Heritage Heirlooms - Udayeshwar Neelkantheshwar temple

Udaipur is best known as the city of lakes in the Mewar region of Rajasthan. But there is another almost unknown Udaipur which is a village about 15 Kms from Ganj Basoda in Madhya Pradesh. This obscure place boasts of a very beautiful temple and many smaller ones in and around.

On hearing about this place in glowing terms, we decided to pay a visit.

The Legend

The story goes that Raja Udayadit of the Parmar dynasty (made famous by Raja Bhoj who established the city of Bhojpal = Bhopal) built this temple in the 11th century AD. It is said that this temple was built only on a single day of every (roughly) month .. that is, in the Pushya Nakshtra. So the carvings and other materials were gotten ready for the 26 other days and then the actual building of the temple took place only for the time the Pushya Nakshtra was ruling in the 24-hour period on the 27th day. 

This Shiva temple is east facing and the Sun's first ray of light falls on the deity twice a year around the equinoxes. The exquisite carvings are well preserved and are now under the protection of the Archaeological Survey of India.

The regular offerings to Lord Shiva being sold outside the mandir.

The deity inside the temple... the God Udayeshwar Neelkantheshwar

Intricately carved exteriors...

The different dancing postures in the relief below are beautifully rendered.

One of the very interesting carvings and possibly a unique one in this temple is that of the God Ganapati in the female form seen on the right side of the picture below. On the left are his two wives Riddhi and Siddhi.

Another beautiful sculpture...

The Nataraj form of the Lord Shiva below..  with a Nagkanya in attendance with Kamadev.

The carving up front with the head desecrated is that of the Chamunda Mata complete with the scorpion on the belly and the gruesome garland of heads...

The carvings are superlative and deserve a lot of time to really appreciate them!

On the right is the Godess Saraswati ....

The Sun God.

Daksha... with a sheep's head in his hand.

Dharamaraj with the dog.

The one below is the Ardhanaareshwar.... Embodying the male and female forms in one body... signifying that each one of us has a bit of the masculine and the feminine within us!

There are many carvings of gods and goddesses and also of dancers and common village folk. One poignant one is of a mother with her child on her back... Another of a lady with an umbrella, the fluid lines of the carving very appealing!

 One more beautiful depiction is that of a lady removing a thorn from her foot. 

The 'Shikhara' is made up of miniature shrines of this temple all the way up culminating in the horizontal fluted disc called the Amalaka ending with the 'Kalash'.

A totally fascinating story here is the one explaining a human figure in stone hanging near the top of the shikhara... The story goes that after the temple was completed, the last thing left to do was to place the 'Kalash' on the top. A craftsman goes up and places the 'Kalash' but tarries too long admiring his handiwork. The sun rises and he is turned to stone, left to hang there for eternity!

There are even plans found etched in stone in the courtyard which are said to be the rudimentary drawings that were made prior to building this temple. Kind of like the blueprints of today! The one below is that of a pillar...

Tughlaq Mosque

In the 14th century, a small mosque was built alongside the temple... some locals say that the dharamshala of the temple was converted into the mosque.... but there are some inscriptions in urdu telling the tale of mughal occupation and subsequent defacement of parts of the temple...

This place is a gem, not to be missed! There are many smaller temples in and around the village .... each one with it's own alluring charm and a place in history. I'll try to cover them at least pictorially in the next installment.

To read the next installment at Part 2 Heritage Heirlooms - In and around Udaipur

Journey to the top of the world

Goa - Delhi.... the journey begins in the plains

Delhi – Sangla ... journey through the verdant valleys of Himachal

Chhitkul... the emerald green valley!

Destination Pooh...

Spiti.... journey through ‘The middle land’

Road to Chandratal

Chandratal to Sarchu... a picturesque drive through Lahaul

Sarchu to Nimmu.... via Tso Kar

White water rafting, Leh and Khardungla... Top of the World!

Having done our fair share of road trips as a family, we are now intrigued by the possibility of doing a ‘Rally’ as a group. After much planning and preparation the itinerary is finalised and the nitty gritties sorted out. We are going to be a group of 17 in 3 Scorpios and one Bolero starting from Goa and going all the way to Leh via the Spiti Valley. Of this, 12 will start from Goa with 3 joining in Delhi and 2 in Chandigarh. The second team would take over in Leh and drive back via Kargil, Srinagar, Amritsar and Delhi to Goa. Apart from this being an adventure trip, we are also going out with an AIDS awareness message.

