[mayuresh]

About Bhuleshwar

Bhulewhar is an ancient and beautiful hill based Shiva temple placed at around 45km from Hadapsar, Pune.

A decent amount of information about the place exists on the web. I'll keep this blog to just my photographs. Let me just cite wikipedia link as a qick reference:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhuleshwar_Temple

Unfortunately there is no proper "guide" available at such a historic location. So your best bet is to read a bit about the temple before you visit. Also the documented history of this temple would have been very interesting, such as why was its peculiar structure built the way it is etc. Available information on the web, as far as the history goes, is very thin. Please do post if someone knows any interesting references.

Directions

Take the Pune - Solapur highway and take a right at Yavat. You can spot this temple in Google maps.

The road is pretty good after leaving the highway.


You can start spotting the place very soon after leaving the highway:


Don't miss this right turn. There is a prominent sign at this turn.


It starts looking pretty closer now


Here we approach the beautiful place:


Let her take rest while we visit the place:



Look back how we reached here. There are one or two of sharp turns on the way up.


Food etc.

There are a few restaurants on both sides of the Solapur highway, though don't expect much after you leave the highway. We carried our own food to have at Bhuleshwar.

At the temple we noticed a makeshift tea shop, nothing else.

[mayuresh]

We had home packed food and were pretty hungry by the time we reached. The area next to parking has some trees and benches to sit. We had a quick breakfast here.

(Yes, some may think, it would have been more appropriate to visit the temple first .. But we were just too hungry to wait. As such there is a saying in Marathi - आधी पोटोबा मग विठोबा. Don't know a good English translation, though it means, if you are hungry first eat well, religious rituals can wait ...)

And yes, we did have this cute feline company for breakfast:

Keeping a vigil?


While her sister has a bite of our home made food


Yum.. that was tasty


What? You have more?


Here we go...

[mayuresh]

A view from the outside


"Development" takes toll on the beauty...


View from the front


The main entrance


Some carvings

[mayuresh]

The outside views of the temple do not give even slightest idea of what treasure of carvings waits inside the temple.

In fact the interior of the temple is carefully (perhaps deliberately for historical reasons) so hidden from outside, that from the entrance you won't get any feel of what lies inside.

Once you enter through yet another door after the main entrance on your way to the main idol this treasure of beautiful carvings opens up for you.

Quintessential Nandi


Two pairs of Vithal - Rakhumai idol. Never seen two of them in one temple



Skyward look from the inside of the temple


Spot the differences .. These are on opposite sides of one another



A beautiful colored carving


These must be some story telling carvings. (Do not know enough about mythology of these. Really missed a guide here.)




Carved pillars


Several of the carvings. Just imagine how beautiful they would have looked at the peak of their glory.

[mayuresh]

Some views of the core of the temple or garbhagruha.

The place is so secluded, it feels very peaceful and tranquil here. Avoid making any kind of noise and just sit, relax and feel the calmness. You will definitely feel a lot refreshed.

We had to wait here for the Pujari to come and open the doors for us.

There is a popular belief of the deity accepting your offerings, such as sweets (pedhas) if you offer here. The main idol can actually be lifted and there is hollow inside it where you place the offering. If you open it after several minutes, "sometimes", the offering will be gone...

Well, do not wish to hurt anybody's beliefs here. Thinking rationally, the area under the idol is hollow, with perennial source of water. It could very well be a job of rodents who might be gleefully accepting the offerings... But, it's up to individual beliefs ultimately.

[mayuresh]

From the parking area you can notice steps going downwards. Attaching a few photographs of the structures you see downwards. Unfortunately the area is a bit unclean and you have to be careful, there are beehives around these structures.

I lost the details of what mythological / historical information of this area are, though I had read somewhere before. Unless you are too curious what is down the hill, you might as well skip this.

One can also walk down to the main road from here, which will be about 5 to 10 mins down from here while someone can take your car from the parking and pick you up from the joining point.

[GTO]

Thread moved from the Assembly Line to Travelogues. Thanks for sharing!

[NinadJoshi]

What a wonderful flashback. Thanks for the thread. The last of my visits to this temple was in 1992 with a bunch of friends on motorbikes. The geometry and artistry of this site is simply marvelous. We used to visit this site and the nearby Khandoba temple at Jejuri on our bikes.

From what I remember being told, the temple was built by/during the reign of the Pandava's (I could be wrong). The idols/statuettes were said to be destroyed during Aurnagzeb's invasions.

[Majumdarda]

Had been to this place few years back and again now. Seems a lot of things have changed and an halfhearted renovation in place. I like this place but serious attention is needed if one needs to maintain this piece of history.

[abhi_tjet]

I didn't knew about this place. I try to make a quick dash to some nearby place just to soak in Pune monsoon(safely) in these Covid times. These outing also helps Linea run few kms every once in while.

We make it a point to not come out and be in contact of anyone. We try to stop for few pics only if place is secluded and safe. Accordingly, I googled for places nearby pune within range of 50-60 Kms and this place came up.

Bhuleshwar temple is 67 kms from my place. I rarely get a chance to go towards east part of city. So, plan was made and we were in car in about 5 minutes.

The last 7 kms once you take right from Yavat are pure joy. Beautiful countryside road with villages, schools and farms. Last two kms are ghat section with gentle curves and seasonal small waterfalls. We(me and better-half) were pleasantly surprised and happy of our decision to come here.

We know that entry is prohibited to temples these days. However, we never planned for entering the temple anyways. Our plan was to just drive, click some pictures if we can and come back.
We followed this to T and were back in around 4 hours with a stop of 5 mt or so to click few pictures. Traffic was not too dense. Total drive of around 130 kms was done. Out of which 50 odd kms were in Pune city only.

Few Pictures -

Beautiful road










The temple view. There was barricade from last half kms.


The Ride.