Voyage 361

Mahabaleshwar Trip - II: Mahabaleshwar Mahabaleshwar is located in Satara district in the Sahyadri range of the Western Ghats, about 120km from Pune, It has an average elevation of 1,353 metres (4,439 ft), with the highest peak of about 1,439 m (4,721 ft). Where to Go: Mahabaleshwar is cooler and misty when compared to Panchgani. It has more number of viewpoints too, the complete list is here ; Elephant Head point/Needle Hole Point, Kate's Point, Echo Point, Mahabaleshwar Mandir, Panchganga Temple, Elphinstone Point, Marjori Point, Savitri Point, Castle Rock Point, the Arthur Seat, Tigers Spring point, Malcolm point, Lingmala Waterfall, Venna Lake, Wilson Point, Dhobi Waterfall, Lodwick Point, Bombay Point, Pratapgad fort, Hunter's Point, and Cannought Peak. How to Go: After Mapro there are two routes with different collection of viewpoints to choose from. The first one is the Duchess road, towards old Mahabaleshwar. There are about six significant attractio

Mahabaleshwar Trip - I: Panchgani It was Monday morning on June 23 rd when we started from Pune at early morning 6am. After facing the worst experience with CelCabs in our previous trip, we decided to do a lot of search and decided with TCabs this time and I must say TCabs provide very generous and decent service. We reached Panchgani by 10 am, having had breakfast on the highway in Vithal Kamat restaurant. Our first stopover was table land. This was my second visit to Panchgani-Mahabaleshwar. In my first visit I had been to Harrisons Folly, Parsi Point in Panchgani and Mapro Garden, Panch ganga Temple, Venna Lake, Elphinstone Point in Mahabaleshwar. Mahabaleshwar-Panchgani valleys have numerous view points, which can be as high as fifty. Although important ones were of interest for us with least efforts. Top 10 Attractions of Mahabaleshwar-Panchgani: 1.        Elephant's Head/Needle Hole Point 2.        Arthur's Seat 3.        Mapro Garden 4.        Tab

Aurangabad - III: Ellora - Cave 16 Kailasa Temple The Great Kailasa temple is the largest single monolithic excavation in the world. If you don’t have enough time to visit Ellora and want to have a glance then don’t miss out kailasa temple numbered as cave 16. This is a must visit once in a life time, to witness the massiveness and extent of rock carvings. As we entered through the gopura entrance we were fascinated with the imagination of the architect who designed this colossal wonder. This monolithic structure measures 276 X 154 X 107 feet (length X width X height), was excavated from top-to-bottom with three deep trenches sunk in the parent rock mass. It took over 200 years for getting this marvel completed, through many generations, started from Rastrakuta King Dantidurga (735-757 A.D) and later majorly constructed in the reign of Krishna I (757-773 A.D.). The Great Kailasa is dedicated to Lord Shiva, consisting of majorly Shiva sculptures. The Great Kailasa and P

Aurangabad - III: Ellora - Cave 21 Rameshvara Temple This is a beautiful cave dedicated to Lord Shiva, excavated in 7 th century A.D and the oldest among the Hindu caves of Ellora. Profound detailing of the hair style The rectangular mandapa inside the cave has two cells one on the north and the other south which has large sculptural demonstrations on its walls. The south cell has images of Saptamatrikas in seated positions, with a stunning sculpture of Nataraja on eastern wall and Kali and Kala on western wall.  sculpture of Nataraja on eastern wall Panel of Kali and Kala on western wall The North cell has images of the Kalyanasundaramurti, with Subrahmanya on its western wall and Mahisasura mardini (Durga slaying the buffalo demon) on its eastern wall.  On either side of the entrance to the shrine are two huge representations, Ravananugraha murti to its north(left) and Siva and Parvati playing the game of chausar to its south(right). Depiction of Ravana shak

Aurangabad - III: Ellora - Cave 29 & 32 The road to Ellora from Ajanta, is in a bad state. We reached Ellora by 4pm and took an auto for about 400Rs for taking around the important caves. As it was already late and we had only about 2hours, so we shortlisted to about 3-4 caves only. Since our cab driver was too lazy to take us over the route, we had decided to go with auto paying extra. Unlike Ajanta, Ellora caves are scattered around a track of over 2km. We started Ellora with cave 29, as our main plan was Kailasa Temple, we kept it for last. For two reasons it is recommended to visit Ajanta before Ellora, the first being is the chronological order of period of their excavation and second is that the hugeness of Ellora should be felt after the detailing of Ajanta to make the entire journey exciting. History:  The excavation of Ellora caves started when the builders gradually started shifting to Ellora during 450 – 700 A.D, following the Buddhist trend they continued to