chitrakoot - a magical place
- Publishing Date: 12-Sep-2018
- Category: Religious
- Starting Date: 05-May-2008
- No of Days: 2 Days
- Location: Chitrakoot, Madhya Pradesh, India
To read the same blog in Hindi, go to setting gear showing on the right hand side and change the language selection to Hindi.
Note: All the pictures used in this blog are not mine and I have mention the source of every picture in it.
Often, we do a lot of preparations to go to some specific places but we can not go there for some reason or you can say that unless you are invited from such places you can't go there. And when your call comes, then all the arrangements are done automatically. Today, I am sharing my personal experience with you on such a visit, and this journey is of Chitrakoot Dhams.
Chitrakoot is a town and a nagar panchayat in the Chitakoot district in the state of Uttar Pradesh, India. It is a town of religious, cultural, historical and archaeological importance, in the Bundelkhand region. It borders the Chitrakoot district in Uttar Pradesh, whose headquarters Chitrakoot Dham (Karwi) is located nearby. The town lies in the historical Chitrakoot region, which is divided between the present-day Indian states of Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh. It is known for a number of temples and sites mentioned in Hindu scriptures.
Many people gather here on each Amavasya. Somwati Amavasyas, Deepawali, Sharad-Poornima, Makar Sankranti and Ramanavami are special occasions for such gatherings and celebrations. (Wikipedia)
Scenic view of Mandakini
When you hear the name of Chitrakoot, if you get information about it on Google, the biggest dilemma will be that you will not understand that this place is in Uttar Pradesh or in Madhya Pradesh, Wikipedia and Google Map didn't resolve your doubt. The answer to this is that there was no state in the Ramayana period, it was all later when these states were made, some part of Chitrakoot came to Uttar Pradesh and some parts came to Madhya Pradesh, due to which Chitrakoot becomes a place that lies in Madhya Pradesh as well as in Uttar Pradesh, just like some part of Govardhan Parikrama is in Rajasthan while Mathura comes in Uttar Pradesh.
How to reach: (indianholiday)
By Air: Khajuraho Airport is the nearest airport from Chitrakoot, at a distance of 192 km. The airport is connected to Varanasi, Delhi and Agra. There are easy availability of taxis and buses going towards Chitrakoot.
By Train: Located at a distance of about 8km, the nearest train station to Chitrakoot is Karvi which is well-linked to other major cities of the country like Delhi, Mumbai and Jaipur. Taxi and bus services are available from Karvi train station to Chitrakoot.
By Road: There are frequent bus services available to Chitrakoot from Agra, Allahabad, Banda, Chattarpur, Faizabad, Lucknow, Jhansi, Kanpur, Maihar, Satna and Varanasi. Some of the nearby places to Chitrakoot Allahabad-125km, Satna- 75km, Lucknow- 285km, Mahoba- 127km, Kalinjar-88km and Jhansi- 274km.
Best time to visit:
Apart from the summer season you can go anytime. If you want to enjoy this place with ease, then do not choose the time of Amavasya and Diwali, there is a lot of crowd in these days.
Places to visit:
- Bharat Koop
- Bharat Milap Temple
- Ganesh Bagh
- Gupt Godavari
- Hanuman Dhara
- Janaki Kund
- Ram Ghat
- Ram Darshan
- Sati Anusuya Ashram
- Sphatik Shila etc
Evening aarti at Ram Ghat
The story is of 2008, when I was doing BCA, the practicals of 5th semesters was finished and our last semester was left. After the next semester, I had a wish to do PG and I wanted to get some information related to this from Chitrakoot Gramodya University in Chitrakoot. This is how my plan was made.
During those days we don't need any reservation, what we need is just 2 pairs of clothes, a bag and some money. Monday was the right day as every Govt office is having working on that day, so on Sunday morning, I announced in my house that I am going to Chitrakoot from Varanasi Express at 9pm. After having food at night I picked up my bag and I was with Ravi and Keshav and we were heading towards the railway station.
By reaching the station, we took 3 general tickets and reached the platform, the platform from which Varanasi Express departure was scheduled had so much crowd, I did not understand what why there was so crowd, then I asked a porter who was there to ask why there is so much crowd, then he told me today is Somavati Amavasya and on this day there is a huge fair in Chitrakoot and millions of people go there.
I have never seen such a crowd till today and there was no space in the train. Once I thought, let's go back to the home, will go there sometime later. In the meanwhile the train started running and I decided to go today and we 3 were hanging on the train gate and gradually got away from the gate and got a little inside.
