Nighoj and many more..

Potholes..pandavas..hot sun..bairavanath..U might be thinking what is the relation between all these..our trip on a single day..:)

Route Plan

From Pune: Pune-nagar road ->Ranjangaon->Nighoj->Ganeshkind->bhairavnath->Daryadevi->Dokeshwar Takale-> Pune.

If you are travelling in mar-April season you can skip Ganeshkind to Dokeshwar part. These places are worth visiting in monsoon, but it is your choice. We visited all of them in April.

The other plan will be

Pune-nagar road->ranjangaon->nighoj->spend till evening in Morachi chincholi

I think the second plan is best for Mar-Apr and the first one in monsoon.

Nighoj

Nighoj is less famous for its natural potholes and more famous for the miracle

that occurs on janmastami every year.

We were interested in the potholes or kund as it is called locally.

If you want to visit Nighoj directly, take a left turn at shikrapur and travel towards Nighoj. You will find the kund first and then Nighof village.

If you visit ranjangaon ganapati(one of the astavinayak's in Pune) you need to travel till shirur. After crossing there will be bridge cross it and take the first left. You will not find any sign boards on the left side, check for them on the right side you will find them after some distance.

When we first saw the river we didn't understand any thing...there is no water, no kund, only a rocky surface. There is a suspension bridge to cross the river, when i stood in the middle of the bridge and looked around ..wow i thought this is a different kind of river..Ahead of this suspension bridge there is other bridge, the one that is used to enter the village. From there if you see towards the temple you can't find any water only the 'art' of rocks and potholes..:). After a kilometer from the temple again you can find the river flowing normally.

We visited the temple first, there was no idol in the temple only a seating place with four faces carves on it..i asked a lady over there she explained it, but in vain as i couldn't understand anything. We came out and saw a shop and inquired over there..with a caption "we don't understand marati" ;)...they were very helpful. One person explained us everything and even took us to kund and acted as a guide.

Kund or potholes

local story

Long long ago on one night seven sisters travelling from far off land reached this place and decided

to settle here and they made the kund in one night..the Malganga temple is the temple of the elder sister. Tthe temple opposite (toward the village) is of second sister, there is another temple 1km aft to these temples, that is for 6th sister..there is also a temple in the village i think of 3rd sister. Regarding other sisters they told the names of places but i forgot..It is also believed that once a year a pot/plate emerges from the kund present in the temple in village. Initially it was of gold, later of some metal, now earthen.

Silent on the surface with an abyss inside

Kund / potholes

After visiting the temple we went to the potholes, the width of the river is very small barely 200mtrs..we were told that the depth of the river is not known, it is like an abyss. The rocks are very smooth due to years of rupture. You can find a deep bowl like structure in the rock with one 'independent' rock in it. In rainy season with good amount of flow these rocks inside will swirl and erode the main rock making it smooth. In this process the independent rock becomes small in size where as the main rock gets eroded and may break..

We took good amount of pics here and then decided to leave.

Efforts are being made to make it tourist attractive..they are constructing a park, museum about the history of the place and also planning to have boating..

GaneshKind

I have no details about this temple as there was no one expect for the old temple priest. The temple is at the end of the village and due to summer there is no one around.

Bhairavnath Temple

Bhairavnath temple at Punewadi

From Ganesh Kind we went to Punewadi to visit Bhairavnath temple. The temple is very colorful  The main deity in the temple is Lord Shiva as Bhairavnath. From outside you can see the deity carved in black stone. But inside is a rudraksha with two  idols of Shiva on bottom right side. These idols are decorated with flowers. The idols of Shiva will help you to deciding whether to do or not to do an activity. When you have a doubt whether to do an activity or not, if you ask and a flower falls from the left idol, then it is not to do the work in question. If it falls from right it is positive.

The origin of the temple has an interesting story. It is said that a lady was travelling to the village and The lord has appeared and said to her that he will be following her until she doesn't turn back. The lady continues till the village and then turns back. The place where the lord has stopped is the present temple.

Men are allowed in the main sanctom sanatrum, women are allowed only thrice in a year.. once on Deepavali, the others got lost in my translation. The entire narration about the temple is by Praveen.

Temple in the canopy of stone

Daryabai devi temple

The specialty of the temple is that it rests on no columns and is carved under a rock and water drips in the temple all round the year forming small stalactites. Though heat was glaring outside, the temple is very cool inside. We took rest outside the temple for some time as no visitors were there i thought of entering the temple again to see the stalactites..I was surprised to observe many marks of stalactites being ripped off..some area which is cordoned off has some stalactites..

Dokeshwar Takale

Dokeshwar is the remote place where the cave temple of Shiva is present and Takale is the nearby village. In olden days Takale was called as Dokeshwar Takale, now Dokeshwar is called as Takale Dokeshwar. This temple was built by Pandavas during their exile period in forest. It is said that the temple is built in a single night. You can find many other idols sculpted but not used, these are placed in room. This temple has nandi facing the Linga on two sides, one on the front and the other on right side. The nandi on the right side is very huge and it has an iron strap bounded to its head. It is bounded so that it doesn't leave the place or nobody takes it way(again lost in translation). There is construction work going on for a park. Most of the sculptures have to be maintained properly.

Huge Nandi located on the right side of temple  facing Shiva 

First time i saw Lord Shiva depicted in a form other than linga..

Main temple

Photos by Praveen