MPdiaries Part 12. Ujjain

Any direction you look, all you see are temples. We visited many temples at Ujjain and all were unique in its own way. We were asked to stick to vegetarian diet, so that we could visit all the temples guilt free.

We visited temple dedicated to Lord Shiva, Mahakaleshwar Jyotilinga, that has shrines said to be most sacred abode of Lord Shiva.

In another temple, there were beautiful painting on the walls , ceiling, doors, pillars, exhibiting the 14 disciplines of knowledge.

Our next stop was at Kal Bhairav temple. Kal Bhairav is the guardian deity of Ujjain. He is considered as Senapati of the town. I was surprised to see the tray of prasad that people were buying at the stalls. There was liquor, incense sticks and marigold flowers for offering amongst other things.

Hundreds of devotees offer liquor to the deity. I stood in front of the deity to watch the pundit offer prayers and take the saucer containing liquor near the deity’s lips, that had slit. He tilts the saucer and the liquid disappeared. The rest of the bottle was given back as prasaad.. The priest claims that there is no cavity in the slit and that deity swallows the liquor offered to Him.

There are five tantric ritual offered to temple deity known as Panchmakara: alcohol (madya), meat(maansa), fish (meena) parched grains(mudra) sexual intercourse(maithuna). Only alcohol is offered, other four offering are in form of symbolic rituals.

Outside the temples, the roads were very busy with street vendors selling all kinds of things, and I was drooling over big sized papads sold on the streets.  (which of course, I didn’t eat)

The Ujjain Simhastha is a mass Hindu prigrimage. This is famous for the Khumb mela that is held every 12 years, on the banks of Kshipra river. During the Simhastha, thousands of Hindus gather to bathe in a sacred river.

I didn’t visit all the temples, but clicked the pictures from a distance, saying prayers silently, mainly to seek blessing for living my life peacefully.

MPdiaries Part 11. Sanchi

 We drove 46kms away from Bhopal to reach Sanchi stupas that are one of the oldest stone structures in India and important monument of Indian architecture 

Originally commissioned by Emperor Ashoka, the great of the Maurya Empire in the 3^rd century, its nucleus were built over the relics of Buddha on a raised terrace encompassing its base, a railing and a stone umbrella on the summit..

Although made of stone, the gateways are carved and constructed in the manner of wood and the gateways are covered with narrative sculptures, considered as the birthplace of Jataka illustrations

The reliefs show scenes from the life of the Buddha integrated with everyday events that would be familiar to the onlookers and so makes it easier for them to understand the Buddhist creed as relevant to their lives. Women were given the equal status and women are seen also riding the elephants.

The complex is huge and there are many different shape and sizes of stupas.

It was a scenic spot and we could see the bird's eye view of the city. There is a small restaurant-cum-handicraft shop that burnt our pockets and we gave the shopkeeper a lot of business.

There were geese (symbolical perhaps of the flock of the Buddha's disciples), happily moving around in the compound and were a target for our photography.

On the northern slope, just before the stupa is the Chethiyagiri Buddish Temple and a museum.

To be continued….

MPdiaries Part 10. Bhopal

We reached Bhopal late evening and checked into a nice comfortable Raj Bhoj Hotel.

Bhopal is the capital city of Madhya Pradesh, known as the city of natural and artificial lakes and is also one of the greenest cities in India.

I couldn't see all the lakes but did see one big lake (on route) a Bada Talaab aka Bhojtal that had a 32 feet statue of Raja Bhoj, the king of Malwa in the water closer to the promenade.

According to legend, Bhopal was founded by Parmara Raja Bhoj, King of Malwa, in the 11th Century AD. He was intellectual, believer of justice, art lover, musician and a good administrator.

We had stopped earlier at Tropic of Cancer spot to click few shots

 Tropic of Cancer, otherwise known as northernly circle of latitude, was used by ancient travellers, who used the heavenly guides, as the crucial demarcation lines. Many of my fellow travellers got off the bus to click pictures with that sign in the background.

Bhopal attracted international attention in December 1984, when there was leakage of deadly poisonous gases composed mainly of methyl isocynate. We passed by the affected area, that was shanty. This part of the city bears the scars of that disaster. The impact of the disaster continues to this day in terms of physiological and neurological disabilities, blindness,, breathing and birth disorders.

The city is developing into the smart city and there was lot of constructions going on. Very close to our hotel was a most innovative Peoples’ mall,  (still under construction) but worthy of our visit.

Spread over 80acres, PeoplesMall is the perfect option for spending a leisure time with family and friends. It is no ordinary mall with shops, food court and multiplex but it also has a huge theme park in its complex that has ship, airport and railway station. We hired an electronic cart to explore the area that had miniature monuments from around the world that included the replicas of Taj Mahal, Red fort, Taj hotel of Mumbai, Statue of liberty, Japanese and Chinese monuments and many more important monuments.

There were street performers, live.music and many more such entertainment. For children there is water park and car rides. There is go-carting for youngsters. I was told that this complex is also used for wedding and other important events at its large open spaces. It is a must see place when visiting Bhopal 

To be continued….

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……….