Monday, December 15, 2008

My Palitana Journey - part 01

First about Palitana :

PALITANA
Amongst all the Jain temples, Palitana temples are considered to be the most sacred. Palitana is a city, a municipality and former princely state in Bhavnagar district in the Indian state of Gujarat. Palitana is located 50 km South-West of Bhavnagar city and Palitana a major pilgrimage centre for Jains.

The Palitana temples are considered the most sacred pilgrimage place (tirtha) by the Jain community. There are more than 1300 temples in Palitana located on the Shatrunjaya hills, exquisitely carved in marble. The main temple on top of the hill of Palitana, is dedicated to 1st tirthankar lord Adinath (Rishabdeva). Above shown is the main temple of Palitana. we have to climb approximate 4000 steps to visit this temple.

About the Journey:

"We started our journey on 11th December 7:00 p.m from Mulund. We had a train to catch at Bandra Terminus at 9:30 p.m. for Palitana. The train was Bhavnagar Express. There is no railway station on the name of Palitana. For Palitana we have to get down at Songhad railway station. So we were there at Songhad at around 10:30 a.m. on 12 December. To reach to Palitana we caught a Tata Ace pickup vehicle. Palitana is roughly around 1 hour from Songhad. So we reached Palitana at a 12 noon. The journey was good as the raod were not bumpy and the vehicle was quite comfortable.

We had a reservation in NAND PRABHA PRASAD Dharmshala. It is a fantastic dharmshala and has one of the best and biggest Jain Temple in Palitana(other than the main temple). It was more of a 5 star hotel than a dharmshala.
The room where spacious and neat. It had a wardrobe and a Matka to drink water. Also the flooring was superb. Because it was pilgrimage time at Palitana we had to compromise with a external Washroom. But fortunately it was just for our room, and we had its lock and key.


On 12th we just relaxed and were just chilling around Palitana. The road we lived on was Taleti road Palitana. We visited a museum and some Video show. Also we visited near by temples. The place nearer to main Palitana temple, is full of dharmshalas. And every dharmshala had its own temple. I hardly saw any local residential houses. The local temples of the different dharmshala were also a art in itself. You can spend the whole day at every temple to just cherish its richness of the Sculpture.

On 13th morning we planned to visit the main Palitana temple of Adinath. It is located on a hill and we have to climb around 4000 steps for the main deity's temple. We started our journey at 7:00 a.m and reached there by 9:00 a.m. In Jain temple we are allowed to do Puja. Hence we have to take a bath in the temple premises and than wear the traditional clothes. It was a wonderful experience for me to see the Idols so close and do Puja. The image shown here is a view after climbing around 2000 steps. Shown here is a straight strip of steps which was much easier to climb. It took us 2 hrs to perform all the rituals. At 11:00 a.am we started or journey back towards our room. LET ME MENTION HERE SOME THING VERY RELIGOUS, WE ARE NOT ALLOWED TO EAT,DRINK,OR GO TO WASHROOM, FROM THE POINT WE START TO THE POINT WE END AT THE FOOT HILLS for the PALITANA main temple. We reached our room at 1:00 p.m. with almost our leg not obeying out brains command. It felt like we were not having any legs.

Rest of the parts will be covered in second part............................ "

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