I was wondering where to go to for 3-4 hours on the next weekend without making the journey a hectic one when I came across this Bhuleshwar Temple and immediately I liked the place and decided to go there on a short trip.
One Saturday afternoon we started from our home around 2.30 pm towards the Bhuleshwar Temple. The temple is around 55 Kms from Kharadi, Pune near to village called Uruli and Yavat.
How to go: To reach Bhuleshwar temple you have to take the Pune – Solapur Highway (NH9) and have to towards Solapur. You have go through the Flyover from Hadapsar (do not go beneath it). You have to travel around 35 kms on this road. There are a couple of back to back toll plazas. After the second toll plaza, you have to go straight for a few kms and then you will see a sign on the left side of the road pointing to the right lane (marked as Bhuleshwar). You have to take a right turn and go straight. You have to cross a small ghat section and then you will a see a small diversion on your right. There is a hillock on the right side on top of which you can clearly see the temple. So you need to drive through this diversion. The last 200 meters or so is incredibly steep and I am not exaggerating. You can also park your car before this road.
After driving through the last 200 meters I was really booming with confidence on my driving capability, but given a choice, I will try to avoid that road and park my car before this road starts.
The temple is around 9 Km from the NH9 (from where you took the right turn). The road up to the temple is pretty good. Here is the road map which we followed.
The Bhuleshwar Temple is really an ancient one – probably this is built around in the 13th century by the Choula rules (1230 AD to be precise as per Wikipedia).
The first thing which will strike you once you reach there is the serenity and the calmness of the place. Though there were only a handful of people when we visited there, we hard that the whole place comes alive during Maha Shivaratri when you can not find an inch to stand.
This is the first sight of the temple:
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The temple is built with solid rocks and upon a layer of a flat base, the base it self itself is very high. There are 3 different temple-tops which vary in heights (taller to shorter from Left to Right for the below pictures)
Unfortunately there is a TV tower which somewhat spoils the ambience (though I have taken the snap without it).
The surrounding place was very dry when we went there but must be very beautiful during the full monsoon.
We first explored the different sides of the temple and circled the temple to get a complete view from all sides.
When we entered the temple, inside it was very dark but when it suited to our eyes we found ourselves in front of another door, through which could see a staircase on both the right and left sides to enter into the main temple. Little did we know about the surprises which we were about to face.
We entered into the main temple and immediately we were spellbound. There were so many sculptures and carvings in the temple which simply took our breath away. They were really magnificent. Here are some of the snaps. Most of the carvings were vandalized by the tyrant Mughal commanders under Aurangzeb. This is also a proof of the temple being so old. There are ample opportunities for photography due to natural 'light-and-shadow' effect. Some of my amateur tries:
The place was so airy and cool inside that you do not find yourself having the desire to leave. The place is to just sit and relax. You will forget your stress, your pain and all your day to day petty problems once you come here. On this note, you are bound to think of how the place looked like during the old days when the civilization was too far to spoil the serenity.
In the main shrine there is an idol of Lord Shiva. There is a saying that if you are a true believer, then the offerings (sweets) will disappear as the Lord Shiva will consume them by Himself!!! We did not try it though.
There are carvings on the side of the walls through the stairs as well as outside the main entrance. There are Ganesha statues which appeared to be of a female form which is very interesting.
Outside, there is a cluster of stairs through which you can also climb from the downhill.
In the close vicinity, you can see remnants of a fort from which it is truly evident that the temple used to belong to the boundaries within this fort. This fort was called as Mangalgad. Nothing much is left of the fort though. Mangalgad was constructed during 1634 by Murar Jagdev to keep a watch on the Pune area. Legend has it that in 1630 this Murar Jagdev looted Pune and then completely destroyed it. Needless to say that I climbed on top this sole structure.
Apart from this historical significances, the temple has a mythological importance too. It is said that Devi Parvati danced for Lord Shiva and from here they went to Kailash and got married.
The best thing about this temple is that there is no photography restriction like many religious places in India.
The Bhuleshwar Temple is not just a temple in my opinion – it is a place where you can just enjoy the blissful calmness of the nature and even do a soul searching. You do not need to be a hardcore devotee. I am an Atheist, but even I found the place truly amazing and it was me who did not want to leave the place, such was the magnetic attraction of the place!!
After spending a couple of hours in the peacefulness we came back to the din and bustle of the city by 7 pm.
This is the photo of the ghat section in between:
This place is truly and highly recommendable to anyone. We certainly wanna go there again!!
Caution - on the top there is no place to eat or stay.
