When a trekker or devotee of SHIVAJI Maharaj thinks of Junnar, he recalls Shivneri birth place of Shivaji Maharaj. To begin with, there is Lenyadri, Chavand, Hadsar & Narayangad which can be seen if a two days trek is planned to Shivneri. We decided to go with Shivneri Chavand plan and accordingly we left with Kalyan-Narayangad bus of Saturday morning getting down at Bankar-phata. We digged a place for ourselves 15 accommodated 10 seater jeep with all our trekking gear which was heading towards Junnar Suhas and Amey had to travel standing behind the jeep as they had sacks which we were unable to adjust inside the jeep. With Pankaj who was enjoying only his second trek, I was sharing my knowledge of history & geography of that region. Suddenly after my brief mach-mach there was questionnaire spree from Pankaj & Sandeep. Till this time I was unaware that anyone other than Pankaj was listening to me. But by God’s grace I was able to answer all their questions. By the time the answers were finished, we reached the chowk from where our trial had to start.
After refilling our water bottles & having our breakfast we started scrolling towards the Fort. We climbed the fort through “Sakhli waat”. Already it was decided to give more attention to the details which we had grasped in our earlier visits. We reached the caves which seemed to cursing themselves of seeing this day instead of cherishing on the glorious days it had prospered in the past. Suhas, Amey & I started our study with the available remnants of caves while Sandeep & other watching the areas nearby with the binoculars with Pankaj busy in his drawing feat.
Thanks to most of the people who came there, as because of their affectionate act of writing their names on all the available spaces we were not made to give more strain to our brains and had to stop after spending very less efforts. Hence as a token to their affection for us, we felt that these guys should be heavily penalized.
After disappointment deep in us we climbed the fort to see a descent amount of indecent crowd, majority of them here unaware of the importance of the place to their life and have forgot all the lessons of cleanliness taught to them in their homes & schools Even in such conditions “Shivneri” was able to maintain the beauty and divine dignity which it had occurred due to birth of Shivaji Maharaj. After visiting all the historic places of Shivneri & having our lunch in between we started descending down through 7 gates - in search of caves. We traversed to the caves to the left hand side of .Shivai Mandir which seemed to be visited by fewer amount of people. Dispiriting is that, this conclusion was derived from less number of names on the walls of these caves. We started observing the details of these caves and were also photographing the same. Few shilalekhs are available in these caves , but are difficult to read. At this point of this article I appeal readers, if they have photographs of these caves taken some years back. Please contact us at Contact@ TreKshitiZ.com
Then it was time to leave for Chavand village where we were going to make our halt for the day. We reached Chavand village in time and as it was Dussera, atmosphere in the village was Festive. We went to the house of “ teacher at the school in village. Very soon we were surrounded by many of the small children in the village which were very eager to give us the “ Sona “ local name for “ “ which is distributed among people in Dussera as a tradition. Then came a boy with a necklace made of these
Leaves. This was just a beginning of heart warming gestures from the village kids and within a short time we ran out of place to keep the “ “ leaves given to us . That was the experience which we would be cherishing throughout our life. By the time all this finished, the teacher come to place and after exchanging “Sona” we asked them to permit us to display the mount boards on which the information of Chavand and Kukdeshwar was given. We were asked about the details of these mount boards and the moment we said to them that these boards have history and other details of the surrounding the History teacher was pleased and gave us the location where these mounts boards can be located and also assured us that he will take full responsibility of these boards and prevent any damage to them. We again felt like burdened under the warm gestures given to us by the village.
When we were discussing about the villagers we came across the fact that village also had an Ashram-Shala which had more than 250 students in it. We also noticed that for this amount of students, in a scorpio & snake prone area the only available health care centre was at Junnar. Principal of the school who also reached the scene educated us on the fact that it takes an hour to reach Junnar health care center which is merely 18 kilometers away. Thanks to the contractor who built this road
When the discussion was turned towards the fort, Principal told us that along with Shivneri, Shivaji-Maharaj also had resided on Chavand in his early childhood. But with no proof supporting this fact, it was hard for us to digest it.
Then we were asked by the history teacher to stay at his place, but we decided to stay in school so that we can have some interaction with students. The building where we deposited all our trekking gear was a college hostel & had 25-30 students staying there. Later we came to know that some of them were from villages near Thane, which indicates that, this area certainly got a substantial amount of recognition. This was yet another fact to make us realize the importance of development in this village.
