[justintime]

Hi All, Being an avid traveler i have always loved and longed for Ladakh, Spiti, Bhutan, Nepal, Kashmir, Himachal, Uttrakhand, Sikkim, Rajashthan & Goa trips. Last year, in October i went out for a Full Moon Party in Koh Phangan and biking in Pai. This time in 2020 also, i had many plans to be traveling someplace somewhere which obviously was put on a brutal hold. Ever since the Lockdown period started due to Corona Virus, life took a complete halt. All the plans of professional and personal life felt like they have been poisoned to die a slow and untimely death. Gradually, Lockdown was lifted and places started to open (most famous being opening of the Rohtang (Atal) Tunnel). I did read my travelogues and saw numerous videos and post in Facebook and Whatsapp. With the Indian Summer reaching its peak around May-June and with me literally not doing anything the whole day, I too was very tempted and desperate to venture out somewhere. A lot of plans were made but anyhow got cancelled as Interstate travel was banned by many States and the daily changing Interstate Quarantine rules made it even more confusing and difficult. As I come from the heartland of India, i.e Madhya Pradesh, i am lucky to have so many beautiful and amazing places around me. So initially in June, during monsoon period when all the Tiger Reserves closed, I got a chance to visit to Pench as one of my friend had some work in his Resort there. More on Pench and other forest stories later. This log is about Chitrakoot and Kalinger Fort. So, we started on 25th December from Jabalpur towards Chitrakoot and took Jabalpur-Katni-Maihar-Satna-Chitrakoot route, which took us around 5 hours. Roads from Jabalpur to Maihar is all excellent 4 lane, thereafter 2 lane State Highways but overall in good condition.

Chitrakoot in hindu mythology is believed to be the place where Lord Ram along with Sita and Laxman had spend 11 years in exile out of total 14 years.

I had some prior research of the area before going and just before reaching Chitrakoot from Satna side, there is a T-junction from where left side road takes you to Gupt Godavari. Gupt Godavari are natural rock formation. The name is derived from the tiny stream of water flowing inside the caves, whose source remains untraceable. First cave is dry and about 40m long and second is around 70m long with knee depth water. You feel very natural and serene inside the caves.

Gupt Godavari Caves


Gupt Godavari Caves


Gupt Godavari Caves


Gupt Godavari Caves


Gupt Godavari Caves


Gupt Godavari Caves


Gupt Godavari Caves


Gupt Godavari Caves


Gupt Godavari Caves


Gupt Godavari Caves

[justintime]

A word of advice for everyone visiting Chitrakoot, please do not wear shoes as everyplace that you will visit, you will have to remove your shoes and for visiting Gupta Godavari caves wear half pants/shorts as you have to wade into knee deep waters.

Coming back to the trip; After visiting Gupt Godavari Caves, we headed towards Sati Anusuiya Temple, which is located on the banks of quaint and serene Mandakini River. Sati Anusuiya Temple is basically an Ashram of Swami Paramhans Maharaj. Natural beauty of this place is beyond comparison, just ignore some plastic bags River water is crystal clear and you can clearly see the fishes underneath, whole place feels like a big natural Aquarium. Just beware of monkey here or I should say, just beware of monkeys anywhere you go in Chitrakoot. I was so afraid of them that I did not took out my DSLR Camera and lenses as I noticed few of them snatching bags from hands of tourists.

Sati Anusuiya Temple


Sati Anusuiya Temple


Sati Anusuiya Temple


Sati Anusuiya Temple

[justintime]

As Camera/Photography was not allowed inside the temple, so I could not click any pictures inside. After coming out of temple, it was time for sunset and had started getting dark so now we decided to hunt down a good decent hotel for us. I generally prefer MPT Hotel/Resorts wherever available as they are undoubtedly one of the best because of their location and simple home like food and the fact that I manage to get some discount is icing on the cake MPT has two hotels in Chitrakoot, one near Bus Stand, Hotel Mandakini and another MPT Tourist Bunglow right next to the famous Ramghat. Little did I had expected this place to be so much crowded but being extended weekend and Christmas/New Year holiday period, every good hotel was packed. Another good hotel in Chitrakoot is The River Front Resort, which is on a higher side of budget. Anyways, we did managed to get a Standard Deluxe room in MPT Tourist Bunglow for the night. We checked into your room and after a brief cleaning up, we headed towards Ramghat to attend the Evening Aarti, which is a delightful treat to watch and hearing those loud enchantments certainly was very relaxing for my eyes, ears, heart and soul.

Ramghat


Ramghat


Ramghat


Ramghat


Ramghat


Aarti @ Ramghat


Aarti @ Ramghat


Aarti @ Ramghat


Aarti @ Ramghat


Ramghat


Here is the video of Aarti

https://youtu.be/d7NdkIKKheg

After attending the Aarti we roamed around there in the ghat which is full of temples and temples everywhere and the most famous being “Matsya Gajendranath” Temple dedicated to Lord Shiva. Apart from Temples, a ride in the fully decorated boat is also worthwhile here. Thereafter we headed back to our hotel room had our dinner and called it a day.

To be continued...

[justintime]

Day-2

26-12-2020

This day the first thing we had plan to do was “Kamadgiri Parikrama” (circumambulation path). “Kamadgiri’ means the mountain which fulfills all the wishes and desires. The place is believed to have been the abode of Lord Ram, Sita and Laxman during their exile. This pilgrimage path is about 5 Km long around the hill and took us around 1.5 hours. Bharat Milap Temple is mid way where it is believed that Bharat persuaded Lord Ram to return back to Ayodhya. There is also footprints present of Lord Ram & Bharat. After completing the Kamadgiri Parikrama we headed to Hanuman Dhara, a temple situated in the hills dedicated to Lord Hanuman were water from the rocks fall on him and on top of the hill is Sita Rasoi. Hanuman Dhara now offers Cable Car ride which was inaugurated just a day before we went. Lucky us, yes we did take a ride in the Cable Car.

