BHIMASHANKAR TREK

( 3RD AND 4TH DEC 2009 )

Bhimashankar in Maharashtra is an ancient shrine, enshrining Bhimashankara one of the 12 Jyotirlingas of Shiva. Bhimashankar is located in the village of Bhavagiri 50 km north west of Khed, near Pune. It is located 110 km away from Pune in the ghat region of the Sahyadri hills. Bhimashankar is also the source of the river Bhima, which flows south east and merges with the Krishna river near Raichur.

This temple is closely associated with the legend of Shiva slaying the demon Tripurasura associated with the invincible flying citadels Tripuras. Shiva is said to have taken abode in the Bhima form, upon the request of the Gods, on the crest of the Sahyadri hills, and the sweat that poured forth from his body after the battle is said to have formed the Bhimarathi river.

Although the structure here is fairly new, the shrine Bhimashankaram (and the Bhimarathi river) have been referred to in literature dating back to the 13th century CE. Saint Jnaneshwar is said to have visited Tryambakeshwar and Bhimashankar.

Other temples and shrines: There is a shrine to Kamalaja near the Bhimashankara temple. Kamalaja is an incarnation of Parvati, who aided Shiva in his battle against Tripuraasura. Kamalajaa was worshipped with offerings of lotus flowers by Bhrama. Shaakini and Daakini the Shivaganas who helped Shiva in the battle against the demon are also honored and worshipped here.

The Mokshakund thirtha is located behind the Bhimashankara temple, and it is associated with the rishi Kaushika. There are also the Sarvathirtha, the Kusharanya thirtha where the Bhima river begins to flow eastward, and the Jyanakund.

TEMPLE FRONT VIEW STAMB DIYAS

The Temple: The Bhimashankara temple is a composite of old and the new structures and is built in the Nagara style of architecture. It is a modest temple yet graceful temple and it dates back to mid 18th century. The shikhara of the temple was built by Nana Phadnavis. The great Maratha ruler Shivaji is also said to have made endowments to this temple to facilitate the carrying out, of worship services. As with other Shiva temples in this area, the sanctum is at a lower level.

TEMPLE rear view

The Journey Began Only Late Afternoon As I Had A Morning Flight , We Caught A Karjat Bound Train At Around 12.45 . It Was Slow Train , Bhimashankar Is Towards East When You Get Out Of The Train. However If You Need To Buy Some Stuff Then You Need To Go To West As There Is Nothing Available At East , There Is Also A SBI ATM If You Are In Need Of Last Minute Cash. A State Transport Bus Stand Is Situated 5 Minutes Walking Distance From The Station . First Inquire Whether There Is A Direct Bus To Khandus Which Is Base Village , It Is Better If U Get One Else You Need To Break Your Journey., In Our Case It Was Village Called Kashele.

ON OUR WAY BACK

It Takes Nearly 40 Min With Ride Fairly Smooth Bit Bumpy In Between.We Got Down At Kashele And Boarded A 6 Seater Locally Called As Tum Tum. This Tum Tum Is Is Absolutly Not Comfortable And It’s Better To Take Seats Facing Forward , Another 15-20 Min.

The Base Village Khadus Has Shops With Some Basic Food Items And Snacks On Order .Since We Were Already Falling Short Of Time And With Sun Setting We Decided To Carry On.

A 15 Min Walk From Khandus Has A Tar Road With A Bridge Across A Small River.

FILLING OUR WATER RESERVES JUNGLE STARTS

The Trek We Took Was Through Ganesh Ghat As Was Displayed On Sign Board

SIGN BOARD

We Could N’t See Any Option Of Another Possible Route That’s The Sidi Ghat . Normally Trekkers Take Route Of Sidhi Ghat And Return From Ganesh Ghat.

TREK PATH

All Throught The Trek Do Not Expect To See Villagers Or Any Passerby . We Encountered Only 4 Locals In Our 4-5 Hrs Uphill .

N IT GETS STEEPER N STEEPER

THE TREK BEGAN SMOOTHLY AND WE DID COVER A LOT OF GROUND

ALL CHARGED UP

HALF WAY UP

AFTER NEARLY 2 HRS THERE IS A SMALL GANESH MANDIR , A NICE PLACE TO REST AND OFFER PRAYERS.

GANESH TEMPLE WHY IT IS CALLED GANAPATI GHAT

BY 6.30 IT WAS PITCH DARK AND WE REMOVED OUR FLASH LIGHTS , LEATHERMAN AND A LIGHTER , JUST IN CASE WE NEEDED .

