[lingadalli]

Hi Folks,

I need your help in planning an all india temple tour.
I need your help in determing the route I need to take and the places where I can halt. The starting point will be Bijapur (North Karnataka). and the end point can be either bangalore or bijapur.

I would basically like to cover the 12 jothirlings.

They are located at the following places.
1. Somnath, Saurashtra, Gujarat
2. Mallikarjuna, SriSailam, Kurnool, Andra Pradesh
3. Mahakal, Ujjain, Madya Pradesh
4. Omkareshwar, Madya Pradesh,
5. Kedarnath, Uttarkand,
6. Bhimashankar, [ I hope this is near maharastra ]
7. Kashi Vishwanath, Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh
8. Trimbakeshwar, Nasik Maharastra,
9. Vaidyanath, Jharkand,
10. Nageshwar, Dwarka, Gujarat
11. Rameswaram, Tamilnadu,
12. Gridneshwar, Aurangabad, Maharastra.

Apart from the 12 places we would also like to cover some prominent temples in both south and north india. We have seen most of the temples in Karanataka. We have also seen Shiridi Sai baba, Ajantha, Ellora, Mantralaya. If we fall short of time , we can also drop Srisailam and Trimbakeshwar as we have also been there.

Could you please help in deciding the route I need to take and which additional temples we can cover. The mode of transport is my Scorpio and I have got about 15 days time.

-Prakash

[anekho]

I am assuming you have been to tirupati? If not, add it to your list!

[lingadalli]

@anekha, Being in bangalore, I never got a chance to go to tirupati. :(

Yes, that I guess has to be in the list. Also their are several temples in tamilnadu/andra like Kanchi Kamakshi, Madurai Meenakshi, Panchabuta temples. I would be happy to include them in my list. For me the priority is finish the north india temples first. I stay in bangalore, so if 15 days are not sufficient to cover entire India, I can plan one more trip exclusively to Tamilnadu/Kerala/Andhra.

[shishir_bn]

"Lingadalli" yours is a long long list man. I think you will be on the trip for good whole month. Nice to see that thread. Even we also plan to do this but not all in one shot. Good to see the route list and other deatils for all the places from expereinced people. Please share any details if you get through any PM's also.

[bullinb]

Originally Posted by lingadalli

Could you please help in deciding the route I need to take and which additional temples we can cover. The mode of transport is my Scorpio and I have got about 15 days time.
-Prakash

15 days! I will be very surprised if you can cover all the 12 places in that time. Nobody can guide you better than H V Kumar. PM him.

[hvkumar]

Here is an indicative route plan. I have added some other well-known temples en route - they are indicated in bold/italics. There are several more that can be added once the route detailing is done. Kedarnath is closed now, will open only in May and close again in October. The Vaidyanath temple - there is a contest between the one in Jharkhand and the one in Maharashtra.

We will have to now work on the daily drive plan, and the route details.

Bangalore-Tirupati-Puri-Baijnath-Varanasi-Kedarnath-Pushkar-Grishneswar-Dwaraka-Somanath-Ujjain-Omkareshwar-Shirdi-Nageshwar-Grishneshwar-Triambakeshwar-Bhimashankar-ParliBaijnath-Srisailam-Rameswaram-Bangalore.

1. Somnath, Saurashtra, Gujarat
2. Mallikarjuna, SriSailam, Kurnool, Andra Pradesh
3. Mahakal, Ujjain, Madya Pradesh
4. Omkareshwar, Madya Pradesh,
5. Kedarnath, Uttarkand,
6. Bhimashankar, [ I hope this is near maharastra ]
7. Kashi Vishwanath, Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh
8. Trimbakeshwar, Nasik Maharastra,
9. Vaidyanath, Jharkand,
10. Nageshwar, Dwarka, Gujarat
11. Rameswaram, Tamilnadu,
12. Gridneshwar, Aurangabad, Maharastra.

Apart from the 12 places we would also like to cover some prominent temples in both south and north india. We have seen most of the temples in Karanataka. We have also seen Shiridi Sai baba, Ajantha, Ellora, Mantralaya. If we fall short of time , we can also drop Srisailam and Trimbakeshwar as we have also been there.

[hvkumar]

D1: Bangalore-Tirupati-Vizag
D2: Vizag-Puri-Calcutta
D3: Calcutta-Baijnath-Varanasi
D4: Varanasi-Kedarnath
D5: Kedarnath-Agra
D6: Agra-Pushkar-Jodhpur
D7: Jodhpur-Nageswar-Dwaraka
D8: Dwaraka-Somanath-Indore
D9: Indore-Ujjain-Omkareshwar-Shirdi
D10: Shirdi-Grishneshwar-Triambakeshwar-Bhimashankar-ParliBaijnath
D11: ParliBaijnath-Srisailam-Bangalore
D12: Bangalore-Rameswaram-Bangalore.

