Trip to Patna, Rajgir & Bodhgaya (contd..)

Day-2 (30-Dec)..contd
Rajgir is about 95 kms away from Patna. However we decided to cover Nalanda en route. The distance was approx 88 kms, which was supposed to be traversed in 1.5 hours. But due to congested traffic, we were able to reach Nalanda at 3.45 PM. The Nalanda ruins are now part of a World Heritage site and maintained by Bihar tourism. Apart from the Nalanda ruins, there is also a museum that contains a number of manuscripts & shows many examples of the items that have been excavated. The museum is open between 10AM - 5PM. Due to the time constraints, we're unable to visit the museum. However, we're astonished by the vastness of the ruins & remains of Nalanda University. This was one of the world's first residential universities, and it was amazing to comprehend how the concepts of an ideal student-teacher ratio of 5:1 was conceived at such an early era of 500-600 AD. The university had been destroyed to smithereens by Muslim invasion long back, and the telltale signs of that barbaric demolition was visible everywhere. The park was open till 5.30PM. As we strode back towards the exit gate, our minds were not fully content and I vowed to come back again to this historic site of learning and spend the entire day here.
From Nalanda, our driver urged us to visit Kundalpur which was the birthplace of Jain saint Mahavira, and located 2 kms away from the Nalanda site. The temple complex is huge & magnificent with beautiful spires. From Kundalpur, we finally set off for Rajgir and reached our hotel by 7.30PM. This hotel had no fooding facilities, so we freshened up a bit and then went out for dinner at 8.30PM. We found a small hotel which was owned by the same proprietor as ours. The dinner was typical Bengali cuisine (hot rice, dal & omlette) and it was a perfect match to the cold weather outside! This was the end of Day-2.
Below images have all been taken at Nalanda.

Day-3 (31-Dec)
After a heavy breakfast of aloo parathas with curd & pickle, We set off for exploring Rajgir. There're a plethora of temples in Rajgir. We found several tourists hiring the tangas. Though it had a local flavor, but we didn't get a opportunity as we'd hired a car. We started with the Makhdum Kund and went on to see Japanese stupa, Venuvana, Bimbisar's jail, Sonabhandar, Veerayatan and the Buddha Shanti Stupa. At the Shanti Stupa complex, we did some shopping as well.
Attached some snaps.
1-2. Veerayatan temple
3. Toy models in Veerayatan temple depicting the kingdom during time of Lord Mahavira.

  

