Visit to Bhuleshwar Temple, near Pune

Location: near Saswad, Pune, Maharashtra, India
Attractions: Shiv temple
Best time to visit: Anytime (evening time preferred by me)

10th August 2013, Day-tour to temples continue...

After visiting Sangameshwar temple,We headed towards the last spot of the day Bhuleshwar temple.

Route:
From Sangameshwar temple reach the Saswad junction (hardly 1km) via Narayanpura road. Take left at junction and in next 50-100 meters take right turn, you will see Purandar high school on your left side in next 50 meters. Keep driving on this road for ~9-10Kms, you will reach the junction at which you need to drive straight skipping left and right turns. Keep driving on this road, you will cross railways and in next 6-7Kms Bhuleshwar temple will be visible on your left side.

Total distance from Saswad to Bhuleshwar is ~30Kms.

You can drive all the way up to the temple. Be careful at the end, while climbing up last two steep turns.

Other route:
Get on the Pune-Solapur highway via Hadapsar. Drive for ~35-40Kms, take right to get on the road going to Yevat. Keep driving on this road, cross the ghats and temple will be visible on you right side after ~9-10Kms from Yevat.

 
Bhuleshwar temple:

Bhuleshwar temple

There was something there in this temple which started attracting me the moment I had glimpse of it while we were 3-4Kms away from it and driving towards it. This well shaped temple with three domes was the only distinct thing (with annoying Tower besides it) on that tall hill. We drove all the way up to the temple, parked bike and rushed towards the entrance. 

The first thing that grabbed my attention was the big bell just in front of the main entrance. Shining bell with blue sky in background looked amazing. Then I entered in to the temple, It was really dark inside. I could not see anything except one more small entrance. I got in there and took couple of steps on my left to climb up. And when I got up I saw the thing never seen before. The ancient dark beauty, the magnificent Bhuleshwar temple. This entire temple is carved in the black rocks, and is believed to be standing there since 13^th century.

There was a huge black Nandi (famous bull of lord Shiva) in front of the main entrance. Its broken mouth seemed to be fixed using metal sheet wrapped around it. We moved inside to get blessings of lord shiva. Shiv-linga was different there, instead of regular oval stone, it was a metallic idol of lord shiva's head with metallic snake wrapped around it. There were couple of brass lamps which illuminated this entire metallic setup to look divine in that sacred darkness. 

This temple has lot of sculptures carved on the walls. Unfortunately almost all of these sculptures are broken (rather destroyed). But trust me whatever I saw was still looking great and will appeal you to think how beautiful they must have been when they were carved. These sculptures looked like of some dancers or musicians of that era. There was a broken idol of goddess Kali with scorpion in the belly and snakes wrapped around her (second pic from left below). I did not find sufficient light to capture the crisp photographs but still managed to get some good shots.

Broken sculptures on the walls of Bhuleshwar temple

As I walked towards the back of the temple I could see light coming through the openings, up at the top, and that was the only source of natural light in the temple.

The view of walls getting illuminated by this light was amazing. I was totally lost in those sculptures. I felt as if every single sculpture had a something to tell and they may come alive at any point of time. Just imagine how magnificent that era must be, and how great those artists must be who did the wonderful job of bringing life to these rocks. 

View of walls from the back of the temple

Me and my friend captured almost every visible sculptures around us there on the walls.

When I looked up on the walls at the back area of temple I found carvings of gods done there. I could easily identify Ganesha. Surprisingly female form of lord Ganesha.  

I really did not want to get out of that place, we spent more than one hour inside the temple but still I was not satisfied and wanted to spend some more time in that mysterious environment created by those half bodies on the walls around us. But later on when it got really dark and sculptures started hiding themselves in the darkness we decide to move out.

This temple has architectural significance as well, I heard one priest was telling to couple of guys that, this temple is designed in such a way that the first ray of sun hits it. I wish they put some informative boards around this temple which could make visitors aware about the history and significance of this temple. As this temple is very ancient, we might have lost much of the information about it in last hundreds of years and with passing time we are going to lose those few people who know somethings about this mysterious temple. Many thanks to all the bloggers who visit it and share the mysterious stories about this temple. 

This temple is the only highest point in that region so you get the clear view of surroundings from there. I found everything nice except a tall annoying BSNL tower at the back of the temple, which was really destroying the view of this temple right from the beginning.

The view from Bhuleshwar temple

Trishul of lord shiva

Sun was about to sign off. We left the place by 7pm and shut our lenses with last few snaps of the trishul (lord shiva’s weapon) under dark sky at small broken fort while getting down the hill. 

I would really love to see this place again for better pics and to feel the mysterious magic of sacred darkness. 

This place is highly recommended if you are in Pune and want to spend cool evening away from the noisy city.

We took road toward Yevat and got on the Solapur-Pune highway. Pune is some 40Kms drive on the highway via Hadapsar. We were in Pune by 9pm.

Our Temple-tour of the day completed.

Places: Balaji temple -> Sangameshwar temple -> Bhuleshwar temple

Total distance travelled (to and fro Wakad,Pune): ~184Kms

Total duration: ~12hrs

Tips:

• Best time to visit would be in the evening so that you get to see the sunset. 

• If you like photography then this place is must for you and try to be there on sunny day to get good pics inside the temple.

For more photos visit: On Facebook or Panoramio