A visit to Ancient India

                                                           

So I am now pretty stable in BBSR. I can easily recognise the similar kinda roads which seemed to be so confusing in my early days. In weekends I freak out with friends, go to Oxford to dip into the books-ocean. Some rainy evenings feel cosy with hot chocolate and simple chitchat in CCD. One day mom called. Can you take me to your BBSR? I thought why not. It’s been long time mom has not left my hometown. So the plan is on. Next week end, mom came with my younger bro and we visited some local historical places.

Khandagiri: It’s a local excavation in BBSR itself. The city looks so cool from the 118 ft high hill.

 Khandagiri alias ‘The Broken hill’ is said to be modelled by the Jain king Kharavela [168 to 153 B.C.]. As you go upstairs you get lots of stepping compartments made of sand stones; each looks like some caves. They say these as ‘Gumpha’. Tatwa gumpha or parrot caves (as figures of parrots were carved on the doorways), Ananta gumpha or snake caves (two snakes curved out from the rocks), Navamuni gumpha (called so due to the 9 tirthankars carved on the walls),barabhuji gumpha and more such 15 caves are there. The caves have chronicles of Kharavela’s history in Pali scripts which are well protected in some places by a glass partition. Because Pali scripts are some of the rarest treasures of India. We heard that much restoration work has taken place at the site in recent years under the supervision of the Archaeological Survey of India.

 

 

On the top of the hill there’s a Jain temple and a monument is standing from 18^th century. This was dedicated to Rishabnath. A panoramic view of the total city captivates you as you reach at the temple. There are some images of Jain Tirthankars inside the temple.

 

The peaceful surrounding attracts lots of pilgrims and monks who come there to meditate. Apart from the bird view of BBSR you can also see another hill just facing to Khandagiri on the other side of the road below. That’s called Udaygiri alias ‘The hill of sunrise’.

Udaygiri: 18 magnificent caves are there on the flight of steps. Rani gumpha, the largest one, having two storied cave. Excavated on three sides of quadrangle have pillared balconie. Hati gumpha has masterly carving of six vigorous elephants flanking its entrance.

 Alakapuri gumpha, Jayavijaya gumpha, ganesh gumpha(The carvings tell the story of the elopement of Bassavadatta, Princess of Ujjayini, with King Udayan of Kausambi in the company of Vasantaka) and other caves also have stone carvings, saying Kharavela’s life history and expeditions.

The beautiful architecture and calmness will surely bring you to the ages of Tirthankars and the king Kharavela. The themes, carved on the walls, reflecting some Jain symbols, the dance performance for the Royal couple, the warriors, victory march of a king etc attract lots of tourists as well as archaeologists every year.

Dhauligiri: Next, we headed to Dhauli, the Peace park where King Ashoka started his ‘Dharma Vijay’  after destroying 150,000 innocent lives in Kalinga [Orissa is ancient Kalinga] war. 7km away from the main city, it’s a white temple on another hill. It is said that in the vast field, behind the hill, blood was streamed by the Mauryan warriors in 265 BC. The road with greens on either side leaded us to the hill. We saw some stalls of Indian masala making materials and kajus, also some fruit juice centres. Kids have come from the school on an excursion.

As we proceeded we saw two sunkissed golden lions on entrance of the glooming white temple. I can still remember the charismatic designs on the walls of temple, each saying some story on Buddhism. People there had put some coating on these fine designs to protect them from salty wind, coming from Bay of Bengal.

The lying Buddha and the meditating Buddha models with closed eyes replicate a feel of peace and utter satisfaction of the inner soul.

So once you plan to visit Orissa, never miss these places. I bet if you are a lover of ancient India and its culture these spots will mesmerize you. Yet I felt Govt should more care for these national properties. Still there are so many architectures [may be one can't count its historical value] are left neglected. Once we lose this no one will come to rebuild.

To reach there: Birju Pattnaik airport is around at 7km distance from main city, BBSR. BBSR station is connected to all metros and many small cities. You can cover three of these in a one day trip.

