The last time I visited Bhopal was during my JICA days, in the early 2000s. My projects were far fron the city, in Sagar, Damoh and Tikamgarh districts. This meant my usual hotel - Jehan Numa Palace - was only a stopover for rest and recuperation from the long road journeys.
During those days I remember visiting the usual touristy places in the city - the newly built Bharat Bhavan, the lovely Van Vihar zoo along the banks of the Upper Lake, and, of course, a drive across the Tropic of Cancer to Sanchi and Vidisha, on my way to the northern districts. It was a nice but sleepy city - not a place one would like to visit often.
This time, two decades later - I saw a city that had been transformed. More lakes, better infrastructure, and a more happening place. The area around the lakes have been beautifully developed with gardens, boating-clubs, lovely roads snaking along the banks. The old city is of course crowded and dirty as it used to be, but the rest of the city looks cleaner and nicer with its new roads, gardens, flyovers, malls, a new airport, and many lovely museums!
Reaching there was a breeze. Thanks to the uncertainties of air-travel in winters (and the recent Indigo cancellation-fiasco), we took an overnight train (Dakshin Express) from Nizamuddin to Bhopal. The highlight of this trip was the seemingly miraculous recovery of an iPad which we had forgotten under one of the pillows. We realised the loss about an hour later after we had tucked in lots of poha-jalebi and chana-batura from the famous Manohar Dairy & Restaurant. Through the cries of despair and loss (the tab had four years of BTech notes), we connected with the Indian Railway helpline (139) and the new RailSewa app.
Amazingly there was a follow-up call from the Railway Police within a few minutes and the iPad was found and handed over to officers at the next station, Itarsi, which was about a 100km from Bhopal. By evening the tab and its teary, grateful owner were happily united! :)
Now that a potential kill-joy had been averted, we were able to immerse ourselves in the sights, sounds and wonders of Bhopal and the ancient lands along the Betwa river.
Museums
The new Tribal Museum is no doubt the best thematic museum have seen in India. The main building itself is beautifully designed around a central amphitheatre, with every wall, hallway, nook and corner lovingly decorated with various tribal art forms. One of these hallways leads you to a cluster of "tribal houses" that tell you how each of the major tribes in MP designed their living spaces using mostly mud but also in locally available sandstones. As our luck would have it we were visiting on a Sunday when the whole building was live with rhythms and songs of different tribal groups performing in the central amphitheatre.
On weekends the museum canteen (again the prettiest i have seen) serves thali's from each region. I treated myself to a wholesome missi-roti thali which came with a jackfruit (katthal) curry, a kadi, saag and pickles followed by a plate of mahua-jalebis - Delicious!
Sanchi Stupa
Sanchi is on the banks of the Betwa river. As you go downstream and north-eastwards, it meets the Halali river at Vidisha. On the narrow strip of land between these two rivers is the white sandstone hillock of Udaigiri.
Further north-east the Betwa marks the border between Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh, and feeds two large reservoirs created by two dams - the Rajghat Dam Reservoir, and the Matiala Dam. From here the river broadens out and flows past the historic cities of Orchha (near Jhansi) for about 300km before it joins the Yamuna river at Merapur Dariya (UP)
Two decades ago, Sanchi was a lonely hill next to a small village with the railway line running in the the distance. There were hardly any hotels to stay and the famous stupa hd just a few disinterested staff at the ticket-counter. There were hardly any signboards and you could walk around wherever you wanted. I remember sitting next to the beautifully carved pillars of Stupa-2 (200m downhill from the main stupa) and watching the trains snake around the hills on the plains below.
Now the whole place was super-crowded. Busloads of schoolchildren, tourists from all over India, and a few foreigners. What a contrast from my visit about two decades ago when this holy site had only a few Indian tourists, some pilgrims from Southeast Asia and lots of visitors from Europe and USA.
UDAIGIRI CAVE TEMPLES
This first thing I noticed here was a beautifyl white-trunked tree clings to the steep rockface over the main entrance to Udaigiri caves. The guards told me that this was the Kulu Vruksh (Sterculia urens). It is also called Bhutya - the Ghost Tree - because that is exactly what it looks like on moonlit nights!
Udaigiri is home to one of the oldest surviving Hindu temples with the earliest known sculptures of Ganesha and Mahishasura-Mardini. For all its fame this site seemed poorly designed and maintained. You approach Udaigiri from the south on a narrow road separating the hills from the village. The parking lot and ticketing office is at the far end, and from here you need to walk back along the same road (this time inside the fence) on an uneven footpath to see the cave temples and sculptures.
The most beautiful Varaha-Bhudevi sculpture is on a cave wall that is just about two meters from the boundary wall. On top of this space constraint you have a thick wooden barricade that prevents you from taking in the full view of the magnificent panel. As if this were not bad enough ASI has also blocked the view to the oldest Anantashayana sculpture with a wall of plastic venyl that is so dirty that you can barely see the sculpture behind it.
BHIMBETKA
This place is surreal. On the walls of caves carved by the elements millions of years ago you have an entire complex of rock niches and shelters that served as home to people who lived 12,000 years onwards!
BHOJRAJ TEMPLE
A massive, incomplete temple that stands next to what was once the largest lake in central India. What a sight it must have been in those days!
The present temple is the result of a great renovation effort by the ASI. It seems when the temple was originally found, the roof had collapsed and split the massive Shivalinga. The roof was subsequently reconstructed albeit partially.
Why did Hoshang Shah destroy the Bhojpur dam in the 1400s?
REFERENCES -------------
. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hoshang_Shah
. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prabandha-Chintamani -- Sanskrit-language collection of prabandhas (semi-historical biographical narratives). It was compiled in c. 1304 CE, in the Vaghela kingdom of present-day Gujarat, by Jain scholar Merutunga
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhojpur,_Madhya_Pradesh
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mihira_Bhoja - Mihira Bhoja's epithet was Srimad-Adivaraha (the fortunate primeval boar incarnation of Vishnu) -- adivaraha dramma billon coins
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teli_ka_Mandir
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sterculia_urens
