India Travel

Lonavala in Southern Maharashtra

Related Properties from Gurgaon

Southern Maharashtra

Most tourists heading south from Mumbai skip southern Maharashtra, but if you have a little time you can break up the journey and ease the burden of covering vast distances. Pune retains its Maratha character, in the old quarter at least, and also boasts a unique museum; some may also be attracted by its much-dended Osho Commune. Hill stations such as Matheran provide coolness, wooded walks and fine views, while the Konkan coast has little-visited beaches and forts that make a pleasant journey down to Goa. From Lonavala, you can get to see the earliest Buddhist rock-cut art in the

The Buddhist caves of Karle, Bhaja and Bedsa in Southern Maharashtra

The three cave sites of Karle, Bhaja and Bedsa comprise some of the finest rock-cut architecture in the northwest of the Deccan region. Though not in the same league as Ajanta and Ellora, they harbour some beautifully preserved ancient sculpture, dating from the era when this region lay on several long-distance trade routes, and are definitely worth a look if you are passing. The three sites lie some way from each other, all to the east of Lonavala. Covering Karie and Bhaja under your own steam by bus and/or train is manageable in a day, if you are prepared for a

Lonavala Accommodation in Southern Maharashtra

Lonavala has a wide range of accommodation, from very cheap to five-star; many of its hotels lower their rates out of season (Oct—March) or for longer stays or weekdays. Budget and mid-range places are concentrated in the centre, by the bus and railway stations. Adarsh, behind the bus stand on Shivaji Road 02114/72353. Spotless a/c and non-a/c rooms some overlooking a central courtyard. Dependable mid-range option, but the management aren't very welcoming and early mornings are noisy. Chandra lok, Shivaji Road 02114/72294. Clean, comfortable rooms witli shower-toilets, 24hr hot water, friendly staff and excellent Gujarati restaurant. The economy room is

Lonavala Eating in Southern Maharashtra

While most of the hotels in Lonavala lay on full board or have very good restaurants, a number of smaller restaurants and snack bars on the main street cater for the brisk through trade. You'll also come across dozens of shops selling the local sweet speciality1, chikki - a moreish, but dentally challenging, amalgam ot dried fruit and nuts set in rock-solid honey toffee. Super Chikki on the main street allows you to sample the many varieties before you buy, and they giftwrap the sticky blocks in attractive old-fashioned boxes. Their main competitors, National Chikki, further down, is also recommended:

Karle in Southern Maharashtra

KARLE (also Karla and Karli) is 3km north of Karle Caves Junction on the Mumbai—Pune Road and 11km from Lonavala. Take any bus to the junction (from where it's a Rsl5-20 rickshaw ride), or there are five daily buses (6am, 9am, 12.30pm, 3pm & 6,30pm) that head for the caves directly from Lonavala, with the last bus returning from Karle at 6.30pm. The rock-cut Buddhist chaitya hall at Karle, reached by steep steps that climb 110m, is the largest and best preserved in India, dating from the first century AD. As you approach across a large courtyard, itself hewn from the

Panchalesvara cave in Southern Maharashtra

The Panchalesvara cave, to the west of town, just across the River Mula, lies in a rather surprising urban setting at the northern end of busy Jungli Maharaj Road (buses #4, #16 or #98). Hewn from rock in the same manner as the more elaborate examples elsewhere in Maharashtra, the cave dates from the Rashtrakuta period (eighth-ninth centuries). Steps lead from the pavement to a path which ends in a square courtyard and a circular roofed Nandi enclosure. Beyond it, the roughly excavated cave, with broad, square, plain pillars, is unfinished, bearing numerous chisel marks, and yet appears to have

Bhaja in Southern Maharashtra

Although the eighteen caves (daily 8.30am-6pm) at BHAJA may not be as elaborate as those at Karle, they are more atmospheric, giving visitors a much clearer sense of their original tranquillity (particularly during tin; rainy season, when monks traditionally ceased their wanderings). They lie 3km south of Karle Caves Junction, reached by following a path up from the village square near the railway station at Malavli, just 1.5km away. Regular passenger trains (hourly; Rs3) call here, and are the cheapest and most convenient way to get back to Lonavala if you're not travelling by rented rickshaw or car. The caves at