Destination#1 The Scotland of India

Some young souls (yet bored with so called assignments and exams) got new energy after completing the training in Mysore. We decided to plan for a trip. Madikeri is fine enough for a one day trip...so said one of our friends who had already travelled a lot.
So next day our Traverra came and we all got in. It was a quite misty morning. We crossed 120 km in nearly 2 hours. Madikeri is one of the famous spots which flourish the Karnataka tourisms. If you look into the pages of History you get to see this region, ruled by many dynasties, starting with Gangas of Talakad, Kadambas, Cholas, Kongalvas, Changalvas, Hoysalas and Nayakas.
After being caged inside the campus for 4 months we got fresh air to breathe, the hilly roads and the verdant valleys churned us. Madikeri is said to be The Scotland of India. The upcoming lines and photos may make you understand the reason.

Our 1st destination was Coorg’s golden pagoda (near Kushalnagar). The pagoda is well-known as India’s largest Tibetan architecture. The 60 ft high, sun-kissed golden plated Buddha, the calm and divine circumference, the hall full of lamas and the tune of their morning prayer made a complete holy feel. The exotic Thangka paintings, on the walls, said a lot of stories, one can hardly find anywhere else. The small market, outside, attracted us for the art stuffs with typical touch of Buddhist culture. We also had our breakfast there.

Next we went for water rafting. Though we could not experience the fun as some of our team were not easy with it still we heard the fast flowing river attracts a hell number if rafters for its steep gradient. We also saw some elephants, enjoying their bath.

We started towards Abbey falls, located at a distance of 9km from main Madikeri. We crossed a long spiral way...every u-turn brought a new magic. Sometime the breathe taking view of the layered hills captivated us with its magical beauty, sometimes the lash green, teak wood forest made us spell bound. We also saw the plane land almost from a 1000m height. Thus we reached at Abby falls area. The green panorama around us was an ultimate treat to the eyes. We had to walk down by hilly alleys [500m] surrounded by jungles to get the striking view of Abbey. The cascading water and its sound made our day.

We also stopped our car before a slant coffee garden. The aroma of Western ghat’s coffee was just superb. We got to buy coffee and honey in very low cost from the roadside stalls.
We reached at proper city which looked so beautiful with same type of slant roofs (as it rains often in the region); had our lunch in a restaurant and again started.
Now we crossed clouds and reached above the clouds. I had never seen before. It was chilling cold outside the car and drizzle started. We went out from the car to climb up to Talacauveyri where the river Kaveri originates. Local people say ‘Kaveri’ means ‘Mother of people’ and hence they worship the origin of the river. This was another memorable spot.

We got rain, we got cloud, saw the morning rays and also the twilight in hills. Yeah we were lucky enough to cover all these things in a single day. Acres of dense, dark jungle and misty hills gave a full adventure feel on our way back home. The cars crossing the other hills were looking like some toys from our hill. The steep mountains and the deadly hair-pin turns added an extra zing to the experience.
How to reach: Mysore-Mangalore highway [NH48].136km from Mangalore, 120km from Mysore.
Hotels: Crystal Court, Hillyside homestay, Hotel Coorg international.

The Wandering Soul seeks to find

A journey is not so much about seeing landscapes rather it’s about seeing the beauty with new eyes- so heard somewhere.

I am freedom, here signing in with few lines arced out from my dream canvas.

Right from childhood till my college days I never got many chances to cross my boundary. I remember, in the lazy evenings how I used to see the world beyond my boundary.. from the window of our staircase. The horizon used to call me with spread arms. I spent hours by gossiping with stars... Sounds fantasy? Yeah...so was I in my childhood. I never played with dolls, but always used to capture some unknown, unseen beauty in my imaginary vision. Red clouds around the nostalgic evenings used to make a whisper to my ears...I m a fairy with two white wings...can fly around the world...see the sunrise from a sea shore...feel an evening beauty from the balcony of some fort...enjoy a lonely starry night with fireflies...n sleep to roam in dreamland.

May be all these wired things have made me what I am today...now I live a life in complete banjara style...As I stepped out from home, from my hometown I felt the thrill to cross that age old boundary line...since then I am roaming...all my childhood dreams have come true one by one. I started flying around the world (of course not with my own wings J had to use the wings of some airplanes), I saw the evening from a real fort, a sunrise from sea shore, enjoyed starry nights in unknown places (though here some very own friends replaced my imaginary firefliesJ) and thus I crossed the horizon.

I sipped warm beauty from the cup of nature, felt myself on top of the world and stored those moments forever in my eyes. The joy has now made me loving everything, even that childhood boundary which created this immense thirst within me to sip the beauty.

Sharing some of those moments mixed with li’l beauty and spoon of my thoughts in next posts.