Day-4 (1-Jan)
On Day-4 morning, we completed the checkout formalities from Rajgir hotel and set out for Pawapuri Jal Mandir, about 30 kms from Rajgir. Pawapuri is a holy site for the Jains. Around 500 BC, Lord Mahavira, the last of the 24 Tirthankaras achieved Moksha or Nirvana and was cremated at Pawapuri. According to popular folklore, there was a great rush to collect his ashes and as a result, so much soil was removed from the place of his cremation that a pond was created therein. Now, an exquisite marble temple in the middle of a lotus pond, the Jalmandir, stands magnificently on a rectangular island. Another Jain temple, called Samosharan is located here, where the Lord Mahavira delivered his last teaching. We offered our prayers at the Jal Mandir temple, and then finally set off for Bodhgaya. Bodhgaya is located about 95 kms from there. We'd to travel via Gaya, so we decided to visit the famous Vishnupad temple at Gaya first. Gaya is one of the pious places for the Hindus where people perform the last rites of their friends, relatives & other near-dear ones. On a different note, it is also one of the most crowded towns in India. Our driver Maheshji did a lot of maneuvering in the narrow, crowded streets of Gaya and finally reached the Vishnupad temple. I'd visited this place a decade back and remembered very little of it, so it was a new experience for me. Gaya is traditionally a Hindu pilgrimage, but the place looked like an eternal meeting place of all. We found hugely crowded tourist buses in the narrow lanes of Gaya, as people from all walks of life (and religions) came. Most of them came for religious activities, but there're several like us who were plain tourists who'd come to get a feel of the place..of the crowd. The other group of peopel were the hawkers who had lined across the streets..selling their wares. Notwithstanding the crowd, it was a place one needs to surely visit if he/she wants to feel the pulse of the crowd. We stood at the serpentine queue which moved in to visit the Vishnupad temple. There was another Shiva temple which my mother-in-law desired to visit. Thereafter we started off again..this time Bodhgaya, for sure!
We reached Bodhgaya around 11.30 AM, but had some difficulty in entering the town as the whole traffic was being controlled by police. There was huge tourist inflow in Bodhgaya due to the imminent Kalachakra festival which sees a huge congregation of Buddhist followers from all parts of the world. Every alternate year, the Dalai Lama visits this place to deliver his discourses on Buddhism. This year, it was his disciples (the Karmapas) who'd come over to Bodhgaya. We'd booked our stay in Kundan Bazar guest house from Kolkata itself. Due to the traffic condition, we'd to enter the town through an alternate route and faced some difficulty in locating the hotel. I called up Mr. Kundan and he guided us to his place. Kundan Bazar guest house is located in old Bhagalpur town (not to be confused with Bhagalpur which is a separate town in Bihar), near the old Vietnam temple. It is basically the outskirts of the town, but the building is a nice one. I'd read some good reviews of the place in tripadvisor and other reliable sites and found them to be true. The place is more of a backpackers' place..but the rooms are clean. I noticed an unnatural flow of foreign tourists in this hotel. This has actually helped all travelers as the basic amenities (water, electricity, free wi-fi) are present. The owner Mr Kundan is also a very amicable and helpful person. The room was soon readied and we took a short rest by taking a bath and relaxing ourselves. By 2.30 PM, we've had a lunch and set out for visiting the Bodhgaya temple. Today we'd to relieve the car as well, so our driver dropped us to the Mohabodhi temple complex. I cleared the remaining dues, as he provided the final receipt. We bade farewell to Mahesh-ji. He'd been largely cooperative and helpful all along the way. I'd surely recommend him for any traveler along this route.
As we walked towards the Mahabodhi temple complex, we could feel the crowd pressure. The road was literally jammed with tourists & pilgrims from all parts of the world. It didn't feel that we're in a small town in India..the entire place had such a cosmopolitan flavor soaked within. Hundreds of monks had gathered inside the temple complex. Some were listening to the discourses offered by the Karmapas, while we found some praying silently..oblivious to the hullabaloo of the surroundings. I was mesmerized by their discipline and devotion. To me, it is definitely worth visiting this place..just to see this dedication & discipline to one's work.
After Mahabodhi temple, we visited the other temples & monasteries as well. There were a string of Buddhist monasteries from Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Thailand, China, Korea, Japan & Tibet lined up side-by-side across the main street. For a moment, I stopped & wondered about the world of differences (socio-economic & political) between these countries..yet how could one single man bring all these diverse people under one roof!! You cannot but appreciate the relevance of Buddha in today's warring world..
Some 3-4 hours had already passed by, and it was getting dark as well as cold outside. We completed the last tourist spots with alacrity, before heading to Taj Darbar restaurant for that night's dinner. The service was a bit slow, but food was great. We headed out for our hotel and reached there by 10.30 PM. It was a tiring day, so we set off to sleep almost immediately. We're nearing the end of the trip.
Some pics taken during this period.
1-3: Pawapuri Jal Mandir
4: Lalji Mandir (Rajgir)
5-10: Mahabodhi Temple & adjoining views

Day-5 (2-Jan)
We got off early as our train's scheduled arrival was at 9.20 AM in Gaya station. We requested Mr Kundan and he arranged an auto for us to drop at Gaya station. We bade farewell to him and reached Gaya in time. But there, we learnt that Poorva Exp was running late by 3 hrs, so there was nothing to do except wait for the train. The train finally arrived around 11.40 AM, and we set off for home. As we moved forward to the way back home, my mind seemed to wander backward in flash-back mode and reminisce about the entire trip. In 3 days, we'd visited 3 towns and some 40-odd temples, mosques, gurudwaras and monasteries..from 4 different religions. So, was there anything common in these places? Definitely yes..everywhere, we'd met people..as varied as oil & water, but still coexisting peacefully. For those familiar with the Bengali writer Kalkut, I'd started reading Kalkut's "AmritaKumbher Sandhane"..and I was completing this trip, Kalkut became dearer to my heart.
We reached Howrah by 7 PM and reached home thereafter. It was the end of the trip..
Attached is the pic that I liked most....people!!

Trip to Patna, Rajgir & Bodhgaya

Day-0 (28-Dec)
Our train was 12351 Danapur Express which was scheduled to leave Howrah at 8.35 pm. 28th being a working day, I winded up my work earlier at office (in fact, that was the final day of my project and I had been assigned to work on a new one from Jan; so the work was wound up earlier than usual..but that's a different story. ) anyway, the packing was already done the previous night. We reached Howrah station without much difficulty, before time. The train was on time, and before long, most of the passengers had completed their dinner and started to make up their beds (thanks to the bite of bitter cold weather, which Kolkata had begun to experience by late Dec). Partly because of our unending love for long train-rides and also due to the fact that this trip was a long-awaited one, both myself and my wife were a bit reluctant to follow the other passengers. We switched off the main lights in the compartment, we gazed at the deep darkness outside (we're lucky to get a side-lower berth). The entire compartment being dark, a different world seemed to exist on the other side of the closed windows. And as the train sped through, cutting the envelope of darkness, we could see new villages emerging as the old ones disappeared. Sometimes, a flicker of lights could be seen in the distance..signalling the existence of human settlement. All in all, it was quite mesmerizing for us. Finally, at around 11.30 pm, as tiredness seemed to overpower us..we trudged back to our respective berths and soon fell asleep.

