Bhimashankar Temple

 

 

Back from my Tripura trip, I was planning on another trip when I got a call from a friend of mine with whom I had not spoken for almost three years now.

Apparently, he came to know about my Tripura trip through social media and wanted to go on a trip. That too on a motorcycle. He spoke about a lot of places like the North East states of India, Nepal and others.

It was then I suggested about Bhimashankar temple. This was something that was on my mind. In fact before the trip that I was planning upon, I thought of doing a dry run by visiting this place first on my motorcycle.

The last time I did a trip on a motorcycle was last year in Dec when I went to Gujarat. Post covid, the only time I ride on my bike is on the weekends which sometimes hardly happens.

Since a lot of time had passed, I needed to make sure that I can still ride before I embark on a 2000km ride. Bhimashankar was going to be the dry run to make sure that I would able to go or not.

One of the unusual things to note was that the distance from Mumbai to Bhimashankar temple was around 200 kms but it would take around 5 and half hours to reach there. For 200 kms, that is just too much time to spend on the road.

Somehow my friend agreed to it and then went AWOL before the decided date making me wonder if this trip was going to be another solo.        

This guy says a lot of things but also has habit of not turning up and yes showing up late is his forte. Having experienced it many times. So, it would not have been a surprise if he conveniently forgot about it.

We were going to ride on a Sat and thankfully he called on Thursday and yes the trip was on.

We were going to meet around 6:30 am which did not happen and when I reached the point where I was supposed to meet him, he was late again. On top of that he did not even filled up the fuel tank a day before as I had told him.

The first thing that we did was to find a petrol pump for him which took a lot of time. One of the good thing was that he had a GPS mobile mount fitted on his bike. As for me my GPS mount was my tank bag which you will find out later is not helpful as a GPS mount.

Since this was his first such long distance trip, I told him that we would stop every 50 kms now and then and continue our ride. This would also give us a good indication on how we are doing our rides and able to check on each other.

We took our first break when we crossed one of the toll booth and decided to have some breakfast on the way. There were many makeshift eateries around.

One particularly offering south Indian dishes was pulling the crowd. I decided to pay a visit to an old women eatery which was almost empty. The lady an old frail woman who seem to have an eye surgery done recently but still having enough stamina to cater to people’s demand.

As my friend was yet to reach, I decided to give my order and sat around observing her taking care of her business. Life can be cruel at times to be at an age when one is supposed to be rest, take care of their health. Yet here she was working to make her livelihood.   

My friend arrived and reminded me that I should not have eggs since we are visiting temple. Normally I do follow to ensure to not have any non veg if visiting a temple. This time it just skipped my mind. We had our beak and got back on our bikes for our ride.

Everything was going ok and roads were good too and in the midst we would find people walking mostly doing the Pandharpur Vaari pilgrimage, some even barefooted.

All was going well and I was supposed to take a left turn where there were police bandobast and one of them stopped me and told me to go ahead and said that the road is closed. I then followed google maps and from there on the destination to reach the intended place seemed a bit longer.

I was taken through roads which pretty much looked as if I was lost. We were supposed to be meeting at our next 50 kms stop. Guess what he reached another place and I different one. Now I was the one who was behind him by around 10-15 kms which is a lot knowing that I was ahead of him.  

One of the bugs of Google Maps is that when you miss a turn it will not tell that you missed a turn. Instead it connect with the best route to reach your destination from your current location. This is a disadvantage instead of a feature as it would never let you know that you missed a turn.

My friend stopped to have chai while I took a break to relieve myself. From then on google map directions made me realize that using navigation on a tank bag is not a good idea as I found myself stuck on small roads going in and out and turns at every nook now and then.

If that was not enough, I found myself stuck in a road that was blocked by some celebration or procession from which I could not get around.

There was a truck in the middle of the road blaring loud music out of huge speakers and people dancing around it. I was wondering what to do, as google baba should that was the only road to move ahead. As I stood there on my bike to make a move. Thankfully, after sometime I saw at one end of the road, bikes moving from both directions.

I decided to make the most of it and tried to make my way through the crowd and blaring noise that rung my ears even though I was wearing a helmet.

Then it happened, out of nowhere a guy who was dancing took out a towel containing haldi kumkum powder and threw out on the crowd which included me and that resulted in me and my bike covered in the yellow powder. I took a halt and decided to clean myself and my bike but the powder was too much that just wont go away.

