We have been to Bhimashankar, the sacred site of one of the four
‘Jyotirlings’ in Maharashtra, before, but for some reason this time it truly
felt enchanting. It was, perhaps, because we took a lesser trodden route and
the day breaking over the Northern Sahyadris added a magical quality to the
picture postcard beauty of the landscape.
We drove a distance of just over 120 km from Pune via Chakan,
over NH50, to Ghod over SH54. We happened to take a detour at Khed to Ghod, avoiding
the shorter route via Manchar. It proved to be a very lucky mistake because we
passed through a most scenic countryside resonating with the chirping of birds all
around and the best part was that we did not encounter any other vehicle till
we met up with road leading from Manchar. The extra 6 Kms made the trip a memorable one.
The River Bhima originates in this region (hence the name)
and ultimately merges with the Krishna river near Raichur.
The Temple is in the Nagara style of Architecture dating
back to the 13th century. The Shikhara as also the Sabhamandapam were
added by Nana Phadnavis in the 18th century. A huge bell dated 1727, which was brought and presented by Chimaji
Appa from the Vasai Fort after he won a
war against the Portugese was also installed by Nana Phadnavis in
front of the Shani Temple in a Hemadpanthi structure.
The old structure is built over a 'Swayambhu' ie self emanating (ie not manmade) Shivling called a Jyotirling. As mentioned earlier 4 of the 12 Jyotirlings are in the state of Maharashtra.
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| A nice breakfast place on the route |
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| India shaped lake! |
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| A Bay-backed Shrike sitting on the road! |
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| The Bay-backed Shrike on its more usual perch |
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| Teak wood trees |
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| No temple in India is bereft of these |
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| Shiva's favourite - Dhatura |
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| Pedas (sweetmeats to be offered to the God) being made |
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| Rajeev has discovered the shop-keepers personal coin collection!! unbelievable! |
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| The Bhimashankar Temple |
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| Shiva slaying Tripurassura |
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| The endearing god Hanuman |
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| The "Deep-Maal". One can only picture how beautiful it looks with little lamps on each of the upturned elephant tusks |
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| Communing with Nandi and his consort |
People whisper their petitions to Lord Shiva in Nandi the Bull's ear so that he can request Shiva to fulfill the wishes (Nandi is Shiva's ride). One lady was at it for a very long time till she caught me looking at her.
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| Hemadpanthi structure in front of the Shani (Saturn) temple |
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| Bell won by Chimaji Appa from Fort Vasai |
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| A sweet mangy dog - eating too much 'prasad' |
Bhimashankar is surrounded by a conserved forest area and a wildlife
sanctuary with some rare and threatened species of animals as also a variety of
birds, insects, flowers and plants. The rare red squirrel or “shekru” can be
seen in the deep forest. The Blue Mormon butterfly too can be seen here. On an
earlier trip we went into the forest upto the ‘Gupt Bhima’ where the
river appears to have cut little structures in the rock which look like shivlings. I saw
the Blue Mormon butterfly too on that trip but alas I could not take a picture.
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| Walk into the reserve forest |
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| Gupt Bhima |
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| Shivlings formed by the river |
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| This one looks manmade! |
On the way back the sun was overhead and nobody was looking forward to driving. The magic had gone a bit. So we took the same way back and stopped at the lake to dip our feet in the water.
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| Nisha in the lake - Sketchers shoes and all! |
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| flowers growing wild |
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| Dam on the River Bhima |
There are a number of legends attached to this temple. One such legend has
it that the demon called Tripurasura earned the gift of immortality from the ever so
magnanimous Shiva by virtue of his long penance. As is wont to happen,
Tripurasura became arrogant and destructive forgetting Shiva’s advice to use
his gift of immortality for the betterment of the people at large. Shiva was
called upon by people the demon was victimising to put an end to the Asura’s life. Shiva
requested his consort Parvati (Kamlaja Mata) to help him in this task and took
on the form of “Ardh-Narya-Nateshwar” or ‘Ardhnarishwar’ (ie the half female god) and slayed Tripusura
on Kartik Purnima also called “Tripurari Pornima” in these parts. Shiva was also assisted in this task by the Asura's wives Shakini and Dakini therefore this place is also called Dakini Bhimashankar.
