Today we are going to two places from Ramayan and I am happy to take you to the two great devotees of Bhagwan Ram.
Let's go first to Anjaneya hill, the birthplace of Hanuman. This is in Anegundi area near Hampi in Karnataka state. This is believed to be the birthplace of Anjaneya, son of Anjani, i.e. Hanuman.
Though some more places in India are said to be birthplaces of Hanuman, this place being the birthplace of Hanuman sounds logical. Rishyamukh parvat is nearby. It is said that Sugreev, Hanuman and Bhagwan Ram met each other on Rishyamukh parvat.
Road from Hampi to Anjaneya hill is lined with natural beauty. Being on the banks of Tungabhadra river, this region is very fertile. On both sides you can see rice paddies, coconut trees, banana gardens and of course massive rocks which are typical of this region. This is said to be the Kishkindha region of the Ramayan period.
Rice paddy ! |
Bananas!! |
Rice paddy quilt all over the place! |
There is a motor-able road up to the foot of the hill. There are some small shops near the car park. You have to climb nearly 600 steps to reach the Hanuman temple. But that is made enjoyable by the picturesque view which you will see while climbing and the 'Jai Shreeram' slogans from the fellow climbers.
awesome view from the stairs. |
Being the birthplace of Hanuman, many devotees from all over the world come here to take Darshan of the Hanuman temple. Hanuman is the god of strength, knowledge and devotion.
On the top there is a small Hanuman temple which has a Hanuman idol carved in rock.
Temple at the top! |
Here be aware of the other species of Hanuman devotees, the monkeys. You will see lots and lots of monkeys everywhere. Don't tease them, they can be really aggressive.
And the winner is...!! |
Bo(u)lder View |
From the top you can have a 360 degrees birds eye view of the Hampi area. If you are having a powerful binocular or camera, you can see the beautiful temples of Hampi as well. Let me tell you that Hampi is declared by Unesco as a world heritage site.
Stones, rocks, boulders! |
Field, river and city! |
The name pampa sarovar comes from the name of Parvati who was meditating here.
Pampa Sarovar |
We can see some remains of an old temple in the form of some stone pillars, a Shiva temple, Parvati temple, Ganesha temple and Shabari cave/ Matang Rishi ashram.
Shabari temple/ Matang Rishi ashram |
Ganesha idol -Pampa Sarovar (ЁЯУ╕ by Mr. G.D. Sathe) |
Temple-Pampa Sarovar (ЁЯУ╕ by Mr. G.D. Sathe) |
They say that this sarovar looks more beautiful in the rainy season. We were there in the month of March and we were a bit disappointed by the size of Pampa Sarovar. In our Hampi stay we used to see the beautiful Kamalapur lake everyday. Being a reservoir it is considerably a large lake and so we were expecting that Pampa sarovar will be larger than Kamalapur lake and a really huge sarovar. Absence of the famous lotus flowers which are said to be there in Pampa sarovar was an added disappointment!
We saw an interesting map in the temple. It showed places visited by Bhagwan Ram.
Places Visited by Bhagwan Ram. |
Nearby in the Anegundi village you can see Ranganatha Swamy temple with an interesting Vishnu idol in the sleeping posture. There is an old palace Gagan Mahal which we had to skip due to lack of time.
But we went to Anegundi fort. There are again many steps to climb. An old and famous Durga temple is there in the fort with a huge tree in front of it.
Anegundi Fort. |
Beautifully Carved pillars in Durga Temple. |
There are some caves in the Anegundi fort. They say that Wali, the King of Kishkindha was in these caves for some time.
If you climb some more distance from the caves you can see a very beautiful view of the surroundings.
All these places can be easily covered in half a day, of course depending upon your speed of climbing.
You get reasonably good quality and variety of vegan food in the restaurants. Though their set up was simple, the quality of food was good. They could make some vegan dishes on request.
This trip was in March 2018. We had stayed in a KSTDC hotel in Kamalapur, which was very conveniently located, just across the archeological museum and near the heritage area. The hotel was a decent one with its air conditioned rooms, a restaurant and a shop.
Our hotel in Kamalapur, Hampi. |
The archaeological museum is an excellent one and will take a day, if you want to really see the entire museum carefully. We could spend only a couple of hours in the museum.
Vishnu in sleeping posture- Sheshshayi Bhagwan in museum premises. |
Museum premises |
Interesting Sculpture! |
So you may be a Bhagwan Ram devotee or just a tourist.
Trekker, Art connoisseur or archaeologist
Anjaneya Hill, Pampa Sarovar, Anegundi Fort
and archaeological museum will satisfy your quest.
#HanumanBirthplace#Hampi#Unescoworldhertagesite#Shabari#Pampasarovar
jai sri ram ЁЯШНyour presence of mind ЁЯЩПЁЯЩП
ReplyDeleteBajrangbali ki jay!! Thanks!
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