I was excited – as my father agreed to me to take to Yana Caves. When we were reading the reviews, many people had written that the trek is very difficult and my father probably wanted to avoid it. But I convinced him saying that we should visit such an archeological important site despite the difficulties.
The site was first historically recorded in 1801 by Francis Buchanan-Hamilton and even today remains untouched and unexploited. Some of the important things that I learnt about the caves during this trip are:
Yana is a really wet village, and it is spotless. I saw a notice board which said: “The village Yana is the 2nd cleanest village in India but 1st cleanest village in Karnataka”.
Yana is a village located in forests of the Kumta, Uttara Kannada district of Karnataka, India about 60 kilometres from Karwar
It lies in the Sahyadri mountainrange of theWestern Ghats
The Yana rocks are known for the not-so-common solid black crystalline karst limestonerocks.
Yana is famous for two rocks present at top of the hill. Bhairaveshwara Shikhara and the Mohini Shikhara ("Shikhara" means "hill"). Bhairaveshwara Shikhara is 120 metres (390ft) in height, while the Mohini Shikhara, which is smaller, is 90 metres (300ft) in height.
I asked the priest there, “Why were few places black?” He replied “Do you remember the story about Bhasmasura, Shiva and Mohini (Vishnu)? “It is believed that this is a location where Bhasmasura burnt himself and the black soot is the result of him running wild with fire on him.”
The popular Kannada movie, Nammoora Mandara Hoove, was shot here and the place became famous attracting thousands of tourists every week.
Well, like the Yana Caves, I am interested in knowing more about ancient sites of archaeological importance and request you to share such information. Bye!