MPdiaries Part 9. Bhojpur

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On our route towards Bhopal, we stopped at Bhojpur during evening hours.  We were here to see the Shiva temple called Bhojeshwar temple. The bus had stopped at quite a distance, and we walked through narrow, broken roads, passing through thatched house where villagers still use dried cow dung as fuel for cooking. A musician sat at the end of the road playing drums.

We saw the big red structure stood at the distance. Friends were tired of walking up the steep hill, so we decided to sit for a while.

We walked closer and saw stairs leading up the platform. I was tired and wondered that could I buckle up so much energy to climb those steep steps that had no railing for support. My friends had already climbed up and they asked me to come from the side of the wall, luckily there was a muddy ramp on either of the temple, so there was no need to climb those steps,

The Bhojeshwar temple is contributed by the fact that it was never finished and it is believed to date back to 11^th century. It is quite an odd temple with no curvilinear domed towers, three of the walls are completely plain on the exterior, with just a few carvings on the entrance that seemed like it was made later. 

There were steel steps to climb up to reach the interior of the temple. Inside the temple there was a huge Shiv linga -18 feet long and 7 feet diameter made from one single stone, There were another set of big stone stairs that led  downwards to reach the bottom of the lingam where punditji sat there offering flowers and prasad to the devotees.

I did not climb down, instead, turned around and watched the sunset behind the temples spread over huge platform. It was lovely sight indeed and I love gazing at sunsets.

On our way back I could see some unfinished architectural fragments scattered far and wide in the various stages of extraction…

and a big park behind the temple where people seemed happy to relax

But we had to reach the next leg of our journey, so  headed back, we were in that big bus to continue with our journey

To be continued……….