Commercial town northwest of Bangalore, known for Siddhaganga Matha and the nearby Devarayanadurga Hills.
Tumkur sits 70 km northwest of Bangalore on the Pune highway, at the edge of the Devarayanadurga Hills. It is a busy commercial town and the administrative seat of Tumkur District, known for its markets in coconut, tobacco, and vegetable oil.
The town itself is not a major tourist destination, but it makes a reasonable stop if you are travelling between Bangalore and the northern Karnataka interior. The Siddhaganga Matha, a large Lingayat monastery 5 km from town, is worth a visit — it runs one of India's largest free residential schools and the grounds are peaceful. The Devarayanadurga hill fort, about 15 km south, has two ancient temples and good views of the surrounding countryside.
Other day-trip options from Tumkur include the massive granite monolith at Madhugiri (claimed to be Asia's second-largest), the Markonahalli dam, and the historic fort town of Sira.
Guide
Day Trips
The countryside around Tumkur is more interesting than the town itself. Devarayanadurga, a forested hill range about 15 km south of town, has a Vishnu temple (Bhoganarasimhaswamy) and a Lakshmi-Narasimha temple perched on granite outcrops with views across the Deccan plateau. The hill has good birdwatching and a modest trekking trail to the fort ruins at the top.
Madhugiri, roughly 100 km northwest of Tumkur, has one of the most dramatic hill forts in Karnataka — a single massive granite monolith rising over 1,000 metres above the surrounding plain. The climb to the fort on top takes 2–3 hours and involves some scrambling on bare rock. Claimed by locals to be Asia's second-largest monolith, it is genuinely impressive and gets far fewer visitors than comparable sites.
Sira, 65 km north, is an old fort town with Mughal and Mysore sultanate-era fortifications and a busy textile market.
