Panchgani

For me, Panchgani had always been either a transit point or a place to visit strawberry fields and shoot the breeze on the tableland.

Last month we decided to visit Panchgani and spend a couple of nights and enjoy whatever the place has on offer.

Panchgani has been famous for its residential academic institutions where a lot of parents, from neighbouring urban sprawls like Mumbai and Pune, sent their children to be groomed into adulthood.

Panchgani is very laid back as compared to its happening neighbour Mahabaleshwar hence frequented only by those who wish to unwind by going for long walks, listening to bird song and 

eating delicious omelettes in ‘Lucky Store and Bakery’ and parathas in Akbarallys or maybe drive 

down for a Parsi meal to the homely restaurant ‘Rustam’s Strawberry Inn’ on the road to 

Mahabaleshwar.

One place that should not be missed is the Mapro Garden on the road to Mahabaleshwar. It is very 

beautifully maintained and you can pick up your stock of squashes and juices of fresh berries apart from the visit to the wonderful chocolate factory in the complex.

Anytime of the day you feel bored or feel like inhaling fresh air, just go for a walk on the tableland. 

If you like to ride horses, you can do that too or if you feel like going for a ride in the horse cart, 

even that is possible! The options are available for whichever way you wish to spend your time.

Then there are stalls selling the famous corn patties which are yummy to be followed by 

strawberries with fresh or ice cream! Heaven!

Panchgani has me hooked. Shall visit again soon!! You should too!

We stayed in Millennium Hotel which is behind the tableland and not on the main road but we loved it for its ‘away, but there’ location. There are quite a few accommodation options available to suit all types of budgets.

By road Panchgani is just 95kms from Pune and 250kms from Mumbai. Pune and Mumbai are well connected by air, rail and road, nationally and internationally.

Amarkantak in Madhya Pradesh

Amarkantak also know as Teertharaj or King of pilgrimages is situated in Madhya Pradesh.It is the birthplace of the Narmada and Son rivers.
Situated at a height of 3500 feet it is a natural hill station with wonderful weather.
We went on a guided tour of Amarkantak.
Our 1st stop was at the under construction ‘Shree Yantra Temple’. The Acharya 

Mandaleshwar of the Attal Akhada Sri Swami Shukdevanadji is constructing a Temple in the form of the Maha Meru Shri Yantra in Amarkantak for many years now. In the field of Tantra, the worship of Sri Vidya is considered to be an evolved, sophisticated, elite and mysterious system of worship of the supreme power in the form of the Divine Mother as the beautiful goddess, Tripura Sundari or Empress Beauty of the three Worlds. Sri Yantra is the instrument of this worship. In Sri Vidya worship, the system involves focusing of the entire energies of the universe. The Bindu or point in the Sri Yantra in one aspect signifies this process. This is the zenith of all methods of worship. Through this system of worship one may achieve almost anything that is desired.

Then we visited the source of the Son river. It was on a beautiful isolated spot on top of a hill.

A beautiful place to meditate.

Next was the source of the Narmada river. The history of this area goes back to the 8th 

century when Sankaracharya built a Surya Kund to specify the origin of Narmada river.He also installed the idol of Shiva at Pataleshwar in Amarkantak. All these temples are in the Nagara style of architecture.

A little distance from Gaumukh, the source of the Narmada, is Kapildhara, where the 

Narmada leaves Anuppur District and enters Dindori District by cascading more than 20 metres down a sheer basalt rock.

Amarkantak is a lovely peaceful hill station and a beautiful place to unwind. There are no luxury hotels there but reasonably priced clean decent accomodation apart from a few dharamshalas.

Getting there:

By Air: The nearest airport is 245 km away to Amarkantak at Jabalpur. Pre-paid taxi services are available from airport to Amarkantak.

By Train: The nearest railhead to Amarkantak is Pendra Road at a distance of 17 km from the heart of the city. Anuppur at distance of 48 km from Amarkantak is also convenient for the tourists. 

