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-   -   Magnificent Maharashtra - The Mahalog! (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/travelogues/67725-magnificent-maharashtra-mahalog-42.html)

Hey, how did you know that? But you are quite right, of course :D

I like that - in fact Obelix is my favourite character (but I am nowhere his size :)). The way he taps his head is fantastic.

@pbiju - thanks. There is one more Rajan Stores in Khadki Market; there is smaller kerala item shop in Old Sanghvi and one more in Pimpale Saudagar - just for your info.

Once inside the temple, this is how it looks-


Remember the bell? Here are some more!

Some more intricate carvings...





All these are carved on solid rock clap:

Wonder how these were done, what instruments these artisans used, who designed them.... greatly skilled, no doubt!

some of the best carving in this side of country!!!

Btw, there is one more temple near 12mati which is some 800 years old.

@mx6,

please free some space for my pm in your box, i have some query!!

Cleared my inbox. Thanks for the reminder. Been wanting to clear up some space for days now.

@AP, can you please give the details of the temple in Baramati?

I am also wondering about this - see how people from this (western) part of Maharashtra seem to be hogging this thread? There haven't much discussion in areas like Nagpur / Amravati / Akola and Latur / Beed / Chandrapur etc. I have heard that there are some interesting places near Amravati, Chandrapur... (these carvings yesterday reminded me of the soap stone carvings which I had seen near Balaghat. Soft stone, and hence the size of the carvings were small / medium sized. It seem there is a 'sangam' (confluence) of rivers there, and it has contributed to the availability of these stones. Is that right?) Any bhpians from that side? Please contribute..

More carvings / sculptures....

the ones on the external wall have been battered by the ravages of time





while the internal ones provoke us to imagine how they would have looked in their original pristine glory!

There are loads of threads on Tigers already VRP. There was also a photolog on Nagpur by TirthankarBasu.
I'll be adding Nasik, nearby places and Pandarpur to this thread. Further there's a long pending trip to TATR as well.

@MX6,

Looking at your plans, I had better conclude my trip fast... sorry if I had held you up - about 20 odd pictures left:)

I had seen the 'drivoblog' of the Nagpur by btirthankar, and a couple more on Nagpur.

But, none - repeat none - can match your style of pictures, background, history and a few one liners in between! Truly, none of the threads had in depth coverage. Come to think of it, unoczar and smartcat had also traveled there - but not much coverage.

Of course, people have covered Kanha, Pench, Tadoba (which you are also planning to do), but these are all 'one of a kind places' and do not give the 'local spice', if you get what I mean.

Let me just hope your thread and pictures inspires some good contribution from others too!

@mx6,
my laptop is out of order since last couple of hours.
I have reserved train tickets for omkareshwar, ujjain, somnath and dwarka trip in november.

Little query
1> where did you stay at omkareshwar?
2>can we book the resort online?
3>with 9 hours in hand at ujjain, which places i should cover?

Here are two pics from me, from bhuleshwar:

This one pic shows a rare idol of Ganesha in female form



This is also from Bhuleshwar temple, showing my car :D

1. Stay at MPTDC resorts there. I shall dig in my old records to get you the number. You can reserve over telephone. Highly recommended. But a word of caution is that you need services of a rickshaw / taxi from the resort to the place where the bridges start.
I paid 600 bucks (off season rates) for a triple room with air cooler with amazing views.
2. Not sure about online booking. But then locals told me that there are innumerous resorts and getting acco will not be an issue. But still I'll get you the number for you to book through phone.
3. Mahakal temple will take atleast 2 hours of your time to spend leisurely at every sanctum. You will not feel like leaving from there. Also don't miss Gadkalika temple. There are 6 - 7 other places which some guide was willing to show me for a trifle amount of 100 bucks. But I was not keen in those. So just visited Mahakaal and Gadkalika.
Here are other places you can think of seeing.
1. Bade Ganeshji ka Mandir
2. Chintamani Ganesh
3. Mangalnath - Birth place of Mangal (mars)
4. Harsiddhi temple (annapurna)
5. Siddhvat - Banyan tree which is worshipped
6. Kalbhairav temple
7. Gopal mandir
8. Navagraha temple - Triveni ghat of shipra river
9. Bhartrihari caves - (I was talking of Bhartrihari or Bhadrahari in my last tapri meet)
10. Kaliadeh Palace
11. Observatory (prime meridian for Hindus pass through here!)
12. Vikram Kirti Mandir
13. Sandipani Ashram (where Krishna and Sudhama went to school).
I have planned to cover many of these in my next trip. Especially when my daughter starts going to school, I want to take her to Sandipani Ashram and the observatory!

Thanks for your input.

I tried to book online the MPTDC resort room and my laptop went to rest at the same time for three hour nap.:Frustrati

I will do the mahakaal and gadkalika temple.

Few more queries for somnath and dwarka but will post in the route query thread.

Hmm... I missed that one. Where was it?

But, I saw this one..



and, looking at it brought the image of Ram and Lakshman to my mind. May be this is what the villagers were referring to when they were talking with my friend?!

The idol is just on the outer periphery of the temple. It is near to the window from where I have taken the other pic. Pujari himself showed this idol, and asked to take a pic of the idol.

Sadly, most of the idols have been destroyed by the moghul attacks.

When we went to Bhuleshwar, purchased some flowers & other Puja material from the stall outside the temple. The vendor insisted us to take some pedhas also as prasad. He also told us that god himself eats the Prasad offered by devotees. Pujari also told us about this. He kept the bowl of pedhas inside the shiv-linga and asked us to wait. After 10 mins, he took the bowl out. Unfortunately, we were not that lucky to see the miracle. some people say that they have seen this thing happening. With the help of torch we had a look inside the shiv-linga. There were 3 stones whom they call “Brahma, Vishnu and Mahesh”.

@WDM007: May be the rats weren't hungry! Jokes apart, there are many such legends in many such stories. People have seemed to spot a person roaming around like a vagabond with an injury on his forehead, praying at a shiva temple near Burhanpur (Ashwattama). There's a temple near Batlagundu called Devadanapatti (village name is the same too). Goddess Kamakshi is living there (no deity) in the inner room with 7 halls and the last door they just have a huge mirror. People worship the mirror (once again symbolising god is within you). But loads of stories there some of which I have first hand account of being true! I've also heard of a temple in AP where Hanuman drinks exactly half the milk you offer him and the other half flows out.
And the thepperumanallur temple where a Cobra did puja to Shivalingam offering Bilva leaves on a solar eclipse, a feat captured on camera and published in print media.

oops !

God is great !

But MX6, could you please tell me [ofcourse from your experience] any such legends from other religions, worldwide ?