‘moments of peace’ – I

Saturday morning we reached Kurduwadi Station from Siddeshwar Express. After a quick breakfast, we left for Karmala Village. We got fresh at a friend’s place there and finally walked towards our first spot – Kamlabhavani Temple.

Locally known as Devicha Maal, is one big space full of gods, goddesses and their many tales. From the moment I entered this temple and began exploring each small room of every God, it kept occurring to me how strikingly similar this temple is to Brihadeshwar Temple in Tamilnadu.

But what caught my eye were two stone bells. These were kept on a wooden table in the corridor. These bells had something written on them. I couldn’t decipher what was written. One of my friends could read some bits of it but we couldn’t make sense of all lines written on it.

 

We took a video of both the bells properly to figure what was written later. Now we walked ahead and reached the famous well that has the shape of a key. Unlike my cousin, who hates steps, I like them. Not climbing them of course, but running down. Every time I look at beautiful steps, a voice in me says, run!

And the steps to this well made me do just that. I held the hand of a friend who is afraid of walking down steps and made him run down all ninety-six steps till the well. Then we both stood still and tried to absorb the beauty of the place.

We walked from the sides to the centre of the well. Until now I felt the shape of the well was a hexagon. But now as I saw it properly, I figured it had not six but eight sides, it was an octagon!

I clicked photos from the centre and then just sat there for a minute. The view of the steps, the depth of the well, the shape of it, the crisp finishing, the placement of the well… I looked at my friend, he was quiet and observing. This well had drowned us both into thoughts.

We walked up and took photos of the well from the top. I walked towards a temple structure next. There was a shivling in the centre accompanied by an uncle sleeping in the coolness of the stone structure.

A friend made me notice how the top was actually fit on the pillars. He noticed a gap and pointed it to me. This perhaps says that the pillars were constructed and the top was placed over it. In awe, I moved towards the dome structure in sight.

I noticed a shivling right in the centre. I took two good videos of the place. But, only later I noticed the marvel of the structure thanks to a friend. A beautifully carved dome with few colours of the carvings still intact had a shivling in the centre. Two different worlds merged in one structure!

 

Now we climbed up one of the temple entrance. It was a damp walk up to a beautiful view. The village, the temple, the well, all the other structures were all in one frame of our eyes. No panorama shot can ever give the feel of this moment back to me. Though my and Sanish’s crazy selfie attempts with all the structures we could see from the top will be a hearty reminder of this place.

When I came down, I sat there in one place quietly for long. In a span of hours, there was so much grandeur I saw that it was hard to believe the moment I was living. I registered everything I saw, kept thinking of all the questions that were churning in my head.

My group went up, saw the view, clicked photos in every possible angle and walked down. I sat there, one by one all went down, and it was time I went down too. In the chaos of the group, sitting amidst the aura of many centuries, I found my little moment of peace.

We now headed to the Shani Mandir, Pothare well. The well didn’t look too big compared to the area around it. We walked up and one of us noticed a secret passway going in. She called us there and then the exciting part began.

We walked down and noticed shivlings at two places. The Mandir pandit helped us see a Samadhi and another shivling through a different secret pass way. We had entered from a different place and came out from a different place. From the outside, no one can even imagine the uniqueness of the passways below.

 

At the backseat of the vehicle, I sat with all the questions. Who made this temple the way it is? Why were idols and a samadhi hidden in pass ways as such? What equipment did they have to make such an architectural marvel?

With many more unanswered queries floating in my head, I got down of the vehicle. We all headed to a well on the outskirts of Karmala fort. A local showed us a similar well on the other side of the road. We then visited a Mahadev and a Vithal Temple.

Now we walked towards the famous seven wells of the Karmala Fort. It turned out to be one big water body and which perhaps had all seven wells in it. Everyone clicked pictures of the many pretty frames around.

 

As I walked towards our vehicle, I noticed a huge neem tree. I gave my phone away to my cousin and just embraced the mighty neem. If I had time, I would climb on it, sit there for hours sharing about my day but I tried to say it all in that one silent hug. The cool breeze made our conversation complete.

After a journey of more than an hour, we reached our next spot planned – Paranda Fort. An interesting fact of this fort is, it never faced a battle in history but perhaps was used as armoury storage. This fact can be inferred by the number of cannon and cannon balls found in this fort.

Middle of the day summer heat was eating up my will to explore the uniqueness of the structure. We had forgotten to carry water from our vehicles and I wished to just give up. And never does that happen, I kept walking with the group, tried to notice the place well and like a blessing, water appeared. The beautiful mosque in the fort had some water kept for people like us. I drank to my heart’s content and promised myself to explore the rest of the fort with more efforts.

 

Among the many unique features this fort, my favourite is – the trench that surrounds all four sides of the fort. This deep trench is believed to have had crocodiles living in them. During the entire time walking through the fort, watching each curve, carving, corridor, door, I kept imagining how did the crocodiles live? How must be that feeling to spot crocodiles around you for your safety?

We finished exploring and landed at Hotel New Milan just outside the fort. The lassi at this place is a must try. I am not so much a foodie but I can still say that I have never had a better lassi anywhere else. Refreshed, we headed to Mankeshwar next.

Second part coming up next week.
Pictures from this trip @nisha_navgire on Insta soon!