Khajuraho

Khajuraho, famous for sexually explicit sculptures on temple walls, has many other beautiful temples. Of a total of eighty five, only around twenty two are in reasonably good condition now and Khajuraho has the stamp of a UNESCO World Heritage Site now. The temples date back to 950 – 1050 AD.

As you near the famed city you will be surrounded by ‘Guides’ who promise to show you all that is there in Khajuraho. But very few of them are authorized to enter the Western group of temples complex where all the prominent temples are. They will only guide you to the Eastern, Southern and Jain group of temples. So if you are going to hire a guide please keep this in mind.

In the morning we covered the Eastern, Southern and the Jain temples and in the evening we did the Western group. The ‘Eastern’ ‘Southern’ and ‘Western’ refer to the direction in which they are situated as all these temples are in an area of around six kms.

Our first visit was to the Vamana temple in the Eastern zone. It is dedicated to Vamana incarnation of Lord 

Vishnu. It has beautiful carvings on the outer walls.

The next stop was Javari temple that is dedicated to Lord Vishnu built during 1075 and 1100AD. There is a 

headless idol inside the temple.

Then we went on to the Chaturbhuj temple, dedicated to Lord Vishnu, which dates back to 1100AD. This is 

the only temple in Khajuraho that lacks erotic sculptures. It is located in the Southern zone.

We moved on to the Duladeo temple next, dedicated to Lord Shiva, that dates back to early 12^th century.

The Jain temples were next.

 Adinath temple dating back to the latter part of the 11^th century AD and the

 Parshavnath temple built during the 10^th century AD.

Then we moved to the temples in the Western zone. The first temple we saw there was the Lakshaman 

temple dedicated to Lord Vishnu, built between 930-950 AD.

Opposite the Lakshmana temple is the Varaha mandir. Varaha is an incarnation of Lord Vishnu.

The Kandariya Mahadeva temple, dedicated to Lord Shiva, built between 1025-1050 AD is the largest 

monument in Khajuraho.

The Jagdambi temple was originally dedicated to Lord Vishnu now named Jagdambi for the image of Parvati 

enshrined in the sanctum.

The Chitragupta temple resembles the Jagdambi temple, and is dedicated to Surya.

The Vishwanatha temple dedicated to Lord Shiva, built in 1002AD is one of the finest in Khajuraho.

Khajuraho is not only about erotic sculpture but also about fine architecture and exquisite artisanship.

  

Getting there:

By Air: Khajuraho airport is well connected to all major cities in India, like Delhi, Mumbai, Varanasi, Bhopal, Indore and Allahabad.

By Rail: Nearest railway station to Khajuraho is Mahoba which is around 77 km from Khajuraho. Harpalpur is another station that is well connected to most of the major cities in India and is 90 km from Khajuraho

  

By Road: Khajuraho is one of the cities well connected by public and private buses. Private tour service operators arrange deluxe AC and Non AC buses to Khajuraho from various cities including Jhansi (177 km) and Delhi (594 km).

Magical Orchha!

Drove into Orchha in the afternoon from Jhansi.

Orchha was founded in the 15th century AD by the Bundela chief, Rudra Pratap Singh, who became the first King of Orchha.

History confronts you at every step from the minute you enter Orchha. Stay anywhere and you are bound to sight some palace or the other either from you room or from the roof top.

The first palace that we visited was the Raja Mahal. This palace was built by Rudra Pratap Singh.

It has beautiful paintings on the ceiling and murals on the walls. Fortunately these paintings can still be seen in

its original colours!

Then we visited the Jahangir Mahal. The Jahangir Mahal was constructed after Vir Singh Deo of Bundela Rajputs revolted against the Mughal Emperor Akbar. 

It was completed in 1598 by the victorious Mughal Prince Salem (later known as the Mughal Emperor 

Jahangir) after defeating Vir Singh Deo of Bundela, a sworn enemy of the Mughals.

