In pursuit of Siva !

Travelling is a never ending excitement particularly in a country like India and more so if the travel is in search of specific ideals and goals. While 2017 has almost kept my travelling kit ready through the year crisscrossing more of down south, when the bugle call from Sree Janaki Tours (SJT) for a short trip to Madhya Pradesh was blown , it was too irresistible an offer to ignore. The unexplored lands of MP jotted with some rare Jyotirlingas was beckoning and the spot decision to grab the opportunity is one of my quickest.

Due to the crowded calendar , the schedule and the places of visit shared by the Tour managers were never given deep thoughts and when the Indigo flight with a thirty member touring party soared into the evening skies towards Indore , a look at the schedule more for wanting to do something after devouring the mouth watering tomato chutney with soft idlies than for an analysis, it was surprising how much could be covered in such a short time.

When the flight landed blissfully before the scheduled arrival time, the gleaming Devi Ahalyabhai Holker Airport at Indore was a sight to behold with its clean environ and the entourage hurried into the waiting luxury bus, trying to take cover from the chill breeze of the place !

Indore Airport

The hour long drive to Ujjain was pleasant and the illuminated sight of 'Shanthi Clarks Inn Suite' was irresistible. A quick look into the suites confirmed the penchant of SJT to offer the best facility for their clients. The room was spacious, linen clean and wash room spotless. The steaming soup with a higher tinge of pepper and salt was soothing for the dropping temperature and as usual SJT bent backwards to specially summon curd rice for the guests from south India !

Ujjain Hotel

Day-2 (19-Dec-2017)

After a comfortable overnight sleep and a decent breakfast, the group headed to the Mahakaleshwar temple, one of the Jyotirlingas, situated in Madhya Pradhesh , hardly few minutes drive from our hotel. The unique temple Gopuram of this area was everywhere to see and the gigantic statue of King Vikramaditya was an overpowering structure welcoming the guests to the holy city ! Though the Chief Minister of MP was scheduled to visit the temple on that day , it is to the credit of the authorities that the visiting pilgrims were rarely put any hardships due to the visit of the high profile dignitary.

Near Mahakaleshwar Temple

The security checks were not that stringent though people were advised not to carry mobile phones  and even leather bags but the dress code of women  as 'only with saris' was insisted upon , though not much was said about for men. The spacious and somewhat clean environment of the waiting hall, ushered into, was a comforting factor and before long we were close to the big Shiva Linga and as is the wont in North Indian temples, devotees were allowed to pour milk and also embrace the Linga and pray ! The vibrations at the sanctum sanctorum was palpable and one should only visit to realize and feel the same.

It is surprising as to how professional photographers were allowed inside the temple and make quick bucks, while tourists were not even allowed to carry the mobile phones ! While group photos were being taken, there was a woman group of around 20 or so with the dolak performing real foot tapping bajan numbers and no one missed to stop by the Hanuman Sannidi to get immersed in the religious fervour being generated.

Mahakaleshwar Temple

The Badey Ganapathy temple , outside the Omkareshwar temple is rightly named after its huge size. The redeeming feature of this temple is the Pancha Muka Anjaneya with Lord Narasimha as one of the five faces.

The Har Siddhi Maa temple , a Sakthi peedam , is believed to be the abode of many Goddesses . The attraction of this temple is the structure which is made up of a rock smeared with turmeric paste  and vermilion, which makes the temple magnificent when the lamps are lit during Navrathri.

Har Siddhi Maa Temple

The Maa Ghadkalika Devi temple that we visited next is the place that houses Goddess Kaali which the great poet Mahakavi Kalidas worshiped, as displayed in the stone inscription there . I could not stop reminiscing the sequence of events in Kalidas's life beautifully depicted in the Tamil film 'Mahakavi Kalidas' , which I would have seen over a dozen times.

Maa Gatkalika Temple

Maa Gatkalika Temple Inscription

The Sri Kaala Bhairav Temple, our next stop, gave an ancient look and was dominated by hordes of monkeys deeply involved in a hide and seek game while the devotees respectfully avoided their field of play !

Kaala Bairava Mandir

By then the entourage was sagging with hunger but the cook at the hotel seemed to have a liking for the famous Andhra Chilly in that all the items were so hot that people even approached curd cups with trepidation !

Post lunch first visit was to Sree Mangalnath Mandir , a temple for  Mars,  and the temple structure reminded one of  New Delhi planetarium. The winding arm of river Kshipra behind the temple was a sight not to be missed and it is a photographer's delight to exercise the photographic skills in the fading sunlight !

Mangal Nath Mandir

Kshipra river behind Mangal Nath Mandir

 Sandipani Ashram near the Mangalnath Mandir is the place where Krishna was supposed to have learnt the skills along with his friend Sudhama under the guidance of Guru Sandipani and there were enough pictures and artifacts adding to the significance of the place.

Sandipani Ashram

Having taken in enough for the day, the team retreated to the hotel for a dinner later to suit the dipping temperature outside.

Day-3 (20-Dec-2017)

The rejuvenated team set out early for the town of Maandu, about 80 KM from Ujjain, and the travel time en route was well utilized for networking that brought people closer. What started as a two hour drive almost stretched for four hours before we hit Maandu and the lunch served there was much better and tolerable than the one we had the previous day.

