The road towards Kolar, north of the city, is flanked with contrasting landscape. Lush greenery is interlaced with stretches of barren land studded with rocks and boulders of every shape and size. Over centuries, the sultry mornings and the frosty nights have transformed the rocky landscape to every shade of brown. About 60 kms from Bangalore, we saw a small hill called Dasana Gudda with an inconspicuous temple at the top. A right turn from the main road towards a village called Kalhalli brought us to a vantage point, the nearest approach to our venture.

Finding every route uphill blocked with a jungle of vegetation, we had to literally push our way through thorny bushes. Wide fissures did not make the journey any easier. My unexpected entry forced a snake basking in the sun to slither away seeking refuge. The deadly encounter put us on guard and we were cautious in approaching the tower at the top of the hill. At some places it was a literal climb on all fours and we had to tug our photographic paraphernalia with the aid of a rope.

Every effort was worth it. From a distance, the hill appeared to be very small. On reaching the top, we realised that the place was actually higher than we had imagined. The view from up there was splendid. The clear blue sky dotted with milky-white clouds formed the perfect background to the brown landscape blending into a spectacular sight. A family of chameleons darted hither and thither on encountering us; an unfamiliar sight. A gut feeling told us that nobody ever visited this place. We wondered why humans had abandoned this place. We had the answer soon enough. The sanctum in front of us lay devoid of the customary idol of worship.

Disturbed, we halted long enough to bear down the shock. The Chamaeleontidaes, accepting us in their territory, went about their task, scurrying around in prospect of food. Taking a different route downhill, we encountered a couple of goats hopping merrily over boulders towards greener pastures.

Reaching the foot of the hill, we spoke to the villagers about the missing idol. In fact, the temple contained the idol of Thimmarayana Swamy (Local name of Lord Venkateshwara), until miscreants took possession of the idol, removing it from the temple. Nobody remembers clearly when the theft occurred, but it might have been about 70-80 years ago. From that time, people rarely visited the place, except for the occasional shepherd or a cowherd in search of his missing stock.

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