and culturally rich like Ramanathapura, Hanasoge, Bettadapura, Periyapatna, Chunchunkatte and Basavapatna.

Villages around Rudrapatna (clockwise from top left: (Ramanathapura, Bettadapura, Rameshwara temple, Chunchunkatte, Hanasoge, Periyapatna)

Comments

  1. Replies
    1. Yes indeed. This temple was built to revive the music culture of the village..

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  2. I would love to visit that place with my wife and son. Any boarding / lodging places? I plan to come by bus. I do not drive.

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    1. This comment has been removed by the author.

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    2. Yes it's there. Sharada Mandira. You can reach Gurudath :9482287874 for lodging n food.

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    3. Hello Manjunath. I have sent an email to you. Please feel free to reach out to me for more details.

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  3. That seems like a pretty place. Love the old structures and alleys.

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    Replies
    1. Thank you.. Do let me know if you want to visit this place. I can help arranging local food and accommodation.

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  5. Beautiful article about village of music 👏👌

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  6. Beautiful article about village of music..👌👏

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