Seen Unseen Lalbagh - Lalbagh Heritage Walk

Being a Bangaloren, I have always visited Lalbagh botanical garden with my friends usually for morning walks followed by breakfast in MTR (Which is a common trend here). But when I got to know there there is a heritage walk arranged by BengaluruPrayana, I thought why not enroll for this event and uncover some unknown facts about this place. 

It has been a rainy week in Bangalore. But luckily rain god supported our walk today with just cloudy weather. We all assembled at Lalbagh West Gate since this gate is very close to Lalbagh metro station. After 9:30 AM there will be an entry fee of Rs.30 per person. So our host of the day took entry tickets for us. We were briefed about walk of the day and then we set off on yet another interesting heritage walk of the city. 

Brief History ...

Lalbagh has a 200 year old history. This was first planned and laid out by Hyder Ali. But his son Tipu Sultan later completed it. Tipu enhanced this garden by importing plants from different countries. You will find labels on most of these trees for easy identification and to understand more facts about the species. Tipu also laid out similar gardens in Sri Rangapatna and Malavalli (Near Mandya District). Unfortunately they didn't become as famous as Lalbagh due to lack of maintenance. 

Lets start the Walk Now ...

Lalbagh West Gate Guard Room

As you enter from the West Gate, the first structure that would attract you is the Guard room. 

As you can notice, this has been designed in the shape of lantern with windows on all sides so that a guard would keep a watch from all sides. But perhaps many people don't know that this structure is a transplant. Earlier it stood at the entrance of Dewan P.N.Krishnamurthy's bungalow. Later on when this place was acquired by the Government, this guard room also was dismantled along with the entire premises. But only this guard room was carefully removed, brought to Lalbagh and assembled at the west gate. 

Lalbagh Lake 

This is a paradise for nature lovers as you can watch exotic flora along the lake side and wide varieties of birds on other side of the lake. Its a heaven for bird watchers. You need to come for early morning walks to see them. 

Attractions along the walk...

Hero Stones in Lalbagh

Hero stones are good pieces of history hidden away inside Lalbagh and usually is not noticed by travelers. I have been to Lalbagh many times and I wasn't aware that there are hero stones here. So "Hero Stones" are usually stones with intricate carvings detailing out stories of warriors who died in the battlefield. There are 2 hero stones in Lalbagh - One on the horticultural office side and other one near the Peninsular Genesis. While walking towards horticultural office, you need to take a slight deviation to uncover the first hero stone. 

Our host told us that usually hero stone is divided into 3 layers. I am not able to recollect what the bottom layer signifies. Middle layer explains about the during battle scenes or victory(post battle glimpses) and the top layer signifies the last rites done for the soul to depart from this world(stairway to heaven). 

We were given an interesting task by our hosts to look for other hero stone before our walk ends and we were super excited about this hunt😊.

Horticulture Office

Band Stand

Band Stand is located almost in the center of Lalbagh facing the glass house. In the earlier days annual flower shows were conducted here. It is called "Band Stand", because military personnel would perform here with their band during weekend holidays. Last time when I visited, I found some bhajan group singing bhajans with their instruments here. It was so soothing to hear in the mornings. 

Tree Fossil

This tree fossil is a collection from the National Fossil Park , Tiruvakkarai, Tamil Nadu. It is supposed to be 20 million years old. 

Attractions along the way ...

Walking towards the majestic White Silk Cotton Tree

White Silk Cotton Tree

This is one of the famous attractions of Lalbagh. This tree is approximately 200 years old. This is a big soft wooded deciduous tree which grows to a height of 25 to 30 meters. It usually blooms in spring season and has huge orange scarlet flowers with five petals. Wood of the tree is very light and often used to make packing cases. 

Statue of Chamaraja Wodeyar

This is the most artistic and elegant structure in Lalbagh. Chamaraja Wodeyar was the Maharaja of Mysore. This was originally erected at Curzon Park in Mysore. Later on it was shifted to Bangalore. On either sides of the structure you will find two more statues - one is of a blind folded person holding balance in one hand (Symbolizing justice) and other one was not that clear. Looks like some restoration work is going on. Hence couldn't take clear pictures. 

Right opposite to this structure you will find the Snow White house. And as you walk on the other side of the house you will find the most famous HMT clock.

HMT Clock

This floral clock was gifted by HMT in 1983 (I have mentioned about this in my earlier blog on "HMT Museum". Blog link). This is surrounded by Snow White and the seven dwarfs which a very important attraction here. 

Baobab Tree

As mentioned earlier, Tipu Sultan imported various species of plants from different countries. Baobab tree was imported from South Africa. This is a curious looking tree thought to live more than 2000 years with a swollen bottle shaped trunk suddenly tapering upwards and dividing into a large number of branches. In its native country, the trunk of older trees get hollowed to such an extent to hold rain water as much as 1250 liters, by tapping which people would survive over long draught periods. 

Landmark to spot this tree is the old ticket counter which was functional when some part of this area was converted into zoo in earlier days. 

Lalbagh Glass House 

This glass house is a host for the most popular flower show that happens twice a year - 26th January (Republic day) and 15th August( Independence day). This place attracts huge crowd during these 2 dates of the year. This glass house has been constructed on the model of Crystal Palace of England. It was built in 1889 in honor of Prince Albert Victor, grandson of Queen Victoria. 

Intricate Woodcarvings

From glass house as you start walking towards the Kempegowda Tower, you will find these beautiful wood carvings done on solid tree trunks on either side of the path. And each masterpiece had a name on it. But unfortunately artist's name was not mentioned neither his thoughts/idea behind this wonderful creation. 

The theme of this tree is "Into the Jungle". So you will find all the elements of wild life carved on this tree. You can find more details in the video below. 

Kempegowda Tower

This is the oldest structure in Lalbagh. This was constructed by Kempegowda, founder of Bangalore City. He constructed 4 such towers around the city to mark the city limits - Gavipuram, Lalbagh, Ulsoor and Mekhri Circle. 

This monument is built over a peninsular genesis - a geological term for complex mixture of granite rocks extensively developed in Peninsular India. You can walk up to the tower to get a panoramic view of the surrounding lush green landscape. 

We could spot the Bonsai park from here

Now comes the tough task of our walk - Treasure hunt to find the second hero stone 😊.

Treasure Hunt Time ...

We were given a picture of the hero stone and a clue by our host that we would find the pillar on other side of the peninsular genesis. So we started our hunt and finally found this structure. But surprisingly people had painted the structures and covered with garlands and converted this into a devotional piece. 

And this was the last leg of our walk. Our walk ended at Lalbagh East Gate. 

Now we were super hungry since all of us had early breakfast today on a Sunday morning and had walked a lot since morning to explore this huge area. We didn't want to have in MTR since we had been there multiple times. 

Hunger Cravings ...

Our host found out "Café Amudham" which was around 6-8 minutes walk from Lalbagh East gate. After a brief walk, when we reached there we realized that this is a hospital canteen owned by Trulife Mahabodhi Hospitals. But its open to regular public as well. 

We ordered most popular dishes from here - Ghee Pudi Masala Dosa and Open Butter Masala Dosa

which was truly lip smacking 😋.

After hogging to our heart's content, we took an auto back to Lalbagh metro station. 

Adios Amigos ...

Here we bid adieu to our fellow walkers and thanked our hosts from BengaluruPrayana for the well planned walk enlightening us with some of the unknown facts about Lalbagh and Namma Bengaluru 😊.