Bhedaghat - Amarkantak, January 2016

[Alpha]

Amarkantak

The road to Amarkantak passed through barren and rocky terrain with very few settlements in between. It felt like driving in bad-lands of Ladakh. There were lots of twisties which put a break to our speed. It took almost 6 hours to cross 250 kms and reach Amarkantak. While passing through a kasba, we witnessed Gond tribal dance. We stopped there to see their traditional dance. Also, we were able to source local mahua from the village there. We had reached Amarkant by 6.00 pm with ample daylight left.

Gond tribal dance

 

[Alpha]

Amarkantak is situated at an altitude of 1065 meters at the meeting point of the Vindhya and the Satpura mountain ranges. Amarkantak is the source of the rivers Narmada and Sone. While the Narmada flows Westwards from Amarkantak, the Sone flows towards the East. This is where the Narmada River, the Son River and Bhadra river emerge. Kabir is also said to have meditated on Kabir Chabutra, situated in Amarkantak.

Amarkantak was bustling with tourists and pilgrims. It was hard to find a suitable place to stay. We managed to get a good deal for a room in a guest house near to the Narmada temple. After settling in our room and resting for a while, we visited the Narmada temple just in time for the evening aarti. Narmada temple is also the udgam sthal of Narmada River. After the aarti, we went for dinner in the market and found a dhaba offering simple food. The food was good.

Maa Narmada Temple

time for evening aarti

In the evening the temperature dropped a bit and quite nippy. Luckily, the guest house in which we stayed was owned by the brother of one of the main pujari of the Narmada temple. He happened to be there and entertained us with his non-stop bak-bak for few hours. Finally when could take it no more, we excused ourselves and called it a night.

 

[Alpha]

We all woke up to a beautiful morning. However, Praveer was a little down. He stomach could not handle the Mahua he drank last night. While, Rakesh and I were ready to explore the town, Praveer decided to rest. We headed first to Sonmuda, the udgam sthal of Sone and Bhadra rivers. They both originate adjacently and also the Bhadra river confluences with Sone River right next to where it originates. This place is also home to lots of monkeys and langurs.

 

[Alpha]

A kilometer and half from the Sone udgam sthal was an amazing piece of architecture – Shri Yamtra Temple with wonderful statues sculpted all over the temple premises. The entrance of the temple is as grand as it can get. However, when we were there, the entrance to temple was closed. At least we were happy to know that restoration activities were being carried on to bring back this temple to its past glory. May be in few years, it will become the major attraction of Amarkantak.

 

[Alpha]

After spending some great time at Shri Yantra Temple, we came back to Amarkantak and visited the ancient temples of Kalachuri period which was situated just behinf the Narmada temple. These temples were built by Kalachuri King - Maharaja Karnadeva during 1041–1073 AD. The group of temples were impressive, however a lot of them were in dilapidated state. Currently, it is maintained and kept intact by the archaeological department of India.

 

[Alpha]

Next destination as per our plan was Kapil dhara which was roughly 6 kms away from Amarkantak. The water here from the height of around 100 feet. However, when we were there, the flow of water was mild. This place is also full of mischievous monkeys and langurs. Kapil Dhara is also associated with the legendry sage Kapil who used to meditate here and wrote Sankhya Shastra.

Narmada River

Kapil Dhara

Further down 1 km is Dugdha Dhara. Dughdha or Dudh Dhara is the second fall just after Kapil Dhara on the same stream of Narmada River at about 250 meters downwards. However, it was a dissapointinng sight with a small waterfall and no water to please your eyes. Also adjacent to the Dudh Dhara, a holy cave is situated which is believed to be tap-sthali of great sage Durvasa – the rishi with great temper.

Dugdha Dhara

Cave of Rishi Durvasa

shikanji - liquid straight from Narmada river

 

[Alpha]

Nothing more to explore, we retreated to Amarkantak. We again visited the Narmada temple before heading back to Bhedaghat. At some point during the lunch hours, we saw a road side dhaba and we enquired about availability of chicken. We were certainly not disappointed when they said – “chicken to nahi mile sahib, lekin murga mil jayega”. That sounded so sweet. Further, we enquired if we can get desi murga, to which he directed us to the meat seller right across the highway. Voila, we got one and the dhaba guy cooked it for us along with heavy dose of rice and chapatis. With tummy full satisfied, we left for Bhedaghat. As we reached Bhedaghat, we again enquired about moon-lit boating but again were disappointed. We decided to leave and stopped at Sagar at mid-night. Next morning we started early, picked up Praveer’s family from Agra and reached Delhi by evening to wind up an excellent experience.

Narmada udgam sthal

it is said, if you have not ever sinned in your life, you will pass through the elephant like this child did

well no bodies guess !! that was the most harrowing time of my life..ever.. will never do it again

lovely canopy roads for miles

one for the road to end the trip

 

[skysat2005]

Beautiful captures, speaking for themselves
Did you manage to pass under the elephant?
Cheers...

 

[Alpha]

Beautiful captures, speaking for themselves
Did you manage to pass under the elephant?
Cheers...

thanks Satish.. obviously, i got stuck and panicked.. pandit ji had to work hard to get me out of it

 

[Gaurav Dutt]

awesome captures bhai