After having our dinner in the veranda of the hostel, interaction with hostel guys was on agenda. While having some discussions one suddenly invited us for playing the game of Chess. Soon it was best player in the village who practiced the game daily for at least an hour against a poor fellow like me. After some time it was to my surprise that I had won the game. While the game of Chess was in progress Amey & Suhas were having discussion with other students. Amey was asking about the study plan of the students & Suhas was discussing the history/geography of the area with them
As the stars in the sky becoming brighter our batteries were getting dimmer & we decided to take rest for a day. Next day we got up early and started climbing the fort. Flower photography, Bird watching, Gossip continued as we neared the summit. The way was having some railings in between installed by a Forest Officer for the convenience of trekkers and villagers. A hearty thanks from all trekking community to this kind hearted officer.
The landscape from the top of the fort was idyllic Shivneri, Hadsar, Manikdoh dam, Jeevdhan & the plateau of Naneghat. Summit was fully covered by grass & -------------flowers with hardly any place to walk. But we still scrolled with the help of hostel friends which also accompanied us and guided us to all the places on the fort. The places one must see on the top of the fort are Pushkarni, seven cisterns, temple of Chamunda devi, and the caves on the north-west side of the fort. Along with these places there are lot many places with lesser importance, need to be attended during one’s visit.
After all this, we came back to the village where it was time to display the informative boards. After all this pleasure giving activities it was time to reach Kukdeshwar and on our way we met the Sarpanch of the village who was already aware of what we doing in school and appreciated us for the same. This appreciation gaves us tremendous amount of encouragement to continue with such kind of activities.After taking a promise about staying at his place when we will visit Chavand next time. He help us till the mainroad from where we marched towards Kukdeshwar.
Amey & Suhas distributed the books of history of forts and after handing the presentation file to the history teacher there was s demand for a photo ssession from the village kids.
Kukdeshwar was yet another aye opener about the efforts, needs to be invested by
Authorities & public regarding the protect of this ancient plus very spectal monuments. A S I has certainly tried to give justice in this temple, but the progress of work left us worried.
Any way summing up I would say that we had quenched our thirst for a perfect
Trek ( with all planned ctivities completed accordingly) ofcourse with a guilt of not being able to contribute the damage happening in fortof our eyes. If you have any information
About activities being done to save these monument . Please mail us at contact@ trekshitiz.com.
Harshal .R. Mahajan.
www.Trekshitiz.com.
After refilling our water bottles & having our breakfast we started scrolling towards the Fort. We climbed the fort through “Sakhli waat”. Already it was decided to give more attention to the details which we had grasped in our earlier visits. We reached the caves which seemed to cursing themselves of seeing this day instead of cherishing on the glorious days it had prospered in the past. Suhas, Amey & I started our study with the available remnants of caves while Sandeep & other watching the areas nearby with the binoculars with Pankaj busy in his drawing feat.
Thanks to most of the people who came there, as because of their affectionate act of writing their names on all the available spaces we were not made to give more strain to our brains and had to stop after spending very less efforts. Hence as a token to their affection for us, we felt that these guys should be heavily penalized.
After disappointment deep in us we climbed the fort to see a descent amount of indecent crowd, majority of them here unaware of the importance of the place to their life and have forgot all the lessons of cleanliness taught to them in their homes & schools Even in such conditions “Shivneri” was able to maintain the beauty and divine dignity which it had occurred due to birth of Shivaji Maharaj. After visiting all the historic places of Shivneri & having our lunch in between we started descending down through 7 gates - in search of caves. We traversed to the caves to the left hand side of .Shivai Mandir which seemed to be visited by fewer amount of people. Dispiriting is that, this conclusion was derived from less number of names on the walls of these caves. We started observing the details of these caves and were also photographing the same. Few shilalekhs are available in these caves , but are difficult to read. At this point of this article I appeal readers, if they have photographs of these caves taken some years back. Please contact us at Contact@ TreKshitiZ.com
Then it was time to leave for Chavand village where we were going to make our halt for the day. We reached Chavand village in time and as it was Dussera, atmosphere in the village was Festive. We went to the house of “ teacher at the school in village. Very soon we were surrounded by many of the small children in the village which were very eager to give us the “ Sona “ local name for “ “ which is distributed among people in Dussera as a tradition. Then came a boy with a necklace made of these
Leaves. This was just a beginning of heart warming gestures from the village kids and within a short time we ran out of place to keep the “ “ leaves given to us . That was the experience which we would be cherishing throughout our life. By the time all this finished, the teacher come to place and after exchanging “Sona” we asked them to permit us to display the mount boards on which the information of Chavand and Kukdeshwar was given. We were asked about the details of these mount boards and the moment we said to them that these boards have history and other details of the surrounding the History teacher was pleased and gave us the location where these mounts boards can be located and also assured us that he will take full responsibility of these boards and prevent any damage to them. We again felt like burdened under the warm gestures given to us by the village.
