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A brief business trip to Agra culminated in my seizing an opportunity to visit the most magnificent structure built on earth in the name of “love for one’s beloved”! It was a drive of 200 kms on the Delhi-Faridabad highway to Palwal – Mathura and then finally Agra. The best option is parking ones car in one of the shopping complexes(for me it was Sanjay Place, which was the venue for my meeting), and taking a cab or an auto to the Taj. Navigating through the narrow and crowed streets of Agra, which reminded me of our Chandni Chowk in Delhi, it was unbelievable that the destination was such a majestic monument, actually one of the elegant jewels of India.

The breath taking elegant Taj Mahal

Orchha, is a charming village on the banks of river Betwa, a prominent river system in the Bundelkhand region. For those who are not familiar with Bundelkhand, this is the region which lies in the central most part of India, occupying southern region of UP and northern region of MP. Prominent cities include, Jhansi, Hamirpur, Chitrakoot, Banda, Chattarpur, Khajuraho, Panna, Tikamgarh, Sagar to name a few. The economy is mostly farming and little bit of tourism, mostly due to world renowned Khajuraho temples and Orchha, which is fast picking up as a major tourism attraction and is en-route to Khajuraho. I primarily belong to Bundelkhand region, and as a child growing up here, I have been to most of these places, but among all, Orcha is my favorite. It’s located on the banks of a beautiful river, famous Ram temple, Forts (with Bundeli and Mughal influence), national park and nice resorts.

Sunset at banks of river Betwa
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(recap)
The sun rose from our right. Suddenly, we heard a langur call incessantly followed by a cheetal. Corbett didn’t say a word he just gave me directions and I followed them. We went past the Dhikala FRH towards east took the Ramsingh road and then we heard an unmistakable cheetal call at regular intervals moving further east towards Champion road beyond and north of Khinnanauli FRH. Just before the FRH and on the left where the Ramganga flows, we spied a herd of Cheetal. Tense and necks strained towards the other bank lined by thick elephant grass. Stilled by fear and their snouts sniffing the wind for something close by. We stopped and waited — our cameras ready…

The Ramganga
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This is part 2 of my visit to Chitrakoot and contains a brief of my visit to the many shrines that dot the district. Part 1 of my visit or the Road Review can be found here. Karwi Railway station is named Chitrakoot Dham. However the actual Chitrakoot is about 5-6 km before Karwi when approaching from Banda. The religious shrines are spread over the town on both sides of the UP – MP border. Since I am not an expert on the Hindu religion I am going to be quoting a lot from Wikipedia, so do bear with me. The photographs though are all mine.The important shrines include the Ramghat, Kamadgiri, Bharat Milap, Janaki Kund, Sati Anusuya ashram, Sphatic Shila, Gupt-Godavari, Hanuman Dhara and the Bharat Koop.

I started my visit with the origin of the Paisuni River or the Mandakini as it is locally called which is pretty much the life line of Chitrakoot and on the banks of which are many of the shrines and ashrams. The origin is located about 50 – 55 kms south of Chitrakoot nearer to Manikpur. It is formed from a massive gorge which then empties into another gorge and the River is on its way. The Mandakini must have been a pretty ancient river judging by the volcanic looking rock formations on that gorge and the literal force of water that must have carved those gorges over thousands of years. As you look down them you can almost feel the Mandakini thundering down.

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