April 1, 2014
Present
day Nashik wears an urban set up catering all kinds of modern
amenities in terms of accommodation, education, health care and
entertainment. The city has already started preparing for the biggest
event of 2015 i.e. Maha Kumbhamela. Millions of people visit Nashik
at that time; it is not an easy task to manage such a massive crowd.
In fact, on the day that we had gone, the city was celebrating the
Chhat Puja event.
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| image courtesy: Prajna LS |
Chhat is
a Hindu festival in reverence of Sun God. It falls on the sixth day
of Kartik month (mostly in November after the celebration of
Deepawali) according to Hindu calendar. Not all Indians celebrate
this Puja; mostly people of Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Uttar Pradesh and
Jharkhand perform oblations to Sun standing in water.
That day,
there was a huge crowd at the banks of Godavari River in Nashik.
Devotees who celebrate Chhat had gathered there to perform the
ritual. It was already evening when we reached there. The place is
called ‘Ramkund’. Pavements and steps are built on either sides
of the river. Thousands of devotees coming from nearby places were
doing pujas holding the thalis of arati and the entire ambience was
filled with enthusiasm.
Before
that, we had taken a round of some other tourist sites of the city.
People who are familiar with stories of the Ramayana may remember the
instances related to Shri Rama’s exile in Panchavati. It was the
place where he had stayed along with Sita and Lakshmana. This ancient
Panchavati is now located in Nashik.
Visitors
can see various places related to Rama’s exile such as Sita’s
Cave, the Tapovan, Panchavati, Kalaram Temple and Ram-Sita temple.
All the sites have been recreated in accordance with the Ramayana
instances for the tourists. These sites are located near Ramkund. One
has to walk through the narrow streets skirted by old buildings of
the city to visit these sites. This part of the city can give you a
glimpse of old Nashik.
We missed
visiting one important place in Nashik, I regret. That is the Phalke
Memorial which is built in the memory of late Dadasaheb Phalke. Dada
Saheb Phalke is known as the Father of Indian Cinema who made the
first full length feature film of India named ‘Raja Harishchandra’
in 1913. Nashik was his home town where he breathed his last.
The
Phalke Memorial provides clippings from Phalkeji’s life and work.
A show comprising movie clippings would be shown in the evenings for
the visitors, we missed viewing that. We did not know about the show
timings, by the time we decided to go it was over.
Next day
morning, we left for Vani. Vani is located at about 75 km from
Nashik. It is the abode of Saptashrungi Mata, a powerful deity
situated amidst seven hills of the Sahyadri Mountain Range. Nanduri
Village is the nearest point to reach the hill temple. The temple is
located on a rocky hill. The village that is spread out around the
hill temple is known as Vani.
One has
to climb up to reach the temple. Thousands of devotees visit every
day it seems. The goddess is revered as one among the 51 Shakti
Peethas of India. You would walk through rows of shops selling all
accessories of the goddess. It was our taxi driver who had insisted
us to take a ‘darshan’ of the goddess.
We
returned to Aurangabad that evening itself by Jan Shatabdi. Ahhh…How
could we forget buying Khishmish (raisins) for home?! Nashik is one
of the highest grape growing regions of India.
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