Day-1 (29-Dec) I woke up early around 5.30 am with the sounds of hawkers and other passengers. Found that we'd reached Patna Sahib station, which means Patna Jn is around half a hour away. There was some additional delay, and we reached Patna Jn at 6.20 am. We found hordes of taxis, auto-rickshaws and cycle-rickshaws lined up outside the station, and were soon swarmed up by them. With much difficulty, we extricated ourselves from that crowd and hired an auto to go to hotel Sivakrishna, our abode of stay for that day. Regarding the hotel accommodation in Patna, we'd done some web-searching but was unable to find a decent accommodation within our budget range. We'd closed in on Marwari Awas lodge, but found that to be booked when contacted. Finally, we finalized on hotel Sivakrishna on 28-Dec itself. Anyway, the hotel was on Frazer road and half a km away from railway station; the auto charged us 30/- for the ride. There was a slight disappointment on reaching the hotel as we found that the hotel building is actually a rented one. There are a couple of banks & other offices in the 1st 3 floors whereas the hotel premises is on 4th-6th floors. There had been some renovation work going on lately, due to which 5th & 6th floors were quite messy. The initial disappointment however changed to utter surprise & dismay when we're told by the receptionist that the room which was confirmed to us last night, had actually been occupied by someone else. It seemed that the person we spoke to the other night, hadn't really confirmed our room when we actually said so to us. After much hue & cry, they finally relented and agreed to rent a different room on a higher tariff...albeit with a discount!
The room (#47) was a decent one..add-on was a room heater which later turned out to be saviour for us. I quickly freshened up, ordered hot water which was promptly delivered in buckets and took a refreshing bath. We'd planned to cover the tourist places in Patna that day..so we needed to find the possible transport means to do that. We'd already noted the nos of Bihar Tourist Information Centre at Patna..I called up at that no and they referred me to the office of Indian Tourist Bureau at S.P.Verma Road..by 9.30 am we're ready for venturing out..we had a sumptuous breakfast at the Gandhi restaurant and went to the ITB office. We met Rajesh Kumar, a highly amicable & helpful person who listened to our detailed itinerary (about Patna and the rest of the trip) and then suggested us to rent a car for that day & the subsequent 3 days to cover all these places. He is a quite knowledgeable person and after listening to our plan, even suggested a couple of other places which we hadn't included. Both those places later turned out to be pleasant surprises! We opted for a small car (Indica) and I found the rates to be quite standard..the full-day Patna sightseeing cost 900/- plus taxes (for 8 hour), while the remaining 3 days were calculated as 200kms per day (which is the norm), irrespective of whether the vehicle runs more or less than 200 kms on that day. The rate was 7.5/- per kms...so for 3 days, the total fare was 4500/- plus taxes plus 200/- for 2 nights driver stay. He actually suggested some hotels in Rajgir and Bodhgaya..but since our hotels were already pre-booked at those places..we couldn't try on his recommendations. Nevertheless, I'd recommend Rajesh Kumar for any information related to hotel/car in Patna, Rajgir & Bodhgaya.
Details:
Indian Tourist Bureau
16 Ground Floor, Sukriti Complex, S.P. Verma Road Patna-800001 www.indiantouristbureau.org; email: indiantouristbureau@rediffmail .com
ph: 0612-2235175, 3256596, 9835011132
person: Mr Rajesh Kumar

Added a few snaps to start with...the quality might be awful, these actually were taken on my mobile camera. Later pictures taken on the digicam will hopefully be a lot better..

My wife and mother-in-law at Howrah station

Us...

