Hi everyone!
My greetings 😊
So today I am going to share the experience of our trip to one of the lesser known masterpiece of ancient Hindu architecture in Central India. This site consists of a group of 22 temples built in between 8th and 12th centuries AD by the Gujjars Partiharas dynasty of Central India.
This trip was never planned, it was a Sunday, after finishing our breakfast we just thought we should go out 😄 and we left. On our way I searched on Google for good places to visit nearby and with the images and reviews I liked the place so we turned our car that way.
From our location it was around 50 kms away. It was a good drive except the last segment of 4 kms. From the smooth highway as we took right turn as Google map instructed, we found a dirt road with large potholes in it. There was a tractor coming from the road and we asked him, he told that you can not drive by this road with the car as it gets even worse after some metres.
Feeling sad we took U turn and as we crossed two kms back thinking of going somewhere else, then we thought if we have come so far just to visit this place, we should atleast give it a second try. So we took another road which was a also a well built highway. But alas! there was another turn later and again a dirt road of 4km ahead. The only good thing was that there was no potholes in it. So we took the risk and continue driving on it. It was slightly better than the previous one. There were lush green farms on both sides of this narrow road. Finally after driving for 4 kms in 15 minutes we reached to a village with very simple houses. The name of this village was Baretha and this is located just at the side of the hill on the top of which lies the magnificent site of Nareshwar.
There we found a person sitting outside of his house, we asked him about the site in our native language. He told us that the site is on the hill and the way to the the site is not motorable so you have to reach there on foot. Helping us, he asked us to leave the car on the side of his house and said don't worry it will be safe here. We were relieved a lot with his kindness. 😄😄
So we left the car in front of his house. A big Thanks to him that he accompanied us to the site. From the village we started our journey on feet.
After walking 15 minutes on the simple trail, we reached to the top of the hill. There was not even much plants on hill. The presence of wild berries made us feel good. These small berries were so sweet and tasty. These are green in starting, get their reddish color when ripened. I have never seen so much fruits on such a little plant (less than 2ft high)
(I have plucked and collected a few, after finishing them I keep plucking a few more from next berries on the way 😄)
(My daughter walked a lot too, but at times we had to carry her in arms to give her rest in between)
Finally after walking for half an hour we reached to the destination. Here you may see the boundary formed by stones. The area inside this boundary has been declared protected area as the work here to uncover more sites is under process here. It was stopped in between due to Covid.
(First glimpse of the site. A group of two small temples in a lower height)
Moving forward, we found a pond ahead. A few more small temples were standing alongside the pond.
Here you may see remains of a a few temples that are gone now. Here base markings are visible with space for draining water. One thing I want to mention here that these temples are Shiva temples. In the temples dedicated to Shiva, there is Shivalinga inside, the devotees pour water over the Shivalinga to worship Shiva. And that is why a drainage system was created with in each temple so that the water from the temple may get out and reach to the pond itself.
(A few temples on the other side of the pond)
(Rock cut Ganesha on the entrance of the temple)
Moving ahead, in a much lower height we found another group of temples. You have to reach there by descending the stairs built using stones.
(Here too you may see the base of the temple that is no more now and the drainage markings too)
Moving farther we found another group of temples. These were the most magnificent ones. These were complex structures than those built alongside the pond. Out of these temples two are still functional. Dharambir told us that people of the village keep visiting these temples to worship Goddess and Sri Hanuman. There was two makeshift bridges too. Everything here has been created using stones. ASI uncovered this group of temples after removing a lot of sand mounds over them.
All the temples are decorated with beautiful carvings of Hindu deities outside and on the entrances.
So Archeological Survey of India (ASI) has listed a total of 22 temples at this site. Work was still going on but had to be stopped due to Covid. So I think more structures are going to be uncovered soon. They say there are chances that may be a whole village be uncovered from the site.
(A temple with Shivalinga inside)
(Temple of Sri Hanuman ji with a standing idol of Sri Hanuman, People from the village come here for worshipping)
(There was something written on the wall, This was incomprehensible for me, I dont even know which language it was)
There was an entrance in one of the wall on the top. You can reach there walking on the stairs. From here water keep coming in the form of drops all the time, all 12 months of the year either summer or winter. It was surprising as the hill seemed to be total dried up, and in the summers Dharambir told that even the water of the pond get dried up but this water never stop. And he further told that this is a tunnel. No one knows where it goes. He told that once two visitors entered this tunnel out of curiousity to reach to it's other end. But they never returned back. After this incident this tunnel was closed with a wall by ASI.
(Moss formation dur to continuous movement of water over the stones)
After spending around two hours there, we returned back as Dharambir too was with us. All the credit for this trip goes to him only. He made this trip memorable for us with his kindness. As we returned from the site to the village, I met his wife and his younger sister. They both were so cordial too. They asked us for tea and food etc which we denied. We met a few more villagers as they came there to meet us. They told us that foreigners too keep coming to this site but still this place is not that famous. May be more development is needed in that area, specially the road to the site needs to be built well.
Though it took us a lot of efforts to reach there but after looking at the magnificent structures I came to feel that visiting this place was worth of all the efforts.
I conclude my post with my gratitude and lots of prayers to the kind soul Dharambir and his family. They were very simple with less resources but with a heart of Gold. May God bless them with much more.