SUN HAS FINALLY SET , CAN HEAR NOCTURNAL CREATURES

Before The Light Eventually Faded And Then The Fear Gripped Us

The Remaining 2 ½ Hours Was Very Difficult As The Landscape Started Getting Steeper And Steeper And Forest Very Thick , Sounds Of Insects And Occasionally of Some Owls Filled The Air .

The Track Is Evident But Still Had To Concentrate So Tht We Don’t Get Lost . We Just Kept One Flash Light To Save Power As The Last Option Was To Spend The Night In The Forest.

The Locals We Were Able To Meet In Between Gave Us A Brief Idea Of How Much Time It Is Going To Take . We Decided If We Were Not Able To Reach Before The Estimated Time Plus One Hr We Would Assume Tht We Were Lost Or Probably On A Wrong Path And Spend Night Camping ., By Around 8.45 I Started Getting Lot Of Cramps As The Later Part Of The Trek Was Quiet Steep And It Slowed Us Down Considerably , We Were Resting At Every Interval Of 5 – 10 Minutes.

The Moon Was Very Bright But Since It Was On The Other Side It Didn’t Help Us Much , Finally We Crossed The Time The Locals Gave Us But Still No Signs Of Any Civilization, But We Were Both Determined And Another 2 Minutes We Reached A Plateau And Joy Filled Us … We Could See A Street Light At A Distance . We Were So Happy That We Almost Sprinted To The Place .

When We Reached There We Searched For A Place To Stay As It Was 9 Pm The Place Looked Deserted, Only A Few Stalls Open , One shopkeeper Guided Us To Take Up A Lodge Just By The Side Of The Temple.

ITS NOT A OUR LODGE N RESTAURANT

We Went Gave Order For Food , Suprizingly A Variety Was Available Even Punjabi But The Rooms Were Not Good , We Were Too Tired And Just Needed A Place To Sleep So No Complaints .

The Moring Aarti Was At 4.45 So Had To Get Up Early And With No Hot Water Available , I Was Freezing Cold Bath .

AT THE GATE EARLY MORNING , FINALLY WE HAD SMILES ON OUR FACES

The Temple Is Nice , Has A Ancient Look , But Since It Was The First Aarti I Was Able To See The Actual Shiv Linga Else It Is Covered By Silver Make. One Of The Priest Demanding Asking For Dakshina For Every Small Ritual.

GATEKEEPERS

WE OFFERED OUR PRAYERS AND HEADED BACK TO THE LODGE

MY CAMERAMAN NOW ITS MY TURN ……

THERE IS ALSO A RAM SITA TEMPLE .

PRAYERS OVER , NOW TIME TO GET SOME PICS ,

IT’S A COLD MORNING …

After Sleeping For Another 2 Hrs We Started For “ Gupt Bhimashankar “

TO SHAKSHI VINAYAK ….

It Was A Fun And I Don’t Want To Say Wht We Experienced But In The End We Had A Good Laugh , Well U Can Rightly Call It By That Name “ Gupt Bhimashankar “ Hope U Will Also Experince The Same … Do Let Me Know …

SOME ONE LIKES TO CLIMD TREES MY CAMERAN WANTED THIS PIC

I GUESS WHICH OTHER CREATURE

DOES THAT ………..

One More Thing While U Go From Bhimashakar To Gupt Bhimashakar Look Out For One More Path Which Goes Towards Right Which Comes Approx. After 10m- 15 Min You Should Not Go Striaght.

If U Want To See A Some River And Streams U Can Go Straight But Then After 15 -20 Min U Have To Come Back , It Is Difficult To Find Some One To Guide You So Don’t Get Lost .

WE FOUND SOME CHERRIES LOOK ALIKES …

ANIRUDH ALL EXCITED

NOW ITS MY TURN ….. THE BEST PIC I EVER HAD …..

But U Have To Head Back The Same Way . There Is A Small Stream Where A Curve Is Formed , Nice Place To Take Pics . There Is Also A Small Ganesh Temple .

NEXT WAS HANUMAN TALAV N TEMPLE ,NAGPHANI ,

HANUMAN TALAV IS NOT VERY FAR , TOOK JUST 30 MIN OR SO , THE PLACE IS NICE A SMALL POND WITH COUPLE OF TEMPLES BESIDE IT ,

HANUMAN TALAV

THERS IS ALSO KAL BHARAV TEMPLE

After Spending Some Time We Headed For Nagphani ,

There Are Lot Of Monkeys Which Is Quiet Obvious So Do Take Care Of Ur Belongings .

