Saturday, May 9, 2009

Delhi Darshan - 5

Today I set to explore some relatively not so popular places of Delhi which every tourist would visit. I must say, I have become a bit religious in terms of visiting temples after coming here. Daily on my way to office, I see a big temple in Chattarpur area, and so I decided to go there today, after R&D in google here.

I started from the guest house at 10:30 and took a direct bus to Chattarpur Mandir, which took about half an hour to reach. On my way to the temple, I saw a huge temple complex on the left side of the road. A little further on the right side was a huge Hanuman statue. At a little distance there were many gateways. I wasn't sure which one exactly was the Chattarpur Mandir.

I asked watchman at the nearest gate and he told me that Chattarpur Mandir area has 3 complexes, one main temple and the huge temple I saw on the left side of the road, and one complex on the right. He asked me to first go to the main temple and then visit the other temples. I did so accordingly and there was a huge rush near the entrance of the main temple.

Inside the main temple, there were a number of dieties - Lord Shiva, Sri Ram, Hanuman, Ganesha, etc in all corners of the temple. The main temple had 2 floors, where in the ground floor was Sri Ram, and on the first floor was Katyayini Devi (Durga) which is the main diety here. I got to know that this temple is managed by a trust called Sri Adya Katyayini Trust, which was founded by some Baba.

Around the main temple, there was huge hall where a big idol of Sri Ganesh was placed.
After visiting the main temple complex, I set for the second huge temple complex I saw. This temple was surrounded by plush gardens. The main dieties in this temple were Lakshmi and Ganesh, whose idols were so huge. There was a big prayer hall here. In the basement, there was the food serving hall, where lunch is given as Prasad on some days. Apparently, there was no Prasad today, and the authorities told that tomorrow as it is full moon, lunch would be served.

This Chattarpur temple complex has both North Indian and South Indian styles of gopuras. The main temple has the North Indian style and the Lakshmi-Ganesh temple has the South Indian style. All the temple complexes are built from white marble. Marble is so cheap here! And undoubtedly, the trust has so much money!

Next, I proceeded towards the third temple complex on the other side of the road. Here there were few temples here and there. The main temple here too had 2 floors - on the ground floor was the Samadhi of the Baba who founded this, and on the first floor was a huge Shivalinga. In both the floors, idols of different forms of Durga surrounded the place.

Next to the this temple there is a huge prayer hall. This prayer hall also has Durga as its main diety.

After seeing this, I next went to the Hanuman statue but didn't go near it as it was too hot and I didn't want to get my foot burnt.

Overall, this whole Chattarpur temple complex was absolutely magnificient. This seems like relatively newly built. This is currently not in the "must-see" places of Delhi, but I'm sure few years down the line, this place is going to get famous.

After the Chattarpur temple tour, I took a bus and next went to another not-so-famous place, which again I see daily on my way to office - Bhagavan Mahavir Ahimsa Sthal. I reached this place at around 1 PM (seriously I'm crazy to loiter in the sun!), and the very description of the place which was painted catched my eyes.

I could see a statue of Mahavir on a hill like structure. I climbed up the small man made hill and there was the idol of Bhagavan Mahavir.

From this place, I could see the only structure which stood tall amongst the greenary was the splendid Qutub.

Finally at 1:15 PM my hunger started and I had to listen to my stomach. I left the place and took a bus to Hauz Khas and went straight to the newly discovered south Indian restaurant at Green Park. I had the traditional south Indian food and came back to the guest house at around 2:30 PM and slept.

This weekend didn't go wasted! :-)

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