It was already afternoon and again the reliability on google baba seemed to make my journey longer than it was. I decided to take a halt for lunch at a place from where the MTDC hotel was supposed to be around one and half hour to two hours away.

The place I had stopped did not had any food to offer so I decided to have tea and move on. The roads became narrow for a single lane and was all covered with trees, mountains and water bodies. I knew this will take more time than I thought.

Finally found a place to have lunch and at both of my halts I tried calling up my friend and was not able to reach to him. Only once I was able to connect and I shared the details of the hotel with him so that if he is able to reach earlier he can go the room. For some reason, only Jio & BSNL networks work here.

I decided to take it easy on the road as the surroundings were mesmerizing. I found the locals walking on the road and sometimes asking for a life. I gave a lift to a boy and dropped him at the nearest town.

We don't realize how grateful we should be for the lives that we lived!! Thank you God.

My friend was waving at me through the balcony of the hotel. It was around 5-5:30 pm, my friend had reached just half an hour before me and seem to taken a different route from mine.

The room was pretty spacious with a bigger balcony and enough space in the compound for parking cars and walk around and yes comes with a 24/7 hot water. The wifi works only at the reception and not inside the rooms. This was a nice property and just need proper maintenance and better services especially wifi given that internet does not work very well unless jio or bsnl and that goes for mobile network too.

We decided to get freshen up and then visit the temple. The sun had set and we decided to hop on my friend’s bike. The temple was around 10 kms away.

Bhimashankar Temple is dedicated to Lord Shiva and is considered among one of the 12 revered jyotirlingas in India built in the 13th century.

One of the unique things about this temple that instead of ascending steps it had descending steps towards the temple. There was hardly any crowd but there is always a queue. The outer walls had it seemed cemented on the old pillars. There could have been a better way of restoration then using cement.

We offered our prayers to the Shivling as we entered the garbhagriha which looked built and standing on its original composition.

There is a guy there just waiting to move people away after a few seconds of darshan. I find this very annoying. I understand the purpose of doing this but one needs them to be sensitized. People are standing in queue for hours, coming from different parts of the country and in the end when they get a glimpse of the deity they are pushed away.

There are other small deities idol kept inside & outside the temple. Got some sweets for home and had dinner. There are not many restaurants available and only the temple surrounding have few.

It got cold in the night and the ride became equally chilly. We reached our hotel and decided to take a call on visiting other places nearby.

The next day I thought it would be wise to leave for our homes then to visit other places otherwise we would get late. We had our breakfast and left.

We took a different route than what I took and took our breaks to click pictures. These roads were not much in use and I came to know why later when we encountered slopes which were steep and made of kaccha roads and then it happened.

My friend who was leading in one such slope had fallen while taking a turn with a tractor coming from opposite direction. Apparently, he braked on gravel stoves and that did not end well. Thankfully he was ok with no major injuries as his bike took the brunt of it. We rested for a while before we were back on the roads

We decided to have lunch at Lonavala and buy some chikis & fudge on the way. This did not end very well for me as I had a puncture on my rear tyre thanks to a nail that got stuck. This resulted in again unwanted delays.

I parted away with my friend when he decided to get on the old route and I took the Mumbai Pune Expressway and further confusion got created once I reached Mumbai not knowing which flyover to take thanks to my navigation and took longer than I should and reached home around 20:00. It was clear that I need a better GPS navigation setup before I embark on my another trip. As for my friend, he reached half an hour later.

We decided to visit the place again in the future minus the bikes and visit the other places we missed out on. When that will happen, only time will tell.

Tripura Travelogue Part IV

 

Day 7

I had planned to go to Pilak today. One of the things that I had to figure out was the mode of transport. 

One of it included taking the bus from Udaipur to Jolaibari and the other one included taking the train.

I had spoken to the staff at the hotel about how to go there and luckily one of the staff was from that area and he suggested both ways and asked to call him in case of any assistance.

I decided to go via the train mode of transport which was quicker and showed only 10 minutes away from railways station a 3.3km distance on google maps.

Reached Jolaibari railway station and caught an auto to the market. On informing the driver on the share auto of visiting Pilak, he dropped me on the main road stating you will get auto from here to Pilak.

