Freedom Park, Bangalore

See location map of Freedom Park at the end of this post.

Freedom Park is a large open space in the heart of Bangalore, at Sheshadri Road. This place once functioned as the ‘central jail.’  After the prison was shifted outside the city, the then government had the goodwill to convert it into a park instead of coming up with more buildings in the area.

The design of the park was chosen through a national level competition. A plaque installed in the park says more about the history of the prison and the establishment of the park:

The Central Jail

The first war of Indian Independence gave a new thrust to the freedom movement in India. Many Indians joined the movement and the British, to curb the movement, began sending more and more freedom fighters to prisons. As a result, the British needed more and more jails to accommodate the rising number of self sacrificing freedom fighters. The Bangalore Central Jail was constructed against this background in 1866. It occupied a site of approximately 21 acres. The Jail has housed many illustrious leaders who fought for the freedom of our nation and for restoration of democracy during the emergency regime post independence. The Jail compound included a watchtower in the center, barracks and other buildings like the hospital, workshops, etc.

Freedom Park

The design of the park was selected through a national level competition initiated by BBMP. Architect couple Soumitro Ghosh and Nisha Mathew Ghosh won the competition and the park has been developed based on their design on a budget of Rs.17.35 crores.

The main objective of the park is to create green cover and lung space in the heart of the city without diluting the historical significance of the location. As a result, a beautiful multi-use urban park with a state-of-the-art information corridor, cultural and leisure joints, children’s play areas, light and sound shows etc. has come up on the sprawling 15-acre area of the erstwhile central jail of Bangalore. A dedicated space for holding protests and rallies, on the lines of Hyde Park in London, was proposed on an area of 6 acres as a solution to the traffic concerns that protests and rallies in the city center trigger. The most beautiful aspect of the park is the vision of architects in creating volumes of space using light while providing all necessary amenities to the public.

Commissioner, BBMP

The park has plenty of open space with lush grass and a walk way along the park walls. Inside, the watch tower of the prison is the major landmark visible from nearly everywhere. The architects have kept the barracks unchanged except adding some finer touches. The prison cells too have been left unchanged, but the passage to the cells is kept locked and inaccessible. There is an amphitheater next to the barracks. A canteen is work in progress.

freedom park, bangalore

Entrance to Freedom Park

freedom park, bangalore

To the left of the entrance is the old central jail building.

freedom park, bangalore

The watch tower at the center of the park

freedom park, bangalore

freedom park, bangalore

freedom park, bangalore

The barracks

freedom park, bangalore

freedom park, bangalore

freedom park, bangalore

Insides of the park.

Location map of Freedom Park.
View Freedom Park, Bangalore in a larger map

Prints of all the images available. Request for prints.


Chadar Trek – Short Itinerary

Chadar Trek Besides the 20-day Chadar Trek we had announced earlier, we have also included a shorter 10-day itinerary for those who may not be able to afford 20 days off. See updated details on the shorter chadar trek.

The trek will take the same route as the longer chadar trek, except that you will be walking a shorter distance compared to the full trek.


Darasuram

Travel writer Lakshmi Sharath continues her series on less known heritage site. See Lakshmi’s earlier post in the series on Alamparai.

Great kings do not just leave behind maps depicting their conquests. They also leave behind their footprints etched on the sands of time. Their empires fade away and many a capital city disappear but the crumbled remains of forts and temples erected by them stand as a testimony to their reign. These were my first thoughts as I entered a dusty village called Darasuram in interior Tamil Nadu, into the portals of an ageless Shiva Temple

darasuram

Built by Raja Raja Chola 11 in the 12th century, this temple, often referred to as a miniature marvel was called Airavateshwar Temple and it took over 25 years to complete. Legend has it that the Chola king was fulfilling the wish of a female cowherd who wanted to have a temple in her village and he personally designed every single stone here, which is described as a sculpture’s dream in stone. The town itself came to be known as Rajarajapuram

A temple shaped like a chariot drawn by horses and elephants supported by 100 monolith pillars carved exquisitely greet us. Mythical yali carvings grace the outer pillar. Stories from Indian mythology come alive on the pillars as sculptures dance in front of your eyes. The temple is a veritable gallery of dance and art.

Various moods and forms of Shiva adorn the temple. So you see an angry Shiva burning Kama, the God of love, while another sculpture describes his fight with Tripuras. Marriages and penances are enacted in stone, but finally we stop at a handsome form of the lord watched over by women. Dwarf-like Shiva ganas are playing various musical instruments, one on a drum, another holding a conch.

darasuram

The temple wall is a veritable art gallery. Scuptures made of polished black basalt are typical representations of ancient Chola art. Multi headed and multi armed, they come alive with various emotions. There is Agora Virabhadra with an angry expression with three heads and four arms or a peaceful Agasthya, a four armed Nagaraja folding his hands with a snake hood above his head, a three faced eight armed Ardhanarishwar (half woman-half man ), an eight armed Durga sitting on the severed head of a buffalo amongst other sculptures. The Shiva Purana and Periya Purana are enacted here as tales of devotion and devotees ooze out of the stone. It is little wonder that the temple, along with the two Brihadeshwar temples is a World UNESCO site.

We walk down to the Devi temple which is silent and closed. The yalis look down on us from the pillars. We sit quietly and lean against the yalis and wonder about how time had stood still here. The hamlet must have been bursting with life at one time. Today it is just a town of memory, forgotten except for some stray tourists and scholars who generate curiosity in the lives of simple agrarian folks.

This post was written by Lakshmi Sharath for AffordableCallingCards.net, which offers long distance India phone cards.