Awesome Bidar

Bidar…the name has always attracted me; I do not know the reason why. Finally, my dream of visiting Bidar came true. On July 31, 2010, my friend Ashwin and Srirama called me and informed me that they are planning for Bidar and asked me whether I would be interested. They were little worried as I had just back to normal health after the bout of typhoid. Frankly speaking, I was little bugged with my routine schedule of home, work and then sickness. I wanted to break free from this routine and wanted to let go off myself and enjoy. Since my hubby, Shiv is also one traveling freak…so there were no second thoughts about making this trip. Before we embarked on this journey, we did a through search about the place, eatouts and whatever information we felt is important to know.

On August 01, 2010, Ashwin picked up Srirama and my family from our respective homes. The best part is that from my home location, Bidar is about 115 Kms. We left Hyderabad at 6 AM in the morning, all of us (Ashwin, Srirama, Shiv, my two little ones and I) bundled together in Hyundi Santro. It was nice to feel morning air and being a weekend the roads were empty. We could actually zip through at a comfortable speed.

We took the following route: Kukatpally > Madinaguda > BHEL > Patancheru > Sangareddy > Zaheerabad > Bidar. The route to Bidar was excellent, full of greenery and we enjoyed the drive. The four-lane route was awesome and the morning weather made us feel hungry. Though we had enough eatables, but we were really not ready to binge on them. While searching about information, we had found that on the way about 65 Kms from Hyderabad, there is a Haritha restaurant and we decided to make out pit stop there and have good breakfast. While I ordered breakfast for everyone, my kids (Aditya and Arjitha) along with Shiv, Ashwin and Srirama had a great time in the small play area that they have. Refreshed, we proceeded further.

As mentioned earlier the roads were awesome and we need to cross a jungle area before entering the Bidar town. When we entered Bidar around 10:30 AM, we saw that the roads were cleaner and well maintained, and on our right we saw the fort gate. We had planned all the places we wanted to visit – Water cave Temple – Narshimha Temple, Papanaashi temple – Shiva Temple, Bidar fort, Chaubara, Bahamani tombs, The Madrassa of Mohammed Gawan, Gurudwara, and then do some shopping for Bidriware.

Our first stop we made was at Sri Kshetra Jharni Narsimha temple – a water cave temple dedicated to Lord Narsimha. This temple is situated in a large cave below the Manichoola hills. To reach the entrance of the temple, we had to walk about 50 to 60 steps, and the valley in which this temple is situated is very beautiful. Since we traveled to this place after the rains, it was green all around and was very soothing to our nerves. We had to wade through waist deep water to get the darshan of Lord Narasimha. This temple is believed to the swayambu roopam of the Lord Narashimha and is very powerful.

This was an awesome experience for us, especially wading through chest deep water, with bats and owl hanging within the cave’s rooftop. It took almost 30 minutes to reach the main deity. One of the temple priests told us that one actually take seven turns to reach the Lord and I never realized this until I was told. Amazing fact….

Frankly, speaking I really do not know from where does the water enter this cave. It is believed that this perennial stream of water starts its journey from the foot of the Lord and it has been flowing for a pretty long time, and none of us knew from when.

After a good darshan, we came out and found a nice place to change our clothes, and then we started for the Gurudwara, also known Nanak Jhira Saheb. We started on the route to Gurudwara, but then we saw a board informing us about the Karanja Reservoir.

And as always we started for that place. Rather than taking the right turn for the Gurudwara, we went in straight. The route was so beautiful – full of greenery, you will not believe if I say we started to contemplate if we can get accommodation in the government bunglow, which was pretty close by to the reservoir. But the lady luck was not smiling at us, so we had to abandon our plan and be happy - enjoying the reservoir. We spent sometime there, took some snaps.

Then we started back towards Gurudwara, we asked an auto wala give us directions. But before the Gurudwara, we took a turn left to visit Papanaashi Temple - Shiva temple. We had to drive through that hill-like route to reach the Shiva temple. We stopped the car close to temple premises and then proceed to have darshan.

The legend goes that Lord Rama prayed here when he was coming back from Lanka. He was told that he needs to establish 12 lingas, as he had killed a Brahmin. So Lord Rama started doing that. When he came to this place, he found that Shiv Linga was already established. So he performed the puja here and went ahead...thats the reason it is called Papanaashi Temple.

We had good darshan and did the aatri and then we visited the Hanuman temple nearby and then started for Gurudwara, which is made of marble. Right in front of the Gurudwara, they have a nice water tank, for which the water from the Nanak Jhira (Water Spring) has been directed for pilgrims to have a holy dip.

It is believed that Guru Nanak, when he was touring the place down south, he stopped at Bidar, but when people complained about the scarcity of water. On hearing, about the water issue, Guru Nanak uttered ‘Sat Kartar' touched his wooden sandal, which he was wearing from a nearby hillock, and removed a stone. To the surprised and delight of all, unrest rain of clean sweet drinking water started gushing out.

We spent sometime at the Gurudwara, and then we proceeded to have a lunch. You would lot of chota chota dhabas in the vicinity of Gurudwara. But we decided to have at Rohit restaurant, which was vegan place. Food was excellent, but service was slow.

After lunch, we decided to cover the Bidar fort, Chaubara, Bahamani tombs, The Madrassa of Mohammed Gawan, and then do some shopping for Bidriware. The fort was awesome – 5.5 acres of the place. The entrance to fort itself is grand…You need to keep honking at each turn to avoid accidents

Most of the places inside the fort are kept under lock and key. We got hold of a guide, who showed us around and explained each and every thing. The guide who assisted us was a good one. He explained each and everything, and we found it a beautiful experience. For more information on Bidar fort, refer: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bidar_Fort

At the end of the fort, we tipped the guide handsomely and he seemed to be very happy. It took almost the entire afternoon and it was almost evening that we proceeded to Chaubara, and did some shopping. Chaubara – is a grand old clock tower. Take the right from there and you are in the area, where you would loads of Bidriware shops. We picked few things and we had to bargain a lot. The one thing that caught my attention was – intricate the work, more was the price for the article.

After all the day’s action and fun filled trip, we were exhausted and we decided to turn back to Home Sweet Home….Given a chance we would love to go again…esp to cover the fort again!!