Baba Baidyanath Dham
In continuation of my last travelogue –
https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/trave...road-trip.html (Towards the southern tip of the Indian mainland | My Tamil Nadu road trip),
I was trying to plan the visit to Baba Baidyanath Dham, Deoghar, Jharkhand. It finally occurred to us that what better day than ‘Mahashivratri’ to visit a Jyotirlinga.
T-Jet had to be left in home because that would mean a week’s trip and we can’t ask for that long leave so quickly after our Rameshwaram trip. So, actual Jet it was. Accordingly, we did the bookings and left for Deoghar on 17th Feb 23 early morning. Onwards flight was via Kolkata and return via Delhi on 19th Feb.
Deoghar airport
It’s a new airport recently inaugurated by our Prime Minister. The airport is quite small with only handful of flights operating from here. It will still help tourist and religious spots to be accessible to larger population thus boosting business in Deoghar and nearby places. No yellow plate taxi is available as of now. I paid ₹550(Brand new Nexon-Petrol)onwards and ₹350(Alto K10)while coming back.
17th Feb
Coming back to travelogue, we started from Pune at 6 am and landed at around 1:30 PM including a 3 plus hour layover at Kolkata airport. Took a cab and were in our hotel room by 2:30 pm.
About property –
Hotel Imperial Heights – One word, Awesome. It was kind of perfect. Be it staff, location, rooms, amenities, etc. Food, though a bit costly, was nice as well.
Lobby About Baba Baidyanath Dham –
This is the only place in India where Jyotirlinga and Shaktipeeth are together. Mahashivratri is a very important festival here. As it’s believed that Bhagwan Shiva married Maa Parvati on this day, there is a grand wedding procession held in Deoghar every year. Wedding procession (Baraat) follows a specific route and then goes back to temple. Later, Baidyanath Shiva Temple and Parvati Mata Temple are connected by a sacred red rope signifying the marriage as in Hindu culture.
The temple management is quite different here. Place is governed by Pandas. For getting quick visit pass, you need to connect with them, and they will assist in darshan, pooja, etc. We were in touch with one of them and he assisted us throughout. Pass price for normal days is ₹250 which doubles up to ₹500 on special days like Mahashivratri.
Also, as we noticed here, not many people opt for quick darshan despite price being not too much high for normal days. People here believes in pure raw darshan. Kudos to them. Also, not many outside people were there. Mostly junta belonged from Jharkhand, Bihar, and some from UP, WB. I still saw one Pune registered Toyota Liva while on my way to Basukinath temple.
Temple was quite close to our place, but we took a battery rickshaw to reach the temple quickly. Our Panda asked us to reach by 3:30 PM to have a proper darshan. Gates are closed by 4 pm for Shringar and other activity. We freshened up quickly and reached there promptly and had a beautiful darshan of the Jyotirlinga.
Some clicks of temple premises The main temple where Garbha Griha is situated
Here in Baba Dham, you can touch the Shivling and its available to touch without any barricade as such. People here doesn’t consider darshan as complete till you have asked for blessing by touching it. Accordingly, our Panda insisted that we touched the Shivling. This ritual will create havoc tomorrow as I will explain later.
After deciding the time to reach temple on 18th Feb 2023 – Mahashivratri day, we left temple for exploring city.
Entire city was being decorated for Mahashivratri. This was the first time after Covid-19 that the procession was about to be held and excitement in city was in another level. Whole city was being decorated like Diwali, melodious religious songs being played, free food stall was established at every nook and corner, etc. Swarm of people can be found almost everywhere. Roads were getting blocked for 4 wheelers and heavy vehicles. This was a novel experience.
A very famous landmark here - Tower chowk
Since it was still almost an hour before sun went down, we thought of visiting Naulakha temple. It’s a beautiful temple built in pre-Independence era which can be visited. This place, however, isn’t nicely maintained and after relaxing for 5-10 mts we came back to the city and then to hotel. We were up since 2 am in the morning and called it a day around 8 PM.
Naulakha temple - Rickshaw charged 100 bucks for a return trip. Sunset from Naulakha temple