There was no place to stand in the coach, so there is no chance to get a seat to sit, I had come to understand that it would be one of the toughest trips till today. In our coach, there were already 3 times more passengers than the capacity, despite the next station where 40 50 people went on board the train, and we slowly reached the area between the 2 bathrooms. The crowd was so much that some people also surrounded the area inside the bathroom.
In all this, generally train takes 1 to 1.5 hours to cover the distance between Jhansi and Gwalior, but this time the distance was covered in more than 2 hours and the reason was continuous Chain Pulling, Jhansi arrived, after the Jhansi, the railway line to chitrakoot is not the electric line, then the next station which came after Jhansi, the situation was even more frightening.
It was dark and because of it every traveler had a torch in his hand and a long cloth in another, as the train coach were full, but the roof was empty and now there is no electric line, so some people had already sat up on the train coach and was pulling up other people with the help of that long cloth. Now the train coach and the roof were both filled up, I saw this scene with my eyes for the first time.
Now the condition was like when the track of the train changed then the sound of the parts of the train was heard clearly, it seems like the wheels of the train will break or the spring would break. Well the crowd was increasing on every station, the only relief was that people were not coming in coaches and going on the roof of coaches.
It was around 12 o'clock in the night and we want to sleep, for such kind of situations we always take some newspaper, I took out some newspaper and use those to make a sheet and put it on the floor and somehow adjust ourself and we were ready to sleep in a hope that tomorrow will be a better day.
In the morning when we wake up, the first thing we look for is our bag, everything was at the place, then we asked the people where we are, they told us we will reach Chitrakoot in the next half hour. The railway station of Chitrakoot is known as "Chitrakoot Dham Karvi", which comes in Uttar Pradesh.
As soon as the train reached the station, people started coming down from the rooftops of the train coaches on the roof of the railway station and coming below the rooftops, there were some adventure people's who were climbing on the adjoining trees from the roofs of the train coaches.
After leaving the station we had breakfast and now we had to first go to Chitrakoot Gramoday University and after finishing the work we will explore Chitrakoot, its bit hot in April in Chitrakoot. After having breakfast, we enquire about the convenience for Chitrakoot Gramoday University, they told us we will get a sharing auto after walking some distance.
When we arrived at the place mentioned, only the crowd was looking everywhere, the crowd captures the auto coming to this side in the mid way.
We were watching this scene and didn't stop ourself from laughing. I talked to a rickshaw man, where the auto fare was 10, the rickshaw man asked for ₹150 for 3 people up to the university and he agreed on one condition, where there will be a climb, will have to descend from a rickshaw. We agreed on all the conditions as we don't have any options.
Wherever there was a climb, both me and Ravi took off the rickshaw and push it and we reached the University, we completed our work in the university and we were free in the next half hour, now we had to find a room where we took some rest.
After a little research, we got a room in our budget (₹300), after settling our luggage, the first thing to do was to take a bath and then after having dinner, we took some rest. It was about 1'o clock and the temperature was pretty hot.
I did not feel like going anywhere this in this hot weather, and before coming here, I was suffering from fever for last two to three days, which came again because of excessive fatigue. Looking at all the circumstances, I decided to have some rest and in the evening we will explore some nearby places.
I used to take some necessary medicines during my travel with me, and I took one paracetamol, with the hope that if the fever was not cured then I would not explore anything here, and while thinking all these things I slept. I woke up at around 4 o'clock and my fever was cure. I woke up everybody and we were ready at around 5'o, there was a place in front of the university, named as "Ram Darshan", which seems like a big ashram, we decided to go there.
Huge statue of Bajrang Bali on the entrance of Ram Darshan
Ram Darshan is a very beautiful ashram, in front of the main entrance, there is a huge statue of Bajrang Bali, there is a lot of greenery inside the ashram, there was no ticket for the entry at that time and probably not today. This ashram represents its name, that is, in this ashram, you can see the events of different times in Ram's life through idols and jhankis, some idols are so good that you will feel yourself at the same time when these events occurs.
And the best one is, Dashrath ji has spoken to Ram ji to go for exile and he is moaning himself, when you see these scenes through these idols then you can feel the tears start flowing automatically from your eyes. And one most amazing thing about this Ashram is, you can see a copy of Ramayan in almost every language of the world, which is a matter of surprise in itself.
That's all in this part, in the next part I will take you to other places of Chitrakoot.
Happy traveling
Fir milege kahi kisi roj ghumte firte
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