11000 kms, 55 days, 9 states, glimpse of a foreign country - A mega road trip(2): Ellora and Ajanta

We embarked on a mega road trip starting on 19th March from our Mumbai residence in Chembur and reached back Mumbai on 12th May after clocking more than 11000 km on the road. But before I start telling the tales from this trip I would like to reply some queries we have often faced. So here are some pointers about our trips in the format of question and answers:

Do we make advance booking for accommodations: Not always. When we know the place as well as date we are going stay there and if it's a touristy place where finding an accommodation might be difficult, we book in advance. Or if we want to stay at a particular accommodation then we book in advance. But many a times we don't surely know the place where we are going to stay on a particular date as we like to keep our trip flexible. Besides, sometimes we make a night halt as per convenience and then we just check into a roadside hotel which seems good. At times we were pleasantly surprised to find very good hotels at places we expected least and at times we had to stay in hotels we would have rather not. We have learnt to adapt as a road trip cannot be planned ahead in details without losing the spontaneity which is the fun part. As a precaution we keep a set of bed linen with us in case we find the ones provided too offensive. Our Vehicle: It's a Honda BRV - a seven seater automatic transmission vehicle - 2016 model. 1497 cc, 119 bhp with a ground clearance of 210 mm. It's a petrol car with a mileage of around 14 km/l on highways. It is not 4 wheel drive but that has not caused us much problem even though it faced off-roading quite a bit, maybe due to it's ground clearance. We keep a jump start cable, air compressor and a puncture repair kit in the vehicle. Learning to keep ourselves equipped drawing lesson from each trip. How long do we travel in a day: Depends on the distance between the two consecutive places we want to visit. Generally we try not to travel for more than eight hours in a day and take breaks to straighten our limbs and break the monotony. But at times we have travelled up to ten hours or even more, especially if we did not find a suitable accommodation. What about food: We always try to taste the local cuisine and famous street food. Many people ask whether that does not create health issues. We try to maintain a balance by taking very simple food for at least one meal, having fruits and fresh juices. Besides, when having street food, we always choose the popular joints ensuring we get freshly prepared food. So far we have not faced major problem. How do we manage laundry: As we travel in our own vehicle, we can be quite generous with packing reducing the need for frequent laundry job. Whenever we stay at a place for more than a day, we take care of our laundry. And we do try to take a break for two nights after a gap of few days. The expenditure part: We are not very good at tracking expenditure. But in this trip I religiously recorded the rental expenditure along with the facilities provided to make it more informative. We try to not spend big rent for just an overnight halt and love to indulge on longer stays. I try to write reviews for all accommodations and eateries in Google with pictures which can be referred to if interested. I also tried to include major sightseeing expenditure if there is any.

We left Assam in October 2022 after taking early retirement from ONGC. It was almost one and half years and we wanted to celebrate Bohag Bihu / Assamese new year in Guwahati. There was a marriage in Jorhat during that time which we wanted to attend too. So we planned for this road trip to Assam covering few places in Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and West Bengal. After reaching Assam we planned to visit Mizoram and Meghalaya. Our first stop was Aurangabad.

For our Aurangabad trip details may please visit the post :

https://straightfrommyheartblog.wordpress.com/2024/05/18/11000-kms-25-days-9-states-and-glimpse-of-a-foreign-country-a-mega-road-trip-first-stop-aurangabad/

On the morning of 20th March checked out from Zostel at around 7:20 am and started with visiting Grishneshwar temple near Ellora caves.

Grishneshwar temple: The term Grishneshwar means the lord of compassion. Shiva is worshipped here as the Lord of Compassion who is believed to take away all the sufferings of his devotees. This temple is the smallest and twelfth of the 12 Jyotirlinga temples in India. Standing at 240 ft x 185 ft, the temple features a 5 tier shikara and a golden spire or a kalasha at the top. The temple displays a style of South Indian architecture and is very beautiful. The temple went through several rounds of rebuilding followed by re-destruction during the Mughal-Maratha conflict. It was rebuilt in the current form in the 18th century under the sponsorship of queen Ahilyabai Holkar of Indore. It has lots of sculptures, intricate carvings on its interior and exterior walls. A Jyotirlinga murti is situated in the Garbhgruh of the mandir and a large murti of Nandi is present in front of the main door. One has to deposit all electronic items at the entrance. Male visitors need to remove their upper clothes. It was not very crowded in the morning hours and felt peaceful.

After offering Puja, we had a refreshing drink of sugarcane juice and went to Ellora caves site at a distance of nearly 1 km and had breakfast in Modern Ellora restaurant.

