benne alankara

Remember that ODI at Bulawayo in Feb 1997 – a rain shortened match – Sachin Tendulkar opening with Vikram Rathour and bowling attack opened by Venkatesh Prasad with another of his Karnataka mate, nay – not Javgal Srinath.  Other than this two, there was Sunil Joshi and Anil Kumble too !! . Zimbabwe won that match by 8 wickets (with 73 balls remaining) (revised target)

 

Visitors to the city of Bangalore would find peace in this area - Basavanagudi located in South Bangalore, along the borders of Jayanagar. The name "Basavanagudi" refers to the Bull Temple, which contains a monolith statue of the Nandi Bull. The word Basava in Kannada means bull, and gudi means temple (photos of the Big bull in a later post). Basavanagudi is one of the oldest and poshest areas of Bangalore -  less than 5 km  from Bangalore City Railway Station and close to 40 km from   Kempegowda airport.

 

Ask Steven is an interesting  feature in ESPN Cricinfo – and recently there was a Q : Which Australian captain's first name is the same as the town in which he was born?    This is not to be confused with the initials where many of us have our ancestral place name – for eg – Javgal being a place in Karnataka as in Javgal Srinath.  

Steve Ans :  The obvious one is Sydney Gregory, who was born in 1870 in Sydney - indeed he was born on the site of what is now the Sydney Cricket Ground, as his father was a groundsman there. Syd made a record eight Ashes tours of England, and was captain in 1912, when he played the last of his 58 Tests.   However, the  question says "town" rather than "city", so I suspect you're actually after another answer. It's another New South Welshman: Warren Bardsley, who played his early Tests alongside Gregory and had a similarly long career that stretched to 1926, when he was 43. He captained in two Tests in England that year, standing in for the injured Herbie Collins. Bardsley was born in Warren, a small town in central NSW about 75 miles from Dubbo (Glenn McGrath's birthplace).   There was a near-miss with Australia's Bodyline captain Bill Woodfull: his middle name was Maldon, the town in Victoria in which he was born, where the sports ground is now named after him. 

Getting back home – in Bengaluru, Dodda Ganesha Temple is a famous temple, in Basavanagudi south Bangalore area.   At Dodda Ganesha Temple one can have darshan  of the biggest idols of Lord Ganesha in Karnataka. The legend of Doda Ganesha name is ‘Dodda’ in the Kannada language meaning big, relating to ‘Big Ganesha’. The huge Ganesha of this popular temple is 18 ft tall in height and 16 ft wide. The Dodda Ganesha Temple is also known as Shakthi Ganapathi and Satya Ganapathi.  It is believed that the idol of Dodda Ganesha Temple at Basavanagudi is growing on its right side.

 

The famous Dodda Ganesha Temple is housed on the boulder hill where the bull temple sits on the boundaries of Bugle Rock Park at Bull Temple Road in Basavanagudi, Bangalore. This Ganesha   being  a monolith of proportions 18 feet high and 16 feet wide, is a great boon giver. History has it that  Bangalore’s founder Kempegowda chanced on one among a heap of large boulders that had on it impressions that looked like the figure of Ganesha. He ordered his sculptors to carve an idol from this.  This Ganesha is anointed with benne (butter) – is generally  covered in cream paint with golden lace and buttons on it. The butter coat decoration involves around 100 kg butter smeared on the idol is the most popular one.   This Ganesha has different decorations most famous of them being butter coating (Benne Alankara)  - over 100 Kgs of butter (Benne)   

 

The Cricketer mentioned at the start is : Dodda Ganesh, a right-arm medium-fast bowler, very successful in domestic cricket bolstering the attack that had Javgal Srinath,  Venkatesh Prasad, Anil Kumble and Sunil Joshi. In his only ODI, against Zimbabwe in 1996-97, he captured a wicket and conceded 20 runs in five overs. He played four Test matches (in South Africa and West Indies) and took five wickets  in all.

 
With regards – S. Sampathkumar
19^th Sept. 2022