Quick trip : The Land of Dharma - Kurukshetra - 24 Sep 11

[v&v]

Kurukshetra is just 180 kms from Delhi and crossed umpteen times but had ever thought of the place with so much historical importance. It was a quick decision as we had a Saturday before us, didnt had any meeting at office and my parents were much interested in visiting religious places and it could be suitably done in a single day. A quick browse did not give me much travelogues, just a list of temples with its historic importance.

Our plan of moving out early as we usually do, proved futile as my daughter's PTM was on. After attending it by 8.45 we started our journey. The traffic was smooth. Took around 3 hours with 30 min tea break. Roads as usual had diversions after panipath. Traffic deisity was less. So progress was quick.

The places we saw were:- (In order visited)

Sri Krishna Museum
Sheikh Chilli tomb
Staneshwar Mahadev temple
Bhadrakali temple
Jindal park
Jyotisar
Ban Ganga (bhisma kund)
Brahm Sarovar
Kalpana Chawla Planetarium (closed by time we reached)




The Krishna Museum was our first halt. The Kurukshetra Development Board has built this 4 tier museum with Sri Krishna as the theme. The varied phases in his life coupled by the historic potteries and jewellery of the Mohenjodaro and Harappan period are displayed here. Various paintings depicting the life of Krishna - Madhubani, Pichavari, Lepakshi, Tanjavore etc have been put up in a interesting way. The bronze collections dating to the Pallava, Chola period are also showcased here. The wooden carvings and even work done in ivory depict various scenes from the life of Lord Krishna. It was a good walk around. But there are places to take rest just sit and relax for a while in here. The palm leaf manuscripts of Bhagvad Gita, Vedas, Ramcharit Manas and their transalation to Persian needs special mention.

There are six galleries

First - is pretaining to krishna theme consisting of art objects like wood carving, metal casting and ivory carving.
Second - Devoted to archaeological objects from Harappan sites, stone sculptures from 1st to 10th century AD.
Third - Illustrated manuscripts, paintings
Fourth - Krishna theme
Fifth - Tanjavur paintings of Krishna
Sixth - Collections of Madhubani paintings on paper.

The bad part is photography is not allowed. Adjacent to it was Kurushetra science and panorama center. The 3D film show as cancelled due to technical problem, we didn't go inside it.

[v&v]

After spending an hour we headed to our next destination
Sheikh Chaheli's tomb
Not much heard of but Sheikh Chilli tomb is a beautiful tomb which is said to be uniquely built in Persian architecture and is ranked 2nd after Taj in North India. The tomb is of a sufi saint Adb-ur-Rahim or popularly called Sheikh Chilli (he got his name from the word chilla - as he used to undego prayers for a period of 40 days).









Next was Staneshwar Mahadev temple just after the tomb (1 kms) mahadev temple located. It was constructed by raja pushyamurty, ancestor of emperor Harsha Vardhan. it was raised by Mahmud Gazani and was rebuit by Sada shiv rao. The name is of a sacred tank in front of the temple and is believed that few drops of its water cured leprosy of an ancient king named vena and pandavas worshipped lord shive here and received his blessing of victory in the war of Mahabaratha.







Bhadrakli temple
This temple is just opposite Jindal park and is around another 1 kms away from Mahadev temple. This is only sidh peth in haryana and is one of the 51 shakti peths where right ankle of devi sati fell. According to purana mundan ceremony of Sri Krishna was performed at this place.








Jindal Park
Just opposite the temple a well maintained park.








It was already going to 3 pm, all were hungry, we headed to Jyotisar which was around 12 kms and also has Haryana tourism resort planned for our lunch break.

[A M]

Nice photographs and a nice location for a day trip. Thanks for sharing.

And yea!! Thats probably the only park in Haryana which is not named after him.



Tau Devi Lal reigns!!

[v&v]

Originally Posted by A M

Nice photographs and a nice location for a day trip. Thanks for sharing.

And yea!! Thats probably the only park in Haryana which is not named after him.
Tau Devi Lal reigns!!

Thanks , I think this is a privately maintained park. Beautifully landscaped.

Continuing with the log

About the resort, One A/c room and one family room is available and can be booked online. Nice small resort. After our lunch we headed to

Jyotisar
it is around 12 kms away from town on pehowa road. it here Lord Krishna delivered the Holy Bhagavad Gita to Arjun. Also there stands a banian tree which is beleived to be more than 5000 years old witness to the event.













Kalpana Chawla Planetarium
Just after 2 kms from Jyotisar. it open only till 4 pm. Took a shot from outside.



Ban Ganga
Situated enroute to Jyotisar at Narkatari where it is believed that when Bhisma Pitamaha lying on the bed of arrows felt thirsty ,asked arjuna to quench his thrist. He pierced the earth with his arrow to quench the thirst of Bhishma. It is also know as bhishma kund.

[akshay4587]

Nice
did you visit Panorma(i cant recall the exact name,and there is also tech mela or something on the ground floor).

[v&v]

Originally Posted by akshay4587

Nice
did you visit Panorma(i cant recall the exact name,and there is also tech mela or something on the ground floor).

We did visit the panorama. The name is kurushetra panorama and science center. They have 3d film show, which was not happening due to some technical reason , hence we did visit inside.

[v&v]

After ban ganga, we headed to our last destination Brahm sarovar

it is one of the holiest water tanks and during solar eclipse lakhs of pilgrims take a holy bath in it to brings salvation from all sins. Also believed that it is here that Lord Brahma conceived the earth. This size is around 1.6 kms x 0.6 kms. According local info, it was first excavated by king kuru. In the center of it there is an island call purshotampura.









Started our return by 5.15 pm reached destination by 8 pm.