Given the experience, I had with the auto drivers here, I decided to check on google maps the distance by walking. It showed a good 2kms with an average time of 30-40 mins walk.

I decided to walk. From the time I got here, I never had walked enough for sightseeing and this seemed to be a good day to catch up on it. Before I embark on it, I decided to have a light meal as its was already noon.

This was such a good decision to walk, as I enjoyed every bit of it and gave my legs the workout that it needed.

As I got closer to the first site Shyam Sundar Tila, I found two local cyclist one an older guy and other relatively less younger slowing down the pace of the cycles and matching my steps. The older guy kept staring at me as he kept cycling at a slower pace. 

I decided to say Hi and that got him to stop his cycle and start asking questions to me about where I am from and all that. Answered him and asked how far is the place and was told its nearby. The old guy left and now it was the turn of the other guy who seemed happy to see a tourist visiting the historical sites. Soon he too left.

The Shyam Sundar Tila was completely empty with the exception of a lady who was playing music on her phone and seemed to be the caretaker of the place. 

Not much information is available about these sites, only stating that they were built around 9-10th century and who built them and why seemed to be kept as a mystery. There are total three sites in Pilak and they are dedicated to Buddhism & Hinduism sects.

There was terracotta carvings on the walls which gave an insight into that period and three idols of which two were over 6 feet in height but badly disfigured. There was no information available on who they were.

After spending sometime over there, I headed towards the second site Ancient Mound Pujakhola.

It was a bit of walk to the next site but the green fields spread across on both sides of the road certainly made up for it. I saw the signboard on the side of the road and could see a structure in middle of a farmland.

I confirmed with a passerby and that indeed was the second site. I walked in the middle of the farm and then found the gate to be locked. It was not locked with a  lock per se but it was locked in such a way that it was not easy for me to open it. 

I tried my luck with it and it wont open. Just as I was about to turn around. A man came out of nowhere and helped open the gate. I thanked him and was able to enter the site. It was a small site with again an idol carving of more than 6 feet albeit disfigured. Again, no details available anywhere on the site origins or description of the idol.

After clicking a few pictures, I decided to make my way to the last site which also included an ASI museum. This place was surprisingly the highlight especially the museum which holds the terracotta carvings which were well preserved and had many stories to tell. Sadly again one could not take photographs of it.

Again the site outside had idols/monuments which were disfigured and the description on it missing. I spend some time here seating under the shade of a huge tree spreading its branches whose name I did not know.

I decided to get an auto back to the railway station, but could not find any. I visited one of the shops for mineral water and there were people around chit chatting. My entrance got their attention and they went silent for a moment and one of them engaged in conversation with me. I asked if its possible to catch an auto and he suggested to walk stating it’s a 10 mins away from the railway station.

This route was different from the one I came through. I decided to rely on google baba and it did not disappoint as it took me through paths which I believe only locals use. I walked on the roads, then passing through houses and then on a nowhere land and following the directions of google landed up right at the station. 

Sometimes google baba takes one through the less travelled path and makes one feel alive once you reach your destination.

The journey on the train was also very interesting. I had never seen so many spiders building intricate cobwebs inside the coach before. They were not your regular small spiders and it seemed to not bother the locals too.

I did not had much expectation from Pilak but the walk, interaction with locals and the serenity of the place with greenery all over made me relish the experience a lot more. The ASI museum is recommended if interested in ancient carvings.

Day 8

It was time to say goodbye to Tripura as I was traveling back to Mumbai today. Before that I had to catch a train to Agartala and then an auto to the airport. The trains run on fixed timings and had to wait for the train to arrive. I met the backpacker pair again and together we hopped on to the train and bid our goodbyes as we reached Agartala.

In terms of tourism, Tripura has a lot more to do to attract tourists and also offer last mile connectivity and guidance to ensure that they reach hassle free to those sites.

The auto driver menace is something to be dealt with in absence of public transport like buses in certain areas.

It would have been nice to have signage about the backgrounds of the site and idols that are being showcased to know more about the history of the place and its importance.

As a foodie, I missed having local food. One can find Bengali food over here, but the local food like Mui Borok,     Bamboo Shoot, Chakhwi & Gudok, etc are not easily available. The restaurants over here offered the same cuisine that is available in urban city. Why not promote the local cuisine along with it?

Overall, Tripura has been a mixed bag of experience for me when it comes to traveling.

