01The bull of the groundnut fields
When Kempe Gowda I laid out Bengaluru in 1537, the village of Sunkenahalli around this rock grew groundnut. The account kept by the temple says a bull grazed the crop every year, and when a farmer struck it, it sat down and turned to stone. To calm it the farmers vowed the first harvest to Nandi, and Kempe Gowda built a shrine round the monolith. The Nandi is carved from one granite boulder, about 4.6 metres high and 6 metres long, coated with butter and charcoal over the centuries until it shines black. A stream at its feet is held to be the source of the Vrishabhavati river.
02Kadalekai Parishe
On the last Monday of Kartik the street outside fills with the Kadalekai Parishe, the groundnut fair, when farmers from around Bengaluru bring their first harvest to offer Nandi and sell the rest in heaps along the road. Next to the temple, on the same rock, is the Dodda Ganapati temple with a large monolithic Ganesh, and on the hill above, one of Kempe Gowda’s four watchtowers that marked the bounds of his city.
The life of this place
- 1537Kempe Gowda I founds Bengaluru and builds the Nandi temple.
On Bull Temple Road, Basavanagudi; the Kadalekai Parishe is in November or December.
