Travelogue - Nashik Diaries - Day 2
The plan for today was that of sight seeing. We had planned to visit Pandav Leni Caves, Someshwar temple and Gangapur Dam. We also had planned to visit the Artillery Regiment Museum which is open to general public.
Pandav Leni Caves ππ·π©π¦πΏ
After breakfast we travelled to Pandav Leni which is about 8 Kms from the hotel. We started from the Hotel at 11am as to have early breakfast and then come back getting ready took some time. The climate was sunny and after we reached the foot of the Pandav Leni Caves we realized that we should have come a little earlier in the day. Though it was just the start of the month of March and summers were setting in, it was a sunny climb to the top of the mountain. The kid was already cranky at the start and Wifey and me had to carry him all the way to the top.
Taken from Wikipedia site-
The Trirashmi Caves,[1] or Nashik Caves (Trirashmi being the name of the hills in which the caves are located, Leni being a Marathi word for caves), are a group of 23 caves carved between the 1st century BCE and the 3rd century CE, though additional sculptures were added up to about the 6th century, reflecting changes in Buddhist devotional practices.[2][3] The Buddhist sculptures are a significant group of early examples of Indian rock-cut architecture initially representing the Early Buddhist schools tradition
Most of the caves are viharas except for Cave 18 which is a chaitya of the 1st century BCE.[2] The style of some of the elaborate pillars or columns, for example in caves 3 and 10, is an important example of the development of the form.[4] The location of the caves is a holy Buddhist site and is located about 8 km south of the centre of Nashik (or Nasik), Maharashtra, India. The Pandavleni name sometimes given to the Trirashmi Caves has nothing to do with the Pandavas, characters in the Mahabharata epic.
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| Carvings of an animal by ancient Buddhist Monks |
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| Ludo Playing Square Carved on the floor |
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| Some monk may have tried carving a face on the floor |
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| The carvings of a butterfly |
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| Carvings of fish, Peacock and Dog on the floor |
The entrance fee for the Pandav Leni Caves is around 20 INR for Indians and for other nationals its a bit higher. If you are a explorer and have time at hand then you can easily spend around 2-3 hours observing with curiosity the cravings on the stones. These people in the era that they were in, did not have any modern equipment's, yet were able to create such beautiful and long lasting carvings for future generations.
We spent time about 1hr 30mins at the caves and after exploring we left for Someshwar temple.
Someshwar Templeπΰ₯π©πΈπ₯
The temple is well known for being a Lord Shiva and Lord Hanuman Temple on the banks of river Godavari.
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We also enjoyed some boating and peaceful site of sitting along the river side. We had some home made snacks and also tried Nashik Bhel at a stall near Someshwar Temple
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| Kid Enjoying the boat ride |
After the boat ride and enjoying some snack we were off to Gangapur Dam.
Gangapur Damπ✨π⛅π
At Gangapur the Maharashtra Toursim Development Corp has come up with a good location and place just ahead of the Dam to entertain tourist. Its a large set-up and provides all amenities from good food and toilets to play area for kids. Its open to all and pricing for the week days is lower with per person charge being 80 INR & during weekends being 100 INR.
We reached Gangapur Backwaters and The MTDC place at around 4.30pm in the evening, we were not in the mood to do any more boating as the activity, we felt were costly. We decided to lay low and enjoy some snack after an hours time and sat around the place. The kid was busy playing his heart out in the play area with other kids. The site was beautiful and the colors of the sky changed as soon as it was time for sunset. We walk down the walkway leading us to the backwaters and enjoyed clicking some sunset pics. Kid wanted to play in water and we did carry extra clothes for him as every parent does.
With this we ended our Day 2 with a beautiful evening at the Gangapur Backwater and Dam site. We returned back to the hotel to freshen-up and post that headed to dinner at Asian Wok and Grill on the College Road at Nashik.
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