The next destination on the tour was the Chamundi Hills. Once again we flew out of Mysore at breakneck speeds and ventured dangerously 15km up into the hills and to the tallest peak. Atop the Chamundi Hills is a Kali temple. There are 1000 or more steps leading to the top, but we were fortunate enough to get a drive — albeit a sinus clearing one. However, there’s no way I could have made it up all those stairs in my weakened state.
When you first enter the hill area there is a huge statue of the gopuram Mahishasura. Mahishasura was a gopuram (demon) who cursed everyone. Chamundi (Parvotti in one of her forms) offered to slay the demon. But like a cockroach, when a drop of a demon blood hits the ground, another 1000 demons are produced. So, to prevent this from happening Chamundi drank all the blood of the demon before a single drop could hit the ground. As a result, Chamundi became Kali, the Hindu goddess of death and destruction, who has a reputation for being blood thirsty.
The History professor explained that the different naming of the same god is actually just a way of naming their different moods. In other words, for each mood the god has a different name. Rather than go into the Kali temple, I chose to look at the view of Mysore from atop the hills and from beside a large statue of Nandi. The statue was originally built in 1659 out of one piece of rock and seemed to draw a large number of people who cried and prayed with great fervour.
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