Temples of old Mahabaleshwar

01.21.09
03:15 pm

Temples of old Mahabaleshwar

Old Mahabaleshwar is small. The buses stop right in the main gate. It is full of stalls selling touristy things. As you wander up the steps, you notice a number of old Hindu temples. They are made of the same dark stone I saw in Nasik. They are quite clean and lovely. It is a peaceful place.

One of the main temples is where 5 rivers originate - perhaps a sangam (meeting) of the 5 rivers. It is a holy place, I saw pilgrims praying and drinking the holy water flowing in this temple. There were two triangular windows up top. A column of sunlight through the window was the only source of light. When the light reflected off the oily film on the surface of the water, the individual sun rays looked as if they were dancing. It was beautiful.

If you walk up the steps behind this temple, you reach a higher ground from which you can see the village, the temples, and the ghats in the distance. There is a Hanuman temple up here and loads of big trees under which you can sit and soak up the view. On my way down, I wandered through the village, I found it to be quite clean. Only one discarded pepsi bottle and some plastic wrappers.

After walking around for a bit, I came back to the shops at the entrance and started chatting with a young woman who was running a shop:

me: what do people in this village do?
woman: mostly they own these shops. This is one of the shops that
her husband's family owns.
They also work in the strawberry fields
me: Are you from this village?
woman: No, I'm from Puna, I've been here for 3 years since marriage.
me: yes, but is your husband's family from here? The reason I ask
is because I found this place to be quite clean and I was wondering
if that's because most people in this village have
lived here for generations?
woman: Her husband did grow up in this area and their family is from
here.
Aapko yeh jagah saaf lagee (You found this place to be clean?).
me: I did find it quite clean, at least the areas that I wandered
through.
woman: I don't like the people here, they're not nice. I don't like the
place either, it's quite dirty.

me: amused by her perspective and our different views on this place.
I wish I had more time to chat with her about why she does
not like it. But there is a customer at her stall, so
I wish her well and continue on.

Old Mahabaleshwar is about 10km from Mahabaleshwar. There is a tourist bus run by MTDC that leaves the bus stand at 2:30pm, visits multiple view points in the area as well as the temples of old Mahabaleshwar, then returns around 7:00pm. It costs only INRs 72 so it is a good way to see the area. I wanted to be a little more independent so I just took the local bus around 1:30 PM and came to Mahabaleshwar. The return bus is around 5:30. Since I wanted to take a walk and wander around for a bit, that works for me. Currently I'm sitting in the patio of a Punjabi dhaba enjoying a cold drink.