Shaniwarwada Palace in Southern Maharashtra

In the centre of the oldest part of town, only the imposing high walls of the Shaniwarwada Palace (daily 8am—noon & 2—6pm; Rs2) survived three fires 111 the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.The palace, founded by the Peshwa ruler Bajrao I in 1730 and the chief residence of the Peshwas until the British arrived in 1817, has little to excite interest today. Entrance is through the Delhi gate on the northside, one of five set into the perimeter wall, whose huge teak doors come complete with nasty elephant-proof spikes. Just inside, faded murals show Ganapati, Vishnu and scenes from the Ramayana.

Pune (Poona) and beyond Arrival and information in Southern Maharashtra

Pune's Lohagaon airport, 10km northeast of the centre, is served by nights from Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, and Bangalore. Prepaid taxis (Rs200), auto-rickshaws (Rs100) and regular "Ex-Servicemen" buses (Rs20-25) are on hand for the fifteen-minute trip to the city centre. Pune is an important staging point on southern express-train routes from Mumbai (3hr 30min-4hr 30min); the main railway station is in the centre of town, south of the river. Auto-rickshaws and tourist taxis wait outside the station - locals often use the shared long-distance taxis to get to Mumbai. Of the three main bus stands, the City Bus Stand next to

Tribal Museum in Southern Maharashtra

The Tribal Research and Training Institute, which runs the Tribal Museum. Koregan Road (daily 10am—5pm; free) 2km east of the railway station, is dedicated to the protection and documentation of Maharashtra's numerous tribal groups, such as the Wagdheo. Bahiram. Danteshwan and Marai, who number more than five million. The museum's faded photos, costumes and artefacts serve as an excellent introduction to this little-known world, but the highlights are the wonderful collections of dance masks and Worli wedding paintings.Talk to the director of the museum if you're interested in guided (but culturally sensitive) tours to tribal areas.

Bedsa in southern Maharashtra

It's quite possible that you won't encounter anyone else when visiting the caves at BEDSA, which is one of its great attractions. Once you reach the village, 12km beyond Bhaja on NH-4, or a three-kilo metre bus ride from Kamshet. the nearest railway station, you'll have to ask the way to the unsigned path.The village kids hanging around might scramble up the steep hillside with you, fora fee, Bedsa's chaitya hall, excavated later than that at Karle, is far less sophisticated. The entrance is extremely narrow, leading from a porch which appears to be supported, though of course it is not.

Aga Khan Palace and Gandhi Memorial in Southern Maharashtra

In 1942, Mahatma Gandhi, his wife Kasturba and other key figures of the freedom movement were interned at the Aga Khan Palace (daily 9am—12.30pm & 1.30—6pm; Rs2), which is set in quiet leafy gardens, across the River Mula, 5km northeast of the centre (buses #1, #158 & #156).The Aga Khan donated the palace to the state in 1969. and it is now a small Gandhi museum, typical of many all over India, with captioned photos and simple rooms unchanged since they were occupied by the freedom fighters. A memorial behind the house commemorates Kasturba, who died during their imprisonment. A

Mahabaleshwar in Southern Maharashtra

MAHABALESHWAR. 250km southeast of Mumbai and the most visited hill resort in Maharashtra, is most easily reached from Pune (120km northeast).The highest point in the Western Ghats (1372m), it is subject to extraordinarily extreme weather conditions. The start of June brings heavy mists and a dramatic drop in temperature, followed by a deluge of biblical proportions: up to seven metres of rain can fall in the hundred days up to the end of September. As a result, tourists only come here between November and May; during April and May, at the height of summer, the place is packed. The main attraction

