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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 11th 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……….