Hope you enjoyed reading about my travel experience and would love to your thoughts on it.

Tripura Travelogue Part I

Tripura Travelogue Part II

Tripura Travelogue Part III

Tripura Travelogue Part III

 

Day 5

Today was going to be a leisure day. It was going to be sightseeing in Udaipur, the city of lakes as I was told.

I first visited the Matabari temple also known ass Tripura Sundari temple and one of the Shakti Peeth wherein her right foot toe had fallen here.

This has to be the relatively smaller temple of such significance that I have come across build on Bengal’s ek-ratna architecture style.

There is lot of construction going around this temple and I completely forgot and missed the Kalyan Sagar pond which has rare bostami turtles and fishes living it. The pond is not visible from the temple’s end and one needs to ask to know its location.

Probably this could be another reason to come back again next time.

I went back to the hotel and the manager guided me to take shared auto to the market and from there you will have to go reserve. Got into a shared auto and after dropping off all the passenger, I told him to drop me at a stand whose name I don’t remember.

He asked me where I was from since I was speaking in Hindi and asked me where I wanted to go . I told him that I wanted to visit Bhubaneshwari temple. He said he will take me there for Rs. 70 and I agreed since it was on the outskirts.

I visited the place and it was temple without an idol but at a secluded place. Just opposite of it was the Old Raj bari Palace. The gates were closed for reasons unknown and I could see the Rabindrath Tagore statue placed opposite on the outside.

The auto guy said he will drop me back at my hotel for Rs.150 and I was like I am ok with it knowing that I am traveling for sightseeing.

On the way to my hotel, I asked him to stop at the Gunvati group of temples & then a temple again built on the ek-ratna architecture style.

The auto guy picks up a fellow in mid-way and as we reach the hotel and I gave him Rs. 200, he says he will charge me Rs. 170 for stopping to check those two sites. I was like if I had got an entry to the old raj bari palace, that would have taken more time than the ones I visited. Also if I engaged your services it does not matter as long as they fall in the way to the hotel. On top of that picking up a passenger in a reserved auto. He reluctantly gave me back Rs.50.

I was back in the hotel before 1 pm. Now this was weird. Never have I gone for a sightseeing and came back this early. Guess what, the Bhubaneshwari temple was not very far from the market. Like a 15-20 mins walk and I really wondered if I should have taken an auto at all. Given that I prefer to walk unless its really hot & humid and the place is far to reach.

Also have to say that Google maps time estimates also screwed things for me making me think places are far then they were if I choose to walk.

I decided to have my lunch at the hotel and then went for a walk at the Rajabar bus stand in order to find out about the bus routes for Amarpur. My destination to visit for tomorrow.

I kept on walking and I could not even find a proper bus stand on the road. I walked quite a bit and then decided to turn around and ahead for the hotel. One of the things that I realized was that people over here do not prefer to walk that much. I hardly saw people walking down the streets and found it strange.

I was not sure how I was supposed to reached to my destination for tomorrow. Called a few taxi/cab services which did not help as I thought it would be better to have a car arranged from here instead of Amarpur.

By the end of the day, I was relieved as I found a cab with the help of my hotel manager and went to a sound sleep.

 

Day 6

Today was the day I had planned to go to Chabimura & Dumboor lake.  For that If I had go on my on, I would have to travel to Amarpur and from there arrange a taxi/cab or maybe a bus/shared to go to both the places. Going to both the places was around 150 kms considering if I go Dumboor lake first.

This was going to be quiet a task. I thought it would be better if I could rent a taxi/cab from Udaipur itself but it could have got pretty expensive for a sole traveler. I had a conversation with the hotel manager Partho and he said that he can arrange a car for me.

That certainly got me excited but then the dillydallying happened. I would ask if he checked with him and it would always be yes, I will check with the driver in sometime.  This went on and then night had fallen. The only thing that I could think of him giving goli (excuses) or making a fool out of me.

Surprisingly, my room’s doorbell rang on the night before and I was informed to come downstairs to meet the driver. The doorbell eked out a devotional song which was so loud that I thought of telling them to knock the door instead of ringing the door bell.

Apparently the person providing the rent on car services was a relative of Partho. As we were discussing, money matter came up and I said around 3-3.5k is ok for me. The relative was also not sure on how much to charge. At that time, Partho informed that two foreigner backpackers had checked in and thought of asking them if they would be interested in joining.