Having quelled the cravings of belly, the team set to explore the structures and ruins of the ancient city of Maandu, which presented some exquisite sights. Visiting places like Jahas Mahal (Jahas meaning a ship) ,  Hindola Mahal and Roopmathy pavilion, one could experience the beauty in the form of butterfly shaped pond, Sauna bath place and other such spots , which were well explained by the local guide , who unfortunately could not speak English.

Maandu

Maandu

As the famous Bagh caves of Maandu could not be accessed due to an accident on the way, the team after a visit to the Echo Point and a tasty tea in too small a cup, a specialty of North India, set out to the town of Maheshwar, which has some beautiful temples under its fold. Ahilyeshwar temple  is basically the place where the idols worshiped by  Devi Ahalya Bhai were maintained and the number and sizes of Shiva Lingas were mind boggling ! There was even a golden swing where Krishna was resting and whether its for security purpose or closing time, we were allowed to have dharshan only through a window, but the sight is worth a small trek to reach the temple.

In the fading beauty of twilight, Jaleshwar temple with the background of river Narmada was enchanting and with the oil lamps lit on the steps leading to the temple adding grandeur, the scene was too tempting for snaps. But, as the pundit of the temple had some other work the temple was closed even at 6:30 PM, clearly an hour ahead of the schedule- so much for the visitors thronging the place from far and wide ! As for me from a far off place like Tamilnadu, I feel a golden opportunity has been missed, as visiting this place again will be too much of an ask, health and purse wise ! Hope  the Madhya Pradhesh Tourism serve the visitors better than this !

Jaleshwar Temple

The Raja Rajeswara temple visited next was well lit and sported a brand new look with many sannidhis and people were happy to finish this dharshan fast as the shop selling popular Maheswari sarees were enticing them from the next door! But the myth of buying such popular items at a better rate from the places of their making was busted when the sellers at these places were also found to jack up the price and bring them as discounts. But such revelations were not to deter our folks who ended up buying a handful of saris before proceeding to Omkareshwar, an hour's drive from the place.

RajaRajeshwar Temple

Day-4 (21-Dec-2017)

The MP govt resort at Omkareshwar beat all the expectations and turned out to be a pretty good host in terms of clean and  ready rooms, good food and pleasing service. Wish our TTDC folks could take some leaves out of such places as the memories of our stay at TTDC, Coimbatore few years back, with dirty linen and crawling bed bugs still haunt us. The master stroke again was to shrug the morning blues and start early and to beat the early morning chill , which was pretty daunting, some local 'TATA magic cabs' were engaged and that protected us well from the weather.

Omkareshwar Entrance

Ours was almost the first group to enter the Omkareshwar temple, which was surprisingly without much security hassles that haunt such popular places and visitors were even allowed to carry their mobile phones.

OMKARESHWAR_Praharam

The dharshan that followed was out of the world, without any pushing or 'Jarugandis' by the temple staff, who even allowed devotees to take photographs of the presiding deity, which even now I am unable to believe.

OMAKARESHWAR

Due to the thin crowd , we could even make multiple visits and satiate our dharshan thirst and people there warned us not to take this as a regular feature as people had to wait for hours normally and that we were extremely lucky today with such an outing! Then followed an elaborate ritual outside the praharam, where a pundit made all of us to perform a pooja to a Siva Lingam with sankalpam and an abhishekam , while a professional photographer kept clicking to offer copies at dirt cheap price but the satisfaction derived by the whole experience was complete and worth all the efforts !

Sankalpam Abhishekam and Pooja 

A boat ride, that  followed,  on the river Narmada , upto the Triveni sangam there, enabled the touring party to relax and enjoy the beauty of the river which runs very deep, we were told.

Narmada Boating

We were then offloaded at the other side of the river bank to have a dharshan of Mamleshwar Jyotirlinga. It is believed that a trip to Omkareshwar is complete only if one visits both Omkareshwar and Mamleshwar temples. Some also believe that  Mamleshwar is the actual Jyotirlinga and not Omkareshwar !! The temple was old but grand and after an exclusive dharshan and a filling breakfast the team set out to Indore on its last leg of the tour.

Mamaleshwar

Mamaleshwar

The smooth two hour drive to Indore covering around 80 KMs was spent by the group, more to catch up with some sleep that was deprived by an early morning wake up call and to kill time before lunch we visited the Indore Lal Bagh Palace, where the security was multi fold, more than the Jotirlinga temple, but the marble environs where the royals lived left everyone jealous.

Indore Lal Bagh Palace

The parting gift of Madhya Pradhesh was a visit to the Anna Poorani temple, a brand new looking temple, before we set out for a typical north Indian lunch.

Indore Annapoorani temple

After a stroll on the Indore streets just to look for some simple easy grabs of purchase from the Raja Wada street, we moved back to the gleaming Indore airport.

Shopping 

The well lit Indore airport was at its impressive best and the waiting time vanished in no time with the touring party munching over the past few days that just breezed through !

While the tour, despite the hitherto unknown and unexplored terrain of MP did not have any jolts, the Indigo flight compensated it well on its way to Chennai with a sudden but severe jolt mid-sky that prompted almost everyone of us to call the Jyotirlingas we had seen, to our rescue ! Other than that parting shakeup , the team enjoyed the tour well, with the Tour managers doing a wonderful job and when we hit the roads of Chennai heading back home late into the night, we had a feeling of having completed a near perfect and satisfying outing!!