YEH SADHU KAUN HAI WEARING JEANS

NAGPHANI IS HIGHEST POINT AT THE PLACE

ALL SMILES

U Can Have A Good View Of The Nearby Hills And There We Realised Wht A Jungle And Steep Slopes We Covered In The Night .

WAY UPHILL …. OUR ARMS REACH THE SKIES

In Between There Is One More Hanuman Temple Immediately After The Pond Quiet Dark And It Has Anjani Mata ( Hanuman’s Mother ) Holding Hanuman As A Small Child . I Saw That For The First Time.

Thanks To Some Passerby We Ddin’t Take The Same Path Back But A Round Way Back ,

ANIRUDH SMILING AS IF THEY ARE HIS KIDS

AFTER RETURNING TO BHIMASHANKAR WE GOT FRESH HAD LUNCH AND STARTED OUT WAY BACK.

HAPPY TO SEE SOME WILDLIFE CONTROL

The Caretaker Had Said , There Is Less Possibility Of Getting A 6 Seater Back From Khandus So We Have Start Soon, I Thought The Decent Would Be Much Easier But It Was Equally Tough And With Sun Blazing We Were Getting Lot Thirsty.

AREE YAAR SOMEBODY HOLD ME M FALLING ….

There Are Few Places Where Water Seeps And If U Have Patience U Can Easily Collect Some And Get Fresh. One Can See Some Birds On Way Back And Some Cows And Squirrels .

Finally We Reached A Tar Road And Wht I Found Was A Huge Axe Right In Middle Of The Road , Both Were Surprised , Thinking Were It Came From , All We Could Do Was To Take Snaps Holding It And Left It Der . After Abt 10 Min Of Walk A Man Seeing Us Opened Up His Arms And Said Stop , We Thought Wht Is He Upto … Some Theif Hmmm Chances Were Less Coz He

Was No Match For Us Hahaha , Poor Fellow Turned Out To Be The Owner Of The Axe We Happily Guided Him To The Place , It Had Fallen Off His Bullock Cart.

Way Back From Khandus To Mumbai Was Very Easy We Got Our Transport Very Easily And On Time . Overall It Was A Good Experience And I Can Give It a 4 **** .

WILDFLIFE : We Could See Some Birds Like Kingfisher , Huge Squirrels And Monkeys Red Faced And Black Ones . But The Govt. Has Also Put A Cautionary Board For Tigers Leopards And Beers.

MONKEYS TO GET THEIR HAND ON SOMETHING

NETWORK : Only Cellone , No Other Network Accepted , Local Call Booths Are Available

Till Karjat Kashele : Airtel Vodaphne , Cell One BPL

LOCAL HANDICRAFTS : Nothing Distinct But Many Small Idols Of Shivlinga , Nandi The Same We Usually Get At Pilgrim Sites , Bought A Small Nandi N Key Chain ( Gadha )

CONCERN : Concrete Structure Coming Up In And Around The Temple Is Taking Its Beauty Away , Wish Govt Could Do Sometingn Abt It.

Temple : First Aarti At 4.45 Am , Less Visitors , People Usually Turn Up During ShivRatri And Shravan Month .

Some Locals Do Sell Some Medicinal Herbs ,

Buttermilk ( Occasionally Very Sour ) And Limewater ( Custom Made )

SANTUARY : NEED TO VISIT VERY EARLY MORNING TO SEE ANIMALS COMING TO DRINK WATER

TIPS : TRACK IS FILLED UP WITH THROW AWAY GUTKHA AND CHIPS PACKETS AS A INDIACTOR THT U R GOING ON A RIGHT PATH .

PACK SOME DRY FRUITS VITA TABLETS AND HEALTH DRINKS

CAPS ,SUNSCREEN AND GOGGLES IS MUST

DO CARRY SLIPPER U MAY NEED AT THE TEMPLE

DO CHK OUT ROOMS BEFORE U SETTLE DOWN AND AVAIALABILITY OF HOT WATER

NO MOSQUITOES SO

TREK IS 4 – 5 HRS UPHILL SO PLAN ACCORDINGLY TO AVIOD TREKKING AFTER SUNSET.

CHECK OUT BUS TIMIMG FROM KARJAT DIRECTLY TO KHANDUS , CAN SAVE LOT OF TIME .

----- “ HAPPY TREKKING “ -------- TREKERS :

JEETENDRA email : flyjeetu@gmail.com ur comments n views r always welcome ..

ANIRUDTH