View from top of the hill overlooking whole of Chitrakoot


Cable Car


Cable Car


View from Spatik Shila


Off roading towards Sita Rasoi

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1qs2vPdE_Xc

From here we went to Spatik Shila, Janki Kund, Bharat Koop and our whole day was well spend. Come back to the Hotel room dead tired, had our dinner and dozed off. Next day plan was….yes, you guessed it right…Kalinjar Fort, the mighty Kalinjar Fort. You can read more about it here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalinjar_Fort

To be continued...

[justintime]

Day-3

27-12-2020

This day we woke up leisurely, had our bath, had heavy breakfast and checked out of the Hotel and bid farewell to Chitrakoot to drove towards Kalinjar. In the last two days, while I was in Chitrakoot, I had asked numerous persons about the route and road conditions to Kalinjar and the majority of people had recommended Chitrakoot-Atarra-Naseni-Kalinjar route. The distance was about 80 kms which took us around 2 hours and the road condition was good. We had started at 11 and we reached around 1 PM at the Kalinjar Fort. I was fascinated by this place for two reasons, first one that the mighty Sher Shah Suri had died here and secondly that Neelkanth Temple is situated here. This place is in control of and managed by Archaeological Survey of India and the tickets can be booked online too. This place truly deserves a place in World Heritage Sites, in my humble opinion.

Kalinjar Fort


Kalinjar Fort


Neelkanth Mahadev, Kalinjar Fort


Neelkanth Mahadev, Kalinjar Fort


Kalinjar Fort


Kalinjar Fort


Kalinjar Fort


Kalinjar Fort


Kalinjar Fort


Kalinjar Fort


Kalinjar Fort


Kalinjar Fort


Kalinjar Fort


Kalinjar Fort


Kalinjar Fort


Kalinjar Fort


Kalinjar Fort


Kalinjar Fort


Kalinjar Fort


Kalinjar Fort


Kalinjar Fort


Kalinjar Fort


Kalinjar Fort


Kalinjar Fort


Inside the Kalinjar Fort


Kalinjar Fort


Kalinjar Fort


Kalinjar Fort


Kalinjar Fort


Kalinjar Fort




We spend nearly half a day here and around evening we started our drive back. This time we took Kalinjar-Nagod-Uchechra-Maihar-Katni-Jabalpur route to get back to home, Relaxed, Rejuvenated and with another travel plan in my mind …till then….

Thanks for reading.

[aah78]

Note from Support: Thread moved from the Assembly Line to the Travelogues section. Thanks for sharing!

[su1978]

Many thanks for sharing your experience. This is relatively a very unheard location and does not seem to be a huge tourist attraction. This makes it somehow much fresh and untouched. I also am looking forward to travel to some location like that because i am averse to visiting any place which is very crowded.

[justintime]

Originally Posted by su1978

Many thanks for sharing your experience. This is relatively a very unheard location and does not seem to be a huge tourist attraction. This makes it somehow much fresh and untouched. I also am looking forward to travel to some location like that because i am averse to visiting any place which is very crowded.

Yes true. Kalinjar Fort is not advertised or promoted much, neither by Uttar Pradesh State Tourism Development Corporation nor by Archaeological Survey of India inspite of having such a glorious and significant history.

[Aniket Verma]

Apathy to Indic forts & Kingdom is something which has really plagued our Country. Only, Rajasthan, MP & to the some extend Maharashtra has made efforts to preserve & monetize these gems.

Kalinjar forts has played important role in our history, and was among the longest continuous inhabited fort in our country.

Fort has written history from 3rd century till 19th Century and played an important role is safeguarding Khajuraho (approx. 100 km distance).

Some of the key names associated with forts include:

- Sanduragupta - Gupta dynasty - Captured (336 AD)

- Yashovarman - Chandella dynasty - Ruling Dynast, built Laxman Temple at
Khajuraho (925 AD)

- Mahmud of Ghazni - Captured (1019 AD)

- Sher Shah Suri - Suri Empire - Died tried capturing the fort (1544 AD)

- Birbal - Given as Jagir (1569 AD)

- Raja Chatrasal - Father of Mastani Bai - Captured (1688 AD)

- British Garrison - Captured (1812 AD)

- Revolt of 1857 - Only surviving British garrison

- Walls dismantled by British in 1866 AD, as they found it too strong in case of future revolts.

- Alexander Cunningham - Founder of ASI (Because of his works, ASI took control of the fort in 1904l)

[Mustang Sammy]

Lovely pics. You really brought out the essence of the place. Nice to see Kalinjar fort well maintained with signage by the ASI.
India offers so much to see, one lifetime isn’t enough.
Thanks also for posting a picture of your steed.
It should be made mandatory for all travelogues on this site.

[ruzbehxyz]

Desr justintime.
Nice travelogue and pictures.

If you visited Kalinjar fort and liked it, you must visit Ajaygarh fort in the same area. The only difference is that Kalinjar is in UP while Ajaigarh is in MP.

Both served as an entry point to Central India from the North. One had to win Kalinjar to enter Central India.

[justintime]

Originally Posted by ruzbehxyz

Desr justintime.
Nice travelogue and pictures.

If you visited Kalinjar fort and liked it, you must visit Ajaygarh fort in the same area. The only difference is that Kalinjar is in UP while Ajaigarh is in MP.

Both served as an entry point to Central India from the North. One had to win Kalinjar to enter Central India.

I have visited Ajaygarh and it is not as maintained as Kalinjar. It is left alone to decay and die its natural death.