DevPrayag - beginning of mighty, holy River Ganga

DevPrayag, is a holy place, where two beautiful rivers - Alakananda & Bhagirathi meets.
This merger plays an important role in the forming one of the mightiest rivers on earth. From here onwards, this sacred river is known as "Ganga".
In this picture, River Bhagirathi, seen in light green colored & River Alakananda is brownish.

I have been lucky to visit this place twice. First time, when I was studying class 7. Back then River Bhagirathi was also brownish in Color! Now it is looks clear & has turned in to light green color.
Are you thinking, I am cooking some sort of story here?
Well, no! This color change is due to Tehri Dam built recently across River Bhagirathi.

River Bhagirathi begins its journey in Gaumukh(also pronounced as Go-Mukh). Gaumukh, is considered as birth place of holy Ganga river. But, until this river reaches DevPrayag, it is referred as "Bhagirathi" and not Ganga.

River Alakananda is considered to rise at the foot of Satopanth & Bhagirath Kharak Glaciers.

DevPrayag is amongst "Pancha Prayag" or Five Confluences of River Alakananda. From this point onwards, Ganga still has more than thousand kilometer journey to reach Bay of Bengal.

Baijanath Mandir, Baijanath

053/366 Introduction to Baijanath, Himachal Pradesh would have been more apt during Dasara.

Baijanath is located on the banks of River Binwa (tributary of River Beas) in Kangra Valley. This place is to the east of Dharmashala. Baijanath town has famous temple of Lord Shiva - Baijanath/Vaidyanath. This temple has many scripts written in 'Sharada' style and it depict that 'Baijnath' was earlier known as 'Keeragraama'. As per the script, this temple was built in 1204 A.D.
Temple built in typical North Indian Nagar style, has 'Vaidyanath' as main deity. West facing temple contains 4 pillars in the center. Attractive idol of Ganesha is on to the left of main entrance. Temple wall contains attractive statues of Subramanya, Kali, Parvati etc.

I would like to share on interesting info about this town.
Most of us are familiar with 'Rama-leela' event performed during Dasara festival in North India.This is an event in which, people create dummy idols of Ravana, Kumbhakarna & Meghanada and burn them to celebrate the destruction of evil. But this town does not celebrate this, because people belive that, Ravana did penance in this place to please Lord Shiva. Couple of times, people of this town tried to break this custom by attempting to start 'Rama-leela'. But, each such event ended up in some kind of mishap. Hence, people stopped celeberating 'Rama-leela' here.

Baijanath, surrounded by hills is indeed an interesting place to visit.

Kote Varadaraja Swamy Temple, Satyagala

052/366 Kote Varadaraja Swamy Temple at Satyagala

Satyagala (also known as 'Sattegala') is in Kollegala taluk, Chamarajanagar District, Karnataka. Located 6km away from Madhya Ranga, is considered to be holy place for Sri Vaishnavas.
Main deities in the temple are 'Varadaraja Swamy' and 'Perundevi'(Lakshmi). Along with main deities, revered saint Vedanta Desika(1269–1370)'s sannidhi is in the temple.
Sri Vedanta Desika is also known as re-incarnation of the divine bell of Lord Vishnu. He is often referred as "Ghantaavataara".

When Muslims attacked Srirangam Temple, Vedanta Desika travelled along the banks of River Kaveri, Sri Vedanta Desika stayed in Satyagala for 12 years and wrote many books during his stay.

Read more about Vedanta Desika here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vedanta_Desika

Har-ki-pauri, Haridwar

045/366 Group of elder women lit "diyas" on the banks of River Ganga, Har-ki-pauri @ Haridwar

Ganga Arathi is very famous in Haridwar and one can lit diyas placed in tiny boats made of leaves containing flowers. Devotees leave these tiny diya boats in River Ganga every evening and pray Maa Ganga. — at Har ki pauri,haridwar.

Saaketh - Birthplace of Lord

041/366 Saaketh - Birthplace of Lord

This Hindu religios city, which is very famous for Lord Rama's birth looks very ancient even now. City located in the banks of River Sarayu chants Rama all the time. Even in current modern times, citizens of here of all ages watch Ramayana, which was televised by Ramanand Sagar!
It was surprising to see small kids glued to TVs running Ramayana.
Most people seem to earn bread in the name of Lord Rama here till date.

This heritage city, which was capital of Raghu Vamsa, unfortunately has not caught up in development(true for many UP towns). Most buildings still look very old. Apart from Rama Janmbhoomi, other heritage places to visit are Dasharath Mandir & Kanak Mandir.

PS: Saaketh is ancient name for Ayodhya. Lord Rama is known as "Saaketha Raja".

125 temples, Jyotirlinga - Jageshwar

034/366 Jageshwar, Uttaranchal

Jageshwar, temple lies in ancient route to Kailash Manasa Sarovar.
It is said that, Adi Shankaracharya came here and re-established the sanctity of these temples.

This place is unique and contains around 125 temples and are of different size and shape. These temples is said to be built between 7th century to 18th century AD.
Main temple contains Jageshwar(also called as Yogeshwar). Dieties in other temples are Mrutyunjaya, Nava Durga, Surya, Kalika, Lakshmi, Pushti Devi etc.

It is said that, Katyuri Rulers(7th-14th century AD) & Chand Dynasty(15th-18th Century AD) restored these temples & worshipped here.

