Most of the population is from Veerashaiva Lingayatha, Gowda And Uppara (Sagara Kshatriya) community, People cultivate / farm Tobacco extensively here.

On the summit of the hill, there is a temple dedicated to one of the Hindu trinity deities, Lord Shiva, in the form of Mallikarjuna.

Sidilu or Sidlu (Sid+ilu) is a Kannada word meaning lightning, while Mallikarjuna is another name for Lord Shiva.

[citation needed] One legend says that if at all any lightning strikes the temple, the bolt circles the Shiva's murti or statue for a few seconds.

The local people and also few experts are not sure of many questions like why the temple was built at such a height (3300+ steps to the summit); what was the need or significance of building it at this height; how did ancient and/or medieval people even manage to build such a temple which has been fully made with hard granite blocks weighing many tonnes each; from where the granite stones were quarried (there are very few signs of ancient stone-cutting technology that can be seen beside the main temple); were the stones quarried atop hill itself and if so, how did they manage to quarry and also build on such a small place (needs to occupy stone cutters, temporary place for finished products to be placed, sculptors, labor force, tools); how did they manage to erect, lift, and place hundreds of blocks of hard granite; where is the original lingam on which the above-said cow used to pour milk (legend); why a hole was made behind the temple; what is the mythological background of this, I mean, why did the Hindu god of lightning, Indra, hit the statue which is none other than one of the most powerful gods in Hinduism, Lord Shiva; Note: Statues are seen as a living entity itself by many Hindus in Hinduism); how could Indra, being a demi-god, manage to do this.

Here too, amazingly, the Nandi sits just directly opposite to the main temple which is at least 200 meters in distance.

How did ancient people managed to transfer both pillar and Nandi above this small, windy, & steep mound; how did the ancients manage to balance the height of Nandi by placing the pillar, which is more than 8 feet, to sync exactly at 180 degrees or directly opposite to the main deity of the temple that is at least 200 meters far away on highest (main) granite mound.

There is a huge granite slab weighing at least 200-300 kilos in the main temple with ancient Kannada inscriptions on it.

There are some ancient Kannada inscriptions [Halegannada (Hale+Kannada) hale means ancient/old] below the pillar and the Nandi; which is not so clear.

There are 4 elephant statues, two on front and back, built at the base of the Gopura (sanctum) near the beginning of the stairs or steps to the temple which is said to be made recently by one of Yadhu vamsha kings (clan of Wodeyar/King of Mysuru dynasty) of Mysore or Wodeyar dynasty because the first elephant(Jayamarthanda elephant) that lifted the Ambaari, (a 700 kg gold howdah that is displayed and taken on procession on an elephant on the occasion of world-famous 9 to 10-day Dasara festival that is celebrated across Karnataka, grandly in the cultural city, Mysore), was taken from this area (Bettadapura).

There is also a huge two-directional monolithic carved statue of Hindu god, Hanuman, son of Vaayu, who is the Hindu god of air/wind, situated in the same hill but at just 100 steps or so on the left side of the main stairs to the hill summit.

The Hanuman is carved with keeping a Hindu legend in mind from one of the greatest and famous epics ever written, Ramayana, wherein the Hanuman becomes huge and places Lord Vishnu's avatar Rama on his shoulders while doing warfare with levitating Lanka king, Ravana on his Vimāna to the level of RAvaNA's vimAna.

Another unusual thing is a few depictions of Lord Vishnu's Dashavatara, viz., Matsya, Kurma, Varaha, etc., There is also a depiction of Durga, (one of the avatars or forms of Devi Parvati, Lord Shiva's consort/wife), carved on a granite stone a few feet beside the Hanuman temple.

It is also not clear how did ancient people manage to transfer this rock from another place (because it is imperfectly or randomly cut behind the carving and NOT sliced properly from a huge stone), cut this huge monolithic stone so precisely flat on one side, carve a huge Hanuman over it, and erected or lifted this 15-20,000-kilo stone to exactly 90 degrees from ground level.

Modern-day Mystery: There was a rumor of alien and/or UFO sighting recently in Periyapatna Taluk around November 2015.