That is what I would call a very aggressive driving plan, allowing for at least 2 hours darshan time in each place. Not sure if you can that quick a darshan in some of the places - like Tirupati, for instance. As I mentioned, Kedarnath is not possible till May.

[shishir_bn]

wow finally the god of routes (HVKUMAR) has spoken. Thanks for sharing the route. this will help many like me who can plan some short tarvels once in a while

[lingadalli]

@hvkumar, Thanks for your valuable input. I was thinking if I could skip the south india for time being and finish north india in 15 days. My parents are staying in Bijapur. So I would ideal like to start from Bijapur. For now I can think about skipping Rameshwaram, Tirupati, Shiridi, Srisailam, Triambakeshwar & Kedarnath(Since it is closed). For south india, I can plan another trip for 10 days covering Andra, Tamilnadu, Kerala & Karnataka.

So can you please suggest me how best we can cover the temples and additional famour ones in 15 days.

-Prakash

[hvkumar]

Let us sketch out a revised draft plan:

D1: Bijapur-Hyderabad-Bhadrachalam-Khammam-Rajahmundry
D2: Rajahmundry-Annavaram-Simhachalam-Vizag-Puri
D3: Puri-Calcutta-Baijnath
D4: Baijnath-Varanasi-Allahabad-Naimasaranyam-Lucknow
D5: Lucknow-Kanpur-Agra-Mathura-Brindavan-Agra
D6: Agra-Pushkar-Jodhpur
D7: Jodhpur-Nageswar-Dwaraka
D8: Dwaraka-Somanath-Rajkot-Dakor
D9: Dakor-Indore-Ujjain-Omkareshwar-Indore
D10: Indore-Aurangabad-Grishneshwar-Ahmednagar-Bhimashankar-ParliBaijnath
D11: ParliBaijnath-Tuljapur-Pandharpur-Bijapur

How does this one sound? We can add more temples as we detail the plan more.

[lingadalli]

Thanks hvkumar,

But I am feeling that this is too agressive plan. In this long journey, I would like to enjoy the trip. I guess I can max drive about 400 to 500 kms a day and then spend about 4 hours at each location. I just did a calculation of the kms for D1 and it almost comes about 800 kms :( This is a little too much for me.

We can add additional days (total 15 days) and then take away few temples if needed. Overall I do not want to put too much preassure on my parents by travelling non stop day in day out for 15 days. They need time to see the place and enjoy and also try to cover most of the places.

Regards,
Prakash

[hvkumar]

Originally Posted by lingadalli

Thanks hvkumar,

But I am feeling that this is too agressive plan. In this long journey, I would like to enjoy the trip. I guess I can max drive about 400 to 500 kms a day and then spend about 4 hours at each location. I just did a calculation of the kms for D1 and it almost comes about 800 kms :( This is a little too much for me.

We can add additional days (total 15 days) and then take away few temples if needed. Overall I do not want to put too much preassure on my parents by travelling non stop day in day out for 15 days. They need time to see the place and enjoy and also try to cover most of the places.

Regards,
Prakash

I agree, what I had worked out was a very fast drive plan. Now we can slow it down, ideally without cutting out any place. Have you frozen the dates of travel? Remember, in the North, there will be heavy fog in Dec-Jan, reducing your driving speeds.

[lingadalli]

Thanks hvKumar,

The dates are frozen. 18th December around 11 AM I will leave bangalore and reach bijapur at night. 4th Jan morning 3AM I will leave bijapur and be in Bangalore around noon time. So it means that we have time from 19th Dec to 3rd Jan. I had never been to north india. I do not have any knowledge about the places nor the road condition nor the climate. So I would be relying completly on the plan that we prepare here.

[shishir_bn]

Don't worry when HVkumar is here.I am sure he would have made a very good plan which will serve us as a template for future plans

[lingadalli]

@shishir, Kumar has definetly given me a good idea as of now. My earlier assumption of all temple tour to cover in 15 days is not a good idea as I would need to be non stop on road diving almost about 800-900 kms a day and hardly getting any time for enjoying. So he just made me practicle. Also the fact that there will be lot of fog in december has made me think more then twice.

@hvkumar, I am also thinking of having one backup plan where in we can tour south india instead of north india and again in 15 days covering Karnataka, Andhra, Kerala & Tamilnadu. :-)