People here consider that this is amongst 12 jyotirlingas, instead of Nageshwara, which is in Gujarath.

Jageshwar is 37km from Almora, Uttaranchal

Naina Devi Mandir, Nainital

029/366 Nainital, a beautiful hill station earns its name from eye-shaped lake called Naini Lake.
"Nain"(or Nayan in Sanskrit) means eyes, "taal" means lake, resulting in name "Nainital".

In the northern part of lake(called as 'Mallital'), Naina Devi Mandir is situated.
It is believed that The Naini Lake is one of the 64 Shakti Peeths, or religious sites where parts of the charred body of Sati (Parvati) fell on earth while being carried by Lord Shiva. The spot where Sati's eyes (or Nain) fell, came to be called Nain-tal. The goddess Shakti is worshipped at the Naina Devi Temple.

In pic, devotee worships Lord Shiva Linga installed in Naina Devi Mandir early morning.

108 Streams, Salvation at Muktinath

028/366 Muktinath, Nepal

This place is highly revered for Hindu Vaishnavas(devotees of Lord Vishnu). As name of this place suggests, it is believed that one attains Salvation if this holy abode is visited.
It is said that, famous Indian philosopher, saint Sri Ramanujacharya(1017AD - 1137 AD), who spread the devotion to Lord Vishnu, installed main deity here.
Main deity is made of Saligrama Shila. There is beautiful statue of Ramanujacharya in this temple.

Temple is surrounded with 108 water springs & water falls through Cow shaped structures(seen in pic). There are two ponds in front of temple.

Muktinath is also called as 'Chumig Gyatsa', which means 'hundred waters' in Tibetean language. This place is considered to be sacred even for Buddhists and is one of 24 Buddhist Tantric Places.


This temple is situated at an elevation of around 12200ft & gets covered with snow during winters.

More info: http://www.muktinath.org/

Gandaberunda, Keladi

026/366 When I was kid, I was extremely fascinated with this two headed bird seen on red buses plying in Bangalore/Karnataka.
Later on I realized that, there were many many Kannada rulers, who ruled different parts of Karnataka, were also fascinated with this imaginary bird "Gandaberunda" just like me!
List of dynasties which used 'Gandaberunda' Symbol includes Kadambas, Chalukyas, Hoysalas & few Vijayanagar rulers like Nandyals & Gobburis.

Gandaberunda seen in this pic is found in ceiling of Keladi Rameshwara Temple in Shivamogga District.
This beautiful stone carving depicts might of this bird by holding lions in two heads and elephants in its feet.

Currently, Gandaberunda is part of official State symbol of Karnataka.

Mythologically, Gandaberunda is linked to Narasimha Avatara of Lord Vishnu.
You can read very interesting story about "Gandaberunda" & another imaginary animal "Sharabha" here.

Keladi is situated 6km North of Sagara, Shivamogga District, Karnataka.

Shesha Shayana Maha Vishnu, Budhanilkantha

023/366 Ok! This was one of my "dream come true" moments...
I first saw this beautiful Shesha Shayana Maha Vishnu's lovely statue in a travel show 'musafir hoon yaron' in Star Plus hosted by Deepti Bhatnagar many years back. Ever since I saw this huge 18 feet statue of Lord Vishnu on TV, I wanted to visit this place...

And what I saw in reality was more mesmerizing than what I saw in TV...
Beautiful calm face of Vishnu is seriously infectious!

Lord Vishnu is known as "Budhanilkantha" is also located in place called Budhanilkantha, which is situated 10km north of Kathmandu.
Though exact date of this statue is unknown, it is believed to be at least 1300 year old as inscription dated 641 AD by Vishnu Gupta is found in this area.
This beautiful statue is set in the middle of pond and Lord Vishnu appears to float on water.

Since main deity is in horizontal position & is surrounded by water, preist has to walk over the statue to decorate, which probably is unique in the world!

Legend
Legend has that King Suryaketu had it constructed during his reign but it lay buried for many centuries after an earthquake. Later, King Dharmagat saw the image and the location of the Budhanikantha in a dream and he excavated the ground. The people believe that the excavation caused the unparalleled image small damage on its nose. Others believe it was an old farmer(buddha in hindi) who discovered the image while working on his field.

For beautiful pics & more info:
http://sacredsites.com/asia/nepal/budhanilkantha_statue.html
http://www.trailblazertrekking.com/budhanilkantha.htm

Swayambhunath Stupa, Kathmandu

This beautiful Stupa(Place of worship for Buddhist) was built in the beginning of 5th Century AD by King Maana Deva(464-505AD).

Lord Buddha's eyes(known as Wisdom eyes) are painted in all four directions on a cubical structure placed above the dome, symbolizes omniscience(all-seeing), below which Nepali number "1" is painted representing Unity.

According to Swayambhu Purana, the entire valley was once filled with an enormous lake, out of which grew a lotus. The valley came to be known as Swayambhu, meaning "Self-Created." The name comes from an eternal self-existent flame (swayambhu) over which a sūpa was later built.

Legend says that this lovely place was also visited by Emperor Ashoka in 3rd Century BC and built a temple in same place, which was later destroyed.
Although the site is considered Buddhist, the place is revered by both Buddhists and Hindus. Numerous king Hindu followers are known to have paid their homage to the temple, including Pratap Malla, the powerful king of Kathmandu.

Another photo from this place is here, which speaks about "Mani Wheels" of Buddhism...this is another favorite photo of mine..

For more info