Shivanasamudra Falls is a cluster of waterfalls on the borders of Malavalli, Mandya and Kollegala, Chamarajanagara, in

Karnataka Karnataka ( ) is a States and union territories of India, state in the southwestern region of India. It was Unification of Karnataka, formed as Mysore State on 1 November 1956, with the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, 1956, States Re ...

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

, situated along the river

Kaveri The Kaveri (also known as Cauvery) is a Rivers of India, major river flowing across Southern India. It is the third largest river in the region after Godavari River, Godavari and Krishna River, Krishna. The catchment area of the Kaveri basin i ...

. The falls form the contour between the districts of Chamarajanagara and Mandya. The Bharachukki Falls in Kollegala, with a height of 69 metres, and the Gaganachukki Falls in Malavalli, with a height of 90 metres, collectively form the Shivanasamudra Falls. Shivanasamudra Falls is home to one of the first hydro-electric

power station A power station, also referred to as a power plant and sometimes generating station or generating plant, is an industrial facility for the electricity generation, generation of electric power. Power stations are generally connected to an electr ...

s in Asia, which was set up in 1902. The idea of tapping power from the falls to supply power for the machinery at the Kolar Gold Fields was suggested in 1898 by Alain Chartier Joly de Lotbiniere. The project was designed by Dewan Sir. Sheshadri Iyer and Chief Engineer Sir M. Visvesvaraya.

Waterfalls

The Shivanasamudra Falls is on the

Kaveri River The Kaveri (also known as Cauvery) is a major river flowing across Southern India. It is the third largest river in the region after Godavari and Krishna. The catchment area of the Kaveri basin is estimated to be and encompasses the states o ...

after the river has found its way through the rocks and

ravine A ravine is a landform that is narrower than a canyon and is often the product of streambank erosion. Ravines are typically classified as larger in scale than gullies, although smaller than valleys. Ravines may also be called a cleuch, dell, ...

s of the

Deccan Plateau The Deccan is a plateau extending over an area of and occupies the majority of the Indian peninsula. It stretches from the Satpura Range, Satpura and Vindhya Ranges in the north to the northern fringes of Tamil Nadu in the south. It is bound ...

and drops off to form waterfalls. The island town of Shivanasamudra divides the river into twin waterfalls. This creates the fourth largest island in the course of the river. A group of ancient temples is located here and there likely was a village. This is a segmented waterfall. Segmented waterfalls occur where the water flow is broken into two or more channels before dropping over a cliff, resulting in multiple sides by side waterfalls. It has an average width of , a height of , and an average volume of . The maximum recorded volume is . It is a perennial waterfall. The time of best flow are the

monsoon A monsoon () is traditionally a seasonal reversing wind accompanied by corresponding changes in precipitation but is now used to describe seasonal changes in Atmosphere of Earth, atmospheric circulation and precipitation associated with annu ...

season of July to October. A common misconception about these waterfalls is that the left segment is called Gaganachukki and the right segment is called Bharachukki. In reality the Bharachukki falls are a few kilometers to the south-west of the Gaganachukki falls. This is due to the Kaveri river itself splitting a few kilometers to the south into western and eastern branches. The western branch results in the twin waterfalls of Gaganachukki, whereas the eastern branch results in the Bharachukki falls. The Gaganachukki waterfalls are best viewed from the Shivanasamudra watch tower. Most of the pictures showing the twin waterfalls are taken from that location. There is another approach to the Gaganachukki falls from the Darga Hazrath Mardane Gaib (Imam Ali). Despite warnings being posted, people climb down the rocks and attempt to view the waterfalls from behind/top, resulting in many fatal accidents. It is from the city of

Bangalore Bengaluru, also known as Bangalore (List of renamed places in India#Karnataka, its official name until 1 November 2014), is the Capital city, capital and largest city of the southern States and union territories of India, Indian state of Kar ...