Ellora Caves: Declared as UNESCO heritage site, situated at 29 kilometres north-west of Aurangabad, Ellora caves are a series of 100 magnificent rock cut temples of which 34 are open to Public extending over 2 kms. These consist of 17 Hindu (caves 13-29), 12 Buddhist (caves 1-12) and 5 Jain (caves 30-34) caves and were built during the Rashtrakuta dynasty (753-982 CE), which constructed part of the Hindu and Buddhist caves, and the Yadava dynasty (1187-1317 CE). The most remarkable is the cave no 16 known as Kailasha temple due to its size, architecture and having been entirely carved out of a single rock. It is a freestanding, multi-storied temple complex dedicated to Lord Shiva carved out of a single volcanic basaltic rock of the Charanandri hills and is considered as the largest monolithic piece of art in India as well as in the world. Carved from the top to bottom, every single design and measurement was planned very accurately as once its cut there was no chance to change it by adding any extra stone or piece of rock. Almost every inch of the interior structure contains intricate sculptures and carvings - elephants & victory pillars at the entrance, the image of Nandi, four sculptures of lions standing in a circle on the roof of Mahamantapa, elephant sculptures at the base of the temple, which gives the viewer an impression that the whole structure is being supported on the backs of these beasts. It is difficult to describe the beauty of the intricate work on such a massive scale. We wondered how could anyone destroy such beautiful works, no matter how hostile they might feel towards the kings.

After visiting the caves we had early lunch again in the same restaurant. Then we went to Daulatabad fort which is mid way between Aurangbad and Ellora.

Daulatabad Fort / Devagiri Fort : This historic fortified citadel located in Daulatabad village near Aurangabad sits atop a 200m-high craggy outcrop known as Devagiri (Hill of the Gods). Daulatabad was the capital of the Yadavas (9th century - 14th century CE), for a brief time the capital of the Delhi Sultanate (1327 - 1334) when Muhammad bin Tughluq shifted his imperial capital to the city from Delhi, and later a secondary capital of the Ahmadnagar Sultanate (1499 -1636). The fort is remarkable as it has many special features to confuse enemies and originally conceived as an impregnable fort with a moat surrounding it and multiple walls. Some special features are - there is no separate exit that is only one entrance/ exit; no parallel gates, complex arrangement of entry ways, curved walls, false gates etc. There is a dark passage called Andheri Pass which is the lone route to reach the vertex of the fort. The climb to the summit quite an arduous trek as the fort was designed to be difficult to access.

The fort did not seem to be well looked after and no guide was available when we reached there at around 12:30 pm. We purchased a guidebook which was erroneous.

After visiting Daulatabad Fort we started to Ajanta caves. On the way seeing a road sign stating Ajant View Point, we took a detour of 8 km and reached this upper level Ajanta view point offering a panoramic view of all the caves. The point seems to be under development with new infrastructure under construction. There is a stairway to visit the caves from the view point. It does not lead to the main entrance and not many tourists take this route. We met a beggar coming up from cave and came to know from him that villagers of the nearby villages going to the caves for attending their jobs use this route. We did not take the route as it was late to visit the caves.

We went to the MTDC resort near Ajanta caves looking for accommodation. There is a parking place with a market complex. There we came to know that we will have to take shuttle bus service from the parking place to visit the caves and the caves open only at 9 in the morning. In MTDC resort we were told that there were no rooms available even though it looked like there were no guests. We went to nearby Fardapur market area and checked into Hotel Aryadeep. For a place like Fardapur, it exceeded my expectation. Location is very convenient as it is near the parking place from where one needs to get the shuttle service to Ajanta caves. The room is neat and clean with all basic amenities in place with a rental of 2300 INR. There is no room service for dinner, but they serve tea snacks in the room. There is a restaurant on the ground floor but they served us dinner at the first floor restaurant / conference hall as ground floor restaurant is open to all. Food was okay and reasonably priced. Staff is very polite and helpful.

On the morning of 21st March we checked out from Hotel Aryadeep at around 9 am after breakfast. Caught the shuttle from the Ajanta cave parking point. The shuttle drops at the base of the caves. After that it is walking and climbing to visit the caves.

Ajanta caves: The Ajanta Caves were carved out of granite cliffs on the inner side of a 70-foot (20-metre) ravine in the Wagurna River valley 105 km northeast of Aurangabad, at a site of great scenic beauty. There are 30 rock-cut Buddhist cave monuments dating from the second century BCE to about 480 CE categorized into Chaityagrihas (temples) and Vihar (monasteries). Some temples constructed by Mahayan followers of Buddhism have idols of Buddha and others constructed by Hinayan followers of Buddhism don't have idols. They were designed to spread Buddhist doctrine via the pilgrims, monks, craftsmen, and merchants who traveled in the region. These caves are located adjacent to one another and smaller making it much easier to visit the caves compared to Ellora caves. The caves are numbered serially in order of their location. We could cover all the important caves in around two hours enjoying the awe-inspiring craftsmanship in creating those sculptures and paintings. Although the sculptures are noteworthy, it is the fresco-type paintings depicting colourful Buddhist legends and divinities are the chief interest of Ajanta. The Ajanta caves are engulfed in darkness which intensifies the experience at Ajanta, demanding the viewer's undivided attention.

We went to the pick up point of the shuttle service and enjoyed some fruits sold by the villagers on the way. Met the beggar from last afternoon and exchanged greetings like old acquaintances. While waiting for the shuttle service at the pick up point met a family from Madhya Pradesh. I was very glad to hear from the daughter of the family that she had visited Meghalaya recently and loved the water falls she visited there declaring those to be the most beautiful ones she had ever seen.

After reaching the Ajanta caves parking space we drank lemon juice to cool down and started to Lonar to see the crater lake there at around 12:45 pm.