Male Mahadeshwara Hills (Kannada: ಮಲೆ ಮಹದೇಶ್ವರ ಬೆಟ್ಟ) is situated about 150 km from Mysore and about 210 km from Bangaluru and is a sacred place, with its famous Shiva temple
Male Mahadeshwara Hills is a temple town situated in the eastern part of Kollegal taluk, Chamarajanagar district in the state of Karnataka, India. The Lord Sri Mahadeshwara is the incarnation of Lord Shiva. It is a very famous Shiva pilgrim centre. It draws lakhs of pilgrims from the states of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. The Lord Sri Mahadeshwara's miracles are beautifully sung by village folk in the janapada style. According to tradition there are seven hills identified in the puranas as Anumale, Jenumale,nagamale, Kanumale, Pachchemale, Pavalamale, Ponnachimale and Kongumale. All these hills form M.M.Hills.
"Nagamalai" is a one of the many hills of the Male Mahadeshwara Betta (M M hills) range . Nagamalai and surrounding areas served home to the sandalwood bandit Veerappan some time back. After his death, these areas are safe to visit. This place is considered sacred, since here, the rock resembles a shiva linga sheltered from the sun rays under the hood of a snake. This rock is said to be of Lord Mahadevaswamy doing his penance. A snake opened its hood and stood behind the Lord in order to protect him from the sun light. Over time, both of them turned into rocks.
Nagamalai is the closest from MM Hills which can be reached after a trek of about 7 kms. After some discussion, we jumped into a jeep going towards to Nagamalai. After travelling about 5 kms, we reached the start place of the trek. Since many were visiting this scared place, we had company. We started our trek and had to cross 7 km & 6 to 7 hills to reach Nagamalai. The scenery throughout our trek was beautiful.