In front of the taxi stand at Patna railway station

 After finalizing the total rent and trip route etc, Mr Rajesh introduced us to the driver of the vehicle..Mr Mahesh. He was an elderly person, very amicable..and also quite knowledgeable of the tourist spots in/around Patna (as it later turned out to be). Since we already had a heavy breakfast, we started off for the Patna tour immediately (~ 11.30 AM). We started off with the important Govt areas (the CM's residence, office, etc) and proceeded to the Patna zoo. Entry fee was 15/- per head. There wasn't much noteworthy in the zoo to speak about. Second spot was the Patna museum. Entry ticket was again 15/- per head with additional camera charges of 100/-. Our driver Maheshji insisted to take the camera inside, but we decided against it as we're not paying the requisite fees. Anyway, we visited the museum, which housed (among other things) an impressive array of stone architecture & statues of Buddha from a very ancient period (as early as 100 AD). Some of these full-size statues clearly bore the brunt of time...but sufficient measures have been taken to preserve them..which was surely encouraging & pleasant to note. The most prized possession of this museum was however the ancient tree trunk...which is a staggering 70 million years old!!! we couldn't believe our eyes as we saw the 70 ft long trunk neatly preserved along a length of the museum. This was surely the USP of this museum.

From the museum, we proceeded to Golghar, an imposing round structure which was supposedly used as a granary during the British era. It has since relegated to an important tourist spot..One can alight the flight of 140-odd stairs to get a panoramic view of Patna city (with the Ganges flowing by) from the top. The weather being pleasant, it wasn't as difficult as originally seemed to be. We stayed at the top for a while and then descended. It was already 2.30 PM and we'd still a few important places to cover before dark.

Therefore we proceeded to Kumrahar where the ruins of erstwhile Pataliputra town has been somewhat preserved. The govt has done a commendable job in building a museum-cum-park in this area where the ruins of Pataliputra could be seen. With a nominal entry fee of 5/- per head, we walked inside the park. It was quite well-maintained. We saw the Mauryan Hall pillar and the archaeological museum..the excavations at Arogya Vihar seemed to produce telltale signs of the immense medical progress which had happened during the early 4-5th century AD of Gupta period.

The final place to visit was the Patna Sahib which was located in the old town. Before coming to this place, I didn't know much about this place other than the fact that it is a notable gurudwara. But our driver Maheshji told that it is the birthplace of Guru Gobind Singh ji, and hence one of the most revered places of the Sikhs. After having a bumpy drive through the small alleys & bylanes of old town, intensely polluted with the smokes of auto-rickshaws run illegally on 'katatel', we arrived at the entrance of the grand Takht Sri Harimandir ji. And for a moment, we felt that we're in Punjab..not Bihar!:-) we stayed there for sometime, offered our prayers and also had the halwai..it was deliciously sweet!

By that time, it was 6.30 PM and already dark. We made our way back to the hotel before stopping for a light snacks and ordered a quick dinner. We're too tired then...:-)

Arogya Vihar at Kumrahar

Another view of the Arogya Vihar at Kumrahar

Patna zoo

The Golghar

Found a dark alley at the Patna Sahib, where I tried this arbitrary b/w shot

Outside the Patna Sahib gurudwara

Day-2 (30-Dec)

We got up early and got ready for the second phase of our trip. Our driver Mahesh-ji had advised us the previous day that it'd be better to leave by 9 AM. We'd our breakfast and I completed the checkout formalities at the hotel. We found Mahesh-ji waiting patiently with his Indica, and set off. Our first stop was Maner Sharif. We'd noticed this place during our internet-searches prior to the trip, but as it wasn't located on the Patna-Rajgir route, we kept it out. But later on Mr Rajesh Kumar's insistence, we included that in our trip. This proved to be a blessing later.

Maner Sharif is located about 20 kms west of Patna on NH-30. It is the place where the revered sufi saint Makhdum Daulat spent his last days. Later, Ibrahim Khan the then governor of Bihar, erected the mausoleum in honor of Makhdum Daulat (who was his guru). The building, though quite dilapidated, is surely a marvelous one. The walls of the building are adorned with intricate designs. There is a big dome on the top and the ceiling is full of inscriptions. As we learnt, every little detail of the Dargah is characteristic of the architecture of Emperor Jahangir's region, and it is by far the finest monument of the Mughals in Eastern India. Inside the compound there is also a mosque also built by Ibrahim Khan in 1619. This place is a perfect respite from the hustle-bustle of today's modern life, and seemed to echo the peacefulness of a bygone era. I liked the place a lot and would recommend this place to everyone visiting Patna.

Around 11.30 AM, we left Maner and drove towards Rajgir. We'd have to go through the same way as we came (i.e. via Patna), so we decided to have our lunch at Patna. In between, we stopped for a tea-break and bought the famous Maner laddoo. These are deliciously sweet and is recommended for people having a sweet tooth! We reached Patna in about an hour and decided to have lunch at the Marwari Awas. We'd learnt earlier that it serves decent vegetarian meals. The food was an assortment of rice, pulao & roti alongwith vegetables, curry, sweets & curd. The cost was 110/- per meal. Around 1.30 PM, we started off for Rajgir.

All these snaps have been taken at Maner Sharif.