Kaziranga...have to go

Gotto go to this place....just passed by in car and had a couple of sightings of lovely rhinos....no pics of those since they were too far away for my 2 megapixel, 1.4x zoom phone camera...

Regards,
Nishant (still travelling....)

Tripureshwari Temple - Udaipur, Tripura

You might feel that I am doing this blogs for the temples....thats not the case. Even though it was my third visit to Tripureshwari, it was one of the best. The temple has a pond near it. Some interesting things about it...beautiful fish (and loads of them as seen alongside) and turtles (which I did not see). The saying about the turtles is that when they near their death, they come into the temple which is almost 100 metres away and over a flight of around 40 stairs and then die in the temple's yard. At no other point in their lives do they go near the temple!

Other tidbits about the temple:

It is as important in Hindu religion as the Kamakhya temple having as much faith as Kamakhya.

The temple is the reason why the state has got the name of Tripura.

It is in a place called Udaipur which at one time used to be the center of economic and political activity in Tripura before Agartala took that place. Udaipur is around 2 hours drive from Agartala on lovely smooth roads going southwards. If you plan to go their, also take a visit to Sabrum (the southernmost point in Tripura) where you will get to see a palace of the earlier kings of Tripura. It is in middle of a huge lake.

A little bit on Tripura: It is predominantly bengali culture with fish being the staple diet. Their is a restaurant in Agartala which even serves Turtle meat. Delicious though a little bit hard! Bengali is the main language though the bengali spoken here is not the same as the one in West Bengal...Bangladesh surrounds Tripura on three sides. The place used to be very well off economically before the border between India and Bangladesh got fenced off. Now illegal trade happens across numerous points but actual trade is not that high. Rubber, tea and bamboo are primary cash crops along with pineapples which are grown during season. You will actually get one pineapple for 50 paise now after the border got closed since the demand has gone down.

Rest next time...

Ciao

Nishant

Camera Lost

btw....since i lost my lovely Canon....all the pics in my previous and some blogs to come will be taken by my 2 megapixel phone camera....kindly adjust!

Rgds,
Nishant

Bhubaneswari Temple

On my way from Udaipur towards a place called Killa inside the mountains, we stumbled across a piece of history that is famous as Bhubaneswari Temple. Udaipur is the third largest city of Tripura after Agartala and Dharmanagar. It houses some of the most famous temples in this state including the great Tripureshwari Temple which gives the state its name.

Bhubaneswari Temple built by Maharaja Govinda Manikya in the year of 1660A.D. is famous for its almost unique architecture where a tomb having a "Charchala" roof is constructed over an elevated platform or Stupa. The tomb once used to be crowned with gold covering which was later removed along with the idol inside and donated to some museum.

The place has some interesting history. This temple used to be have "narbali" (beheading of humans to appease god). Rabindranath Tagore also used to spend a lot of time in this temple and he actually used this temple as a backdrop of his notoriously famous drama "Bisharjan" as well as his novel "Rajarshi". Bisharjan had narbali as a huge topic which caused a lot of public debate. Narbali was then banned here and the place lost itself in the books of History. Fortunately, a lot of people still throng the place for prayers though the inside wears a deserted look.

Udaipur is around 2 hours journey by car from Agartala. Just ask anyone for the location to Bhubaneswari Temple and you can will be directed to this place in the middle of mountains. The place could actually become a haven for tourists looking to spend some time with themselves away from all the hue and cry of life.

Since I did mention....Killa where we were actually headed is a small tribal town further into the mountains which used to be notorious for lots of problems earlier including arson, dacoity etc. Now the place has improved though people still find it strange if someone comes over by car and visits the place.

Till next time....

Falcon Soars (Again!)