Temples

Sri Ranganathaswamy Temple located here is built in the Dravidian style of architecture. Sri Ranganathaswamy here is also referred to as "Madhya Ranga", who is highly revered by Sri Vaishnava devotees among others. Among all the three Rangas, the deity here is believed to represent the youth form of God and hence is also fondly referred to as 'Mohana Ranga' and 'Jaganmohana Ranga'. Madhya Ranga is an ancient temple housing a beautiful idol, yet being located remotely sees few visitors. The temple often remains closed to visitors as the local priest is not punctual, and the Karnataka government temple authority has done little to maintain and promote this place. The Shivanasamudra temple is one of the three temples of the God

Ranganatha Ranganatha, also known as Ranganathar, Rangan, Aranganathar, Sri Ranga, and Thenarangathan, is a Hindu deity with his origin in South India, southern India, serving as the chief deity of the Sri Ranganathaswamy Temple, Srirangam. The deity is a re ...

(Madhya Ranga) that are situated in the natural islands formed in the Kaveri river. They are: *Adi Ranga: the Sri Ranganathaswamy Temple at

Srirangapatna Srirangapatna or Srirangapattana is a town and headquarters of one of the seven Taluks of Mandya district, in the Indian State of Karnataka. It gets its name from the Ranganthaswamy temple consecrated around 984 CE. Later, under the Britis ...

, Srirangapatna taluk,

Mandya district Mandya district is an administrative district of Karnataka, India. The district Mandya was carved out of larger Mysore district in the year 1939. Mandya is the main town in Mandya district. As of 2011, the district population was 1,808,680 ...

*Madhya Ranga: the Sri Ranganathaswamy Temple at Shivanasamudra, Kollegala taluk, Chamarajanagara district,

*Antya Ranga: the Sri Ranganathaswamy Temple at

Srirangam Srirangam is a neighbourhood in the city of Tiruchirappalli in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. A river island, Srirangam is bounded by the Kaveri River on one side and its distributary Kollidam on the other side. Considered as the first among ...

, Srirangam taluk,

Tiruchirappalli district Tiruchirappalli District is one of the 38 districts, located along the Kaveri River, in Tamil Nadu, India. The headquarters of the district is the city of Tiruchirappalli. During the British Raj, the district was referred to as Trichinopoly, ...

Tamil Nadu Tamil Nadu (; , TN) is the southernmost States and union territories of India, state of India. The List of states and union territories of India by area, tenth largest Indian state by area and the List of states and union territories of Indi ...

There are three more temples on three other sides of the island. The ancient Sri Someshwara Temple, is another famous temple at Shivanasamudra. Adi guru Sri Shankaracharya is said to have visited this place and established a "Sri Chakra". It is unusually believed that the Someshwara Linga here has existed much before the Ranganantha idol and that the Saptarshis was performing pooja and worshipping this Linga. The Shakthi Devathe temple of Vanadurga Devi is away from the Someshwara temple.

Power-generation

It was the first ever hydro electric project in Asia and is still functional. This station was commissioned by the Diwan of

Mysore Mysore ( ), officially Mysuru (), is a city in the southern Indian state of Karnataka. It is the headquarters of Mysore district and Mysore division. As the traditional seat of the Wadiyar dynasty, the city functioned as the capital of the ...

, Sir K. Seshadri Iyer. The power generated here was initially used for the Kolar Gold Fields, starting from 1902. Three years later Bangalore was also electrified. One can visit the power station by obtaining special permission through Karnataka Power Corporation. Travelling in British built winch lift is an experience.

Gallery

File:Bharachukki.JPG, Bharachukki Falls Shivanasamudra File:Barachukki - a revelation.jpg, Bharachukki File:The Beer Chukki Falls, Mysore.jpg, Bharachukki Falls, c. 1905 File:Shivanasamudram.JPG, Shivanasamudra Falls File:SivanaSamudra.JPG, Shivanasamudra in full flow File:BarachukkiFalls1.JPG, Shivanasamudra at Bharachukki File:The Kaveri Falls at Swasamudram, South India.jpg, The Kaveri Falls, c. 1905 File:ShivanasamudraFalls 7660.JPG, Rainbow over the falls

Notes

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External links