When we were discussing about the villagers we came across the fact that village also had an Ashram-Shala which had more than 250 students in it. We also noticed that for this amount of students, in a scorpio & snake prone area the only available health care centre was at Junnar. Principal of the school who also reached the scene educated us on the fact that it takes an hour to reach Junnar health care center which is merely 18 kilometers away. Thanks to the contractor who built this road
When the discussion was turned towards the fort, Principal told us that along with Shivneri, Shivaji-Maharaj also had resided on Chavand in his early childhood. But with no proof supporting this fact, it was hard for us to digest it.
Then we were asked by the history teacher to stay at his place, but we decided to stay in school so that we can have some interaction with students. The building where we deposited all our trekking gear was a college hostel & had 25-30 students staying there. Later we came to know that some of them were from villages near Thane, which indicates that, this area certainly got a substantial amount of recognition. This was yet another fact to make us realize the importance of development in this village.
After having our dinner in the veranda of the hostel, interaction with hostel guys was on agenda. While having some discussions one suddenly invited us for playing the game of Chess. Soon it was best player in the village who practiced the game daily for at least an hour against a poor fellow like me. After some time it was to my surprise that I had won the game. While the game of Chess was in progress Amey & Suhas were having discussion with other students. Amey was asking about the study plan of the students & Suhas was discussing the history/geography of the area with them
As the stars in the sky becoming brighter our batteries were getting dimmer & we decided to take rest for a day. Next day we got up early and started climbing the fort. Flower photography, Bird watching, Gossip continued as we neared the summit. The way was having some railings in between installed by a Forest Officer for the convenience of trekkers and villagers. A hearty thanks from all trekking community to this kind hearted officer.
The landscape from the top of the fort was idyllic Shivneri, Hadsar, Manikdoh dam, Jeevdhan & the plateau of Naneghat. Summit was fully covered by grass & -------------flowers with hardly any place to walk. But we still scrolled with the help of hostel friends which also accompanied us and guided us to all the places on the fort. The places one must see on the top of the fort are Pushkarni, seven cisterns, temple of Chamunda devi, and the caves on the north-west side of the fort. Along with these places there are lot many places with lesser importance, need to be attended during one’s visit.
After all this, we came back to the village where it was time to display the informative boards. After all this pleasure giving activities it was time to reach Kukdeshwar and on our way we met the Sarpanch of the village who was already aware of what we doing in school and appreciated us for the same. This appreciation gaves us tremendous amount of encouragement to continue with such kind of activities.After taking a promise about staying at his place when we will visit Chavand next time. He help us till the mainroad from where we marched towards Kukdeshwar.
Amey & Suhas distributed the books of history of forts and after handing the presentation file to the history teacher there was s demand for a photo ssession from the village kids.
Kukdeshwar was yet another aye opener about the efforts, needs to be invested by
Authorities & public regarding the protect of this ancient plus very spectal monuments. A S I has certainly tried to give justice in this temple, but the progress of work left us worried.
Any way summing up I would say that we had quenched our thirst for a perfect
Trek ( with all planned ctivities completed accordingly) ofcourse with a guilt of not being able to contribute the damage happening in fortof our eyes. If you have any information
About activities being done to save these monument . Please mail us at contact@ trekshitiz.com.
Harshal .R. Mahajan.
www.Trekshitiz.com.
Great description of the Chavand trekking experience. This has encouraged me to visit Chavand. One small suggestion is to also include more details about the climbing experience itself.
ReplyDeleteHope to see more such articles.
-Mahesh