By the time we were through visiting these palaces it was evening and we were advised by our guide to go 

over the bridge over river Betwa to view a fabulous sunset against the Chhatris or Memorials built to honour 

the rulers of Orchha.

Next morning it was time to visit the Chhaturbhuj temple dedicated to Lord Vishnu. It was built in 875, 

during the reign of imperial Gurjara Pratihara dynasty.

Adjacent to that is the Ram Raja temple. Both, the Chaturbhuj temple and the RamRaja temple have a fascinating myth. The King of Orchha, King Madhukar Shah Ju Dev was a devotee of Lord Krishna while his wife Kamla Devi, was a devotee of Lord Ram. One day both of them went to Lord Krishna’s temple but the temple had closed by that time.  They decided to join a group of devotees who were singing and dancing in the praise of lord Krishna outside the temple. Lord Krishna and Radha were so pleased that they too danced with them. After that incident, the King asked the Queen to accompany him to Mathura, the land of lord Krishna, but the Queen wanted to go Ayodhya , the land of Lord Rama.

The queen left the palace and started the long journey to Ayodhya (Rama's birthplace) on foot to bring Lord Ram with her to Orchha. She didn’t tell the King before leaving but she ordered her servants to start building a temple (Chaturbhuj Temple) for Lord Rama.

After reaching Ayodhya the Queen started praying to Lord Ram close to Laxman Fort near Sarayu river.. The queen fasted and prayed for about a month but Lord Ram did not appear, so eventually in despair the queen decided to jump in the Sarayu river. Just then something magical happened, Lord Ram appeared in child form in Queen’s lap.

The queen was ecstatic and began to cry. Lord Ram told the queen that he was happy with her prayers and she could ask for a boon, at which the queen asked Ram to come with her in child form to Orchha. Ram agreed to go but he put forth three conditions: 1) I will travel only in Pukh Nakshatra, when Pukh Nakshatra will end I will stop and resume only when Pukh Nakshtra sets in again. In this manner I will travel from Ayodhya to Orchha on foot along with a group of sages. 2) Once I reach Orchha, I will be the King of Orchha and not your husband. 3) Since child form of Ram would travel in Queen’s lap, the first place where you seat me will be my final place of stay and will be famous by the name of Ramraj".

The Queen agreed and started her journey to Orchha with baby Ram in her lap. Since the queen traveled only in Pukh Nakshtra it took them 8 months and 27 days to reach Orchha from Ayodhya on foot (between 1574 to 1575). King Madhukar Shah meanwhile had a dream where Lord Krishna scolded him on discriminating between Lord Ram and himselfand reminded the King that Lord Ram and he are one and the same, there is no difference. The King was very apologetic when he woke up and found out that the queen was returning from Ayodhya. The King went to receive the queen with horses, elephants, servants, food, etc. and apologized to the queen. The queen did not accept king’s apology and refused the comforts offered to her by the King. The Queen claimed that she now possessed everything one could ever ask for (Lord Ram in child form).

On returning to Orchha the queen went back to her palace with baby Ram and retired in her room for the night thinking she would take Lord Ram to the Chaturbhuj temple the next day. But according to Lord Ram’s conditions he took the first place where he was seated hence Lord Ram transformed into an idol and got transfixed in the queens palace itself. To this day the Ram Raja Temple is in the Queen’s palace and not in the Chaturbhuj Temple which is right next to the palace.

Orchha is geared to cater to all tastes. It has a wide range of restaurants listed in Lonely Planet and these restaurants display that fact.

How to reach:

By Rail: Jhansi railway station, 16 km away from Orchha, is the nearest railway station. Jhansi is situated on the major rail route and there are regular train services to the major cities in India.

By Air: Gwalior is the nearest airport to Orchha (116 km) and is well connected to all major Indian cities.

By Road: Many private and Government Transport bus services are available to reach Orchha from Jhansi (16 km). Orchha is well connected by buses with Bhopal, Delhi, Varanasi, Khajuraho and Gwalior.