Reaching them out became quite a task as Partho was trying to reach their phone but apparently it was not responsive. He sent one of the staff employees to bring them down and the guy named Conrad comes down.

I informed him about the plan to visit both the sites and the arrangements and we can split the fare between us. He was ok with it and checked with his lady friend named Rani and both agreed to join me. Renting the car would cost us Rs.3500.

Once everything was fixed, I heaved a sigh of relief and felt like my wish got fulfilled.

The day began around 7 am in the morning without any breakfast and heading first to Dumboor Lake. It was good time to know both Conrad and Rani (whose name I came to know later) 

Conrad was from Poland on a five week journey for his India trip. While Rani was backpacking with the intention of settling in the Kokan coast in the near future.

We managed to reach Dumboor and were lucky to witness local dance performed by the locals. 

Having a cup of tea and had a conversation with Rani, who on the first look looked like a foreigner with black hair, said she was an NRI with an OCI card. Her father was an Indian and mother American. In fact all her siblings had Indian names.

We made our way to the Dumboor lake and the cost of renting a boat was Rs. 2800. It was like we wait for 8 more people to turn up or hire the boat for the three of us. 

We did the later as this is an off beat place and there were no tourist people around with the exception of us. It was good that I had company otherwise shelling out that kind of money would have been an expensive affair.

It is said that the Dumbroo lake is in the shape of Lord Shiva’s Dumbroo, hence the name Dumbroo lake.
The whole round of the lake take around one and half to two hours that gives one a fair idea on how big the lake is. There is also an island called “Narkel Kunja” where we were dropped off and had to pay 30rs as an entry fee. It gives a feel of a small resort island with cottages and restaurant to stay. A good place to live among the waters.

The calmness of the water hits you once you go back on the boat and you find yourself lost mesmerized in the beauty of nature.

This has been the longest boat ride that I had ever been to and also special in a way that we were the only people around and were able to connect with nature as it were.

The next stop was Chabimura before that we had to have lunch on the way. This was a local restaurant offering thali with various options. One would find Bengalis everywhere and this was more of a Bengali local thali than the traditional food that I wanted to try.

Having our stomach full, we went ahead to our last destination Chabimura. The good thing here was that we did not had to hire a boat just for ourselves. There people already waiting and our presence made it to total of 11 people required for the boat. The cost per person was Rs.150.

Chabimura is known for its rock carvings carved on the steep mountain wall on the bank of Gomati. There are images carved of Shiva, Vishnu, kartika, Mahisasurmardini Durga and other Gods and goddesses. These images date back to 15th-16th centuries AD.

Just as the boat moves along between the two mountains, one can see the rock carvings greeting them on the right side of the mountain. 

There were other carvings too but there were covered by the moss that has grown over them. If one tries to capture them on camera, they certainly will not be able to make out easily.

This is a sad part when it comes to promoting places like this but not ensuring that care is taken to ensure that they are maintained properly.

We encountered what was thought to be a crocodile at first but turned out to be a water monitor lizard. I never knew India had those animals too as I think its not that common in India as its in South East Asia.

We went further ahead and finally saw what was the highlight of Chabimura, the Mahisasura Mardini Durga rock carving of more than 10 feet making its presence felt to us. 

Again moss had grown on parts of the image that refrained us from the enjoying the full beauty of the image carved.

It still remains a mystery on what purpose these rock carving served and did this place had more significance than we know today. Till now no one knows.

The boat ride halted at a place called the cave of Chabimura. It’s was a small trek that got complicated with water flowing on the stairs making the whole area slushy and difficult terrain to walk on. 

Thankfully no one fell and here one can see image of Shiva lingam carved as one heads towards the cave. Apparently its told that cave holds treasures and is also said to be cursed as per the folklore around it.

One of the strangest things that I observed that the mountain trees had trash hanging around it at least for few of them. This place is like a jungle and it makes one wonder if there are people living in there. Then again when promoting such a place, efforts should have been made to keep the place clean. 

Chabimura adds a mystic allure with the boat ride in a secluded place surrounded by mountains and dense forest and then you find these rock cravings out of nowhere with no human presence nearby.

We went back to our hotel and this was a day well spend!!

Tripura Travelogue Part IV

Tripura Travelogue Part I

Tripura Travelogue Part II

Tripura Travelogue Part III