A jumble of memories - Jabalpur

- by Sukanya

When monotony haunts and the need to break free becomes necessary, we three friends escape to some quick gateways to relax and have pure unadulterated fun.

This time in a similar dilemma, we decided on Jabalpur located in the heart of the country, Madhya Pradesh.

After a detailed research we got all set to explore this new destination and to spend some time together as the three of us work in separate organisations and live in different cities.

Bedhaghat

Jabalpur, has direct railway route to all major cities of the country and an airport, we found this ideal for our short and pocket friendly weekend trip. The city offers all range of hotels and resorts that fits every kind of budget.

Anyways, coming back to my experience of the city, I decided to go by train from Mumbai, which took me about 18 hours (you can get tickets on the train quite easily if you book a month or two in advance).

Excited to take a look around the city, we booked a taxi for the day from the Madhya Pradesh Tourism Office located at the Jabalpur Railway station itself.

With much anticipation we started for the most popular tourist site Bhedaghat. I had heard a lot about the place and was excited to experience it myself. Bhedaghat, one hour (approximately 20 km) from the city, enthralled us with its serenity and the famous marble rocks on river Narmada.

The real beauty of the marble rocks (they are more like mountains) is when you take a boat ride in the Narmada which follows a serpentine route in between the marble rocks, standing like walls on the sides of the river. We booked a boat ride for only three of us by negotiating with one of several boat pullers on the shore. However, there is also an option to go in groups with other fellow tourists on these boats.

As we sat in the boat and moved away from the shore, the serenity and beauty of the place took my breath away! I was enjoying the serene silence accompanied by the sounds of oars splashing the waters of river Narmada. To make the ride interesting and appealing to the tourists, the boat pullers (there were three in are boat as it’s quite a long ride) also turn into guides.  The guides’ commentary is lively and very entertaining and it helps you enjoy the rock formations. The Guide to make things more engrossing even quiz you to figure out things from the rock formations. The rocks hold some formations which the guide explains depict some scenes from Mahabharata. There is also a ‘shivling’ in middle of the river.

Spending over an one hour and enjoying the serenity and sheer grandiose of the place, my mind went to wander into an unknown place near semi consciousness.

A hot cup of chai and snacks on the banks of Narmada brought me back on earth and we left for Chausat Yogini temple, built in the 10^th century atop a hill.

 The beauty of the temple that houses sculptures of 64 (chaushat) lady devotees of Lord Shiva, cannot be described in mere words. The exquisitely carved store figures belonging to the Kaluchari period was worth the climb of about 150 steps. However several of them have been mutilated after the Mughals came to India.

Dhuandhar Falls

The temple has an open sky circular courtyard with the temple of Shiva and his consort Goddess Parvati in the middle.The panditji there told us that the Shiva Parvati idol in the temple is a  rare one that depicts the lord and his wife riding Nandi the Bull after their wedding. This rare idol was stolen and was later found buried in sands nearby and reinstalled recently.

After this we went to Dhuandhar waterfalls, in the outskirts of the city. The waterfalls, gushing down from a height of 10 meters, have originated from the river Narmada.

 The water falling on the rocks with a heavy gush, makes a roaring sound and also creating a mist or ‘Dhuan’, thus the name Dhuandhar. This picturesque beauty beholds you, engraving this nature’s wonder in your memory forever and compelling you to visit … again and again.

On the way back to our hotel, we halted at the eroded volcanic rock formation called the Balancing Rock that even survived in earthquake of 6.5 magnitude. But there is nothing else to linger at the sight.

 Tired from the train journey and the day-long sightseeing we headed back to our hotel, for dinner and a good night sleep. 

Next day after a heavy breakfast we visited the Rani Durgavati Museum in the city. The museum houses beautiful ancient sculptures, coins and trinkets worn by Gond tribes. The museum has a section that beautifully depicts the daily life of the Gond tribes and the story of Gond queen Rani Durgamati.

This was the last place to see on the itinerary of our Jabalpur sojourn. This journey was not just a tourist trip but also a get together of friends and left us with enough memories to enchant us for many days to come after that.