Murud-Janjira in Southern Maharashtra

The Konkan coast, stretching south down the length of Maharashtra to Goa, remains unspoilt and has a distinct culture with its own dialect of Marathi and a fiery cuisine. The further you get from Mumbai the quieter and more tranquil it becomes - the towns closer to Mumbai are inundated with Mumbaiakas for much of the year, especially at weekends. The first really nice place is the unspoilt, unhurried little coastal town of MURUD-JANJIRA. 165km south of Mumbai, once part of a state belonging to the Siddis of Janjira. Modern development seems to have passed this quiet backwater by, and many

Southern torana in Madhya Pradesh

Opening directly onto the ceremonial staircase, the southern torana was the Great Stupa's principal entrance, as is borne out by the proximity of the stump of Ashoka's original stone pillar. Over the years, some of the panels with the best sculpture have dropped off the gateway (and are now housed in the site museum), but those that remain on the three crossbeams are still in reasonable condition. A carved frieze on the middle architrave shows Ashoka, complete with royal retinue, visiting a stupa in a traditional show of veneration. On the reverse side, the scene switches to one of the

Southern Andhra Pradesh

The further south you travel from the fertile lands watered by the great Krishna and Godavari rivers, the less hospitable the terrain becomes, especially in the rocky southwest of the state. For Hindus, the main attraction in southern Andhra Pradesh is the tenth-century Venkateshvara temple, outside Tirupati, the most popular Vishnu shrine in India, where several thousand pilgrims come each day to receive darshan. Puttaparthy, the home town of the spiritual leader Sai Baba, is the only other place in the region to attract significant numbers of visitors. Both Tirupati and Puttaparthy are closer to Bangalore in Karnataka and Chennai

Chitragupta Temple at Khajuraho in Madhya Pradesh

Beyond the platform, and similar to its southern neighbour, Jagadambi, the heavily (and in places clumsily) restored Chitragupta temple is unusual in being dedicated to Surya, the sun god. Once again its design emphasizes the mandapa, which here has large projecting balconies, rather than the main temple. Ornate depictions of hunting scenes, nymphs and dancing girls accompany processional friezes, while on the southern aspect a particularly vigorous ten-headed Vishnu embodies all his ten incarnations. Within the inner chamber, the fiery Surya rides a chariot driven by seven horses. The small and relatively insignificant temple in front of Chitragupta, also heavily restored

The southern area in Madhya Pradesh

The southern area of the enclosure harbours some of Sanchi's most interesting temples. Pieces of burnt wood dug from the foundations of Temple 40 prove that the present apsicial-cnded chaitya was built on top of an earlier structure contemporary with the Mauryan Stupa 1. Temple 17 is a fine example of early Gupta architecture and the precursor of the classical Hindu design developed later in Orissa and Khajuraho. Its small, flat-roofed sanctum is entered via an open-sided porch held up by four finely carved pillars with lion capitals. Nearby, directly opposite the Great Stupa's southern entrance, the talislender pillars of

Eating and drinking to Aurangabad in Maharashtra

Food in Aurangabad tends to be an incongruous mixture of strictly vegetarian Gujarati and meat-oriented north Indian Muslim dishes. Typically, "non-veg" is synonymous with dim lights, drawn curtains and a male clientele, while the veg restaurants attract families, and are particularly popular on Sunday evenings, when booking is recommended. As elsewhere in Maharashtra, drinking is a male preserve, carried out in the many specially segregated bars (or permit rooms), with the exception of the larger and more tourist-oriented hotels and restaurants. Agra Mistan, off Tilak Marg, Aurangpura. Clean, no-nonsense restaurant on the southern edge of the old town, serving authentic, moderately

Murud-Janjira Practicalities in Southern Maharashtra

There is a ferry service from the Gateway of India in Mumbai to Rewas (hourly 6am-5.30pm; lhr), from where you have to get a local bus that trundles through the coastal villages from Alibag to Murud. Most direct buses from Mumbai Central take five hours; there are two faster ASIAD services (5.45am & 11am; 3hr 30min), which must be booked in advance. All stop on Murud's main street, Durbar Road, parallel to the coast, where you'll find the tiny post office, covered market, a handful of basic restaurants and the town's few hotels. The Aman Place on Durbar Road, near