10 Jul 2014. The earth seems enveloped in a grey blanket of fog at 0530 hrs as we set out and this follows us all the way through to Amboli where the clouds almost kiss the road and the valleys play hide ‘n seek with the awestruck traveller. Waterfalls small and big, entice the passersby to tarry a while and take in the splendours of the monsoon in the Western Ghats. We bow to these temptations and take the much awaited breakfast break satiating more than just the appetite for food! 

Valley at Amboli obscured by clouds

A tunnel on the Mumbai Pune Expressway 

Mumbai Pune Expressway

The rest of the journey till Mumbai is just another highway with nothing to recommend it but a means to an end.  After the mandatory getting-lost-and-going-round-in-circles-before-finding-the-destination that we seem to do in most new cities, we reach our destination after 2 solid hours of wandering the drowning streets of Ghatkopar in a downpour worthy of .... Mumbai!  The thing to note is that more time was spent in negotiating the traffic (read: stuck in traffic) than driving! We finally reach and after a round of socialising with some local friends, we retire.

11 Jul 2014. Another 0530 hrs start ensures that we exit Mumbai without a sweat. 

Exiting Mumbai

Badoda Highway

The Ahmedabad highway is a dream.... the only fly in the ointment is the enormous truck traffic making driving on it akin to a formula 1 experience! The incessant and torrential rains don’t help either! After Vapi, the showers recede and a little bit later, disappear altogether. Lunch at Badoda after which we decide to heed some advice from frequent commuters on this route to Udaipur and take the inner route to Udaipur via Modasa bypassing Ahmedabad.

For this we exit the highway at Nadiad and take the state highway. Within 10 kms of the turnoff we have our first breakdown of the trip. Mahindra has sponsored the vehicles for this rally and promised us technical support through this tour. We call for help and are pleasantly surprised to have the recovery vehicle come by in an hour. The service personnel check out the problem and decide that the vehicle needs to go to Anand (back about 40 kms) since it is a larger service centre. Decision is taken to leave the sick vehicle with 3 members and the others to shuffle and move ahead to the designated halt at Udaipur.

We pass a small village fair and then a small pond a few hundred metres ahead has good bird life which we gleefully document....

A small village Mela

Cattle Egrets in breeding plumage

Pheasant tailed Jacana

Pond Heron

Meanwhile, a lot of time has been wasted and it is almost dark.  Udaipur seems very far off... we finally make it by 2345 hrs. In hindsight, the progress on the national highway may have been faster given that we drove after dark! A very long tiring day indeed!

It is said that a thing of beauty is a joy forever. How true this is is brought out by the fact that in spite of the exhausting journey of the day, we still find the time (and energy) to marvel at the magnificent sight of the famed Pichola lake which is spread out below our Guest rooms. The reflections of the lights from the palaces in and around the lake make for a magical setting quite like sparkling jewels beckoning from afar! The picture says it all!

Reflections

Good night ... zzzz

Lake Pichola Udaipur

View from our room....

12 Jul 2014. We leave Udaipur at a more leisurely hour of 0700 hrs. A long drive without incident sees us at the outskirts of Jaipur at about 1330 hrs. Taking a detour to a goat farm on the other side of Jaipur sets us back by 2 whole hours!

Goat farm

The farm is owned and run by the father of one of the team members. A gastronomically satisfying break later, we are on our way to Delhi. The nightmare begins.... the miserable road conditions and the extremely unruly traffic crawling agonisingly forward is distressing! The quantum of traffic is adding to the woes. Coming from a relatively calm place like Goa where sanity prevails no matter the provocation this feels like alien country. I almost feel timid in comparison to the fellow drivers!

Checking into our hotel about 2300 hrs it takes us a while to freshen up, have dinner and then hit the sack. Thankfully, it is a late start tomorrow.

The entire journey from Goa till Delhi has been just driving, driving and then some more driving. The rains have kept us company till Vapi or thereabouts. After that it has been pretty much dry. In fact, Udaipur was just comfortable in the morning but the day has been very hot and it is scorching in Delhi!

The vehicle left behind has been repaired (a choked fuel filter and lines which needed replacement) and the team has brought it till Jaipur today. They will catch up with us tomorrow morning. There is a sense of quiet excitement in the team since the real rally starts tomorrow. This road trip can only loosely be called a rally since there are 4 vehicles participating and going as a team though without any competition. We hit the hills tomorrow. We are on the threshold of the most exciting part of the trip. The journey to the top of the world!

The journey continues....