My trip to Amarkantak

My trip to Amarkantak:

                                                           (View of Amarkantak) 

I got in the Bus of Pawandoot Trawel at old Bus Stand in Jabalpur for Amarkantak at 9.15 am on 11^th March,2015. Like other Buses in MP, this Bus was also acting as postman to drop and pick up passengers at every villages on this route. However in this way one can understand the geography of this area. Kundam is the last Tahseel of Jabalpur on this route and then the bus moved on ward to villages-Majhgaon,Chourai,BadarGaon,Sahepura,MudakiBaki,karoundi,Bargaon,Amkhera,Badjhar,Amera,Malpur-Jhuriya,Aanakheda,Vikrampur (Here is Saheed Sthal of Rani Avanti Bai), Gunkhan,Nariya,Sadpur,Jogi tikariya,Dindori , Ghanaghat,Samriya Tiraha(Samariya on right side of the road),Kuda,Geedha,Harra,Khar Gahena,Bisori,Bondar Tiraha ( on left side of this State Highway),Sunepuri,Sagar tola,Bargaon,Gadha Sari,Sikas Talab,Ratna,Mahotra, Kanak Dhara, Rampur, PinjrahaTola, Gorakhpur, Patangadh, Mahangi Road cut, then Roosa,AmalDheeha,Ramnagar,kanranjiya,Bondar,Kabir Choraha(which is the last village of Dindori District on this route) and then reached Balko at 5.30 pm the gate of Amarkantak.

I got accommodation to stay in Mratunjay Ashram due to my social skill which God has bestowed me. In the evening Dr. Udai Singh Rajput along with Dr.Jena Bahera of IGNTU, came to Ashram to invite me to shift to his residence tomorrow. Two students of IGNTU were also already present at the entrance of the Ashram, they did Namaste( hello with regards an Indian style) to their teachers and once they saw their teachers are paying me regards, they also did Namaste to me. 

                                       ( Central Lawn of Mratunjay Ashram)

In reply I did sheikh hands with them friendly and as their teachers left the Ashram, they offered me to have a cup of tea with them. Mr.Amit Tiwari who is President and Lokesh Sahu is Secretary of AVBP in IGNTU.

They discussed with me about my purpose of the visit and they became very happy and asked me to settle  in Amarkantak as the villages of this place need a person like me to improve education of their children. Next day the 12^th March, I got up early in the morning and reached Udgam of Narmada the holy river.

                                          Enterance of the Narmada Udgam campus

                                                          Narmada Udgam temple

                          Maha Arti on the occasion of Narmada Jayanti, Amarkantak

 Adjecent to the Narmada temple, there are monuments of 11^th  century ADof Kalturi period.

(Karndev temple campus, Amarkantak)

                                          Karndev temples ( kalturi Period)
  

(Pataleshwar Mahadev  Temple)

                                                    (   Shivalinga in Palaleshwar Temple) 

                                           ( Vishnu Temple at Karndev temple campus)

(Pond in the temple campus)

On returning from the temples, I was searching a place on the Ashrams road where I could get good tea, I observed number of Aadiwasi people mainly women keeping logs of wood on their heads and selling to the tea stall and Dhabas, each log @ Rs.50. This is the means of their livilyhood along with their seasonal agricultural produce.

(Main road market in Amarkantak)

 At 9.15 am Amit and Lokesh came to Ashram and  they took me to Sharda Mandir School where I met with Mr. Sarkar the founder/organizer and Principal of that school. On sharing my thought, he invited me to come in the summer vocation for teaching to the children of his school to give them basic learning to make them capable to study –read and understand the text of their books which is the common problem in the Govt. schools of  MP. I accepted his request happily. After that we moved with them on their motor bike for Indira Gandhi National Tribal University (IGNTU) to attend the inauguration of International tribal Mela. IGANTU is about 22 km from Amarkantak. After covering 10 km, we reached to Jaleshwar Mode. From here we took right turn and moved about a km we reached Jaleshwar Mahadev temple

                                                              Jaleshwar temple

(From here the  border of Chattisgarh starts.). From Jaleshwar we took right turn for Amreshwar Mahadev Temple. The Shivalinga is of huge size.

Amreshwar temple

After doing worship in these temples we moved back for the Amarkantak Saidol  State High Way to reach IGNTU. After covering another 10 km we reached the village Lalpur and here we took tea. Actually the university area is known as Lalpur , the university is 1 km from here.

                                                                   Entrance of I G N T U

 I met Facebook friends. One is B.A. student (Aman Jaswal) and one professor Dr.Manohar Lal Chddhar. Aman got a stall in the Mela. The university has started this type of International tribal mela first time (from  12 to 20 March,2015)

 Luckily the former Deputy finance officer of ICSSR, New Delhi ( from where I have retired in the year 2011)and my good friend Me.Jana is Finance officer of IGNTU for last few years. He became very happy to see me. I enjoyed the stalls of the Mela as well as cultural programs of tribal of different states with the  students/  friends in the University.