Tuesday, July 28, 2015

Gangotri Dham, Uttarakhand in Himalayas !

Bhagirathi at Gangotri, Coming from Gomukh

        Uttarakhand is truly called "Devbhoomi", I felt it when visited there in the last decade. Situated in the southern part of the Himalayas it is the abode of many important Hindu temples, the origin place of famous rivers and confluences of rivers. Of the many religious places, visit to four of them are called "The Char Dham Yatra of Uttarakhand". These four places are:--

1. Yamunotri Dham - The place from where River Yamuna originates.

2. Gangotri Dham - The place from where the River Ganga originates.

3. Kedarnath Dham - One of the twelve "Jyotirlingas" and Famous Shiva temple near river Mandakini. 

Before the holy trip, we took
 a dip in Ganga at Haridwar

4. Badrinath Dham - Famous "Vishnu" Temple near the river "Alaknanda" and one of the four "Dhams" (Jagannath Puri Dham, Rameshwaram Dham, Dwarka Dham and Badrinath Dham) located in the four corners of India. 

 Other important religious places in Uttarakhand are Haridwar, Rishikesh, and Dev Prayag. At Dev Prayag is the confluence of rivers Bhagirathi and Alaknanda. In addition to these, there are "Panch Prayag" (Five confluences including Devprayag), Panch Kedar (Five temples of Shiva named Kedarnath, including the above-mentioned Kedarnath Dham), and Panch Badri (Five temples of Vishnu named Badrinath, including above mentioned Badrinath Dham). Many other religious places and these famous "Dhams" alongwith holy rivers Ganga and Yamuna truly make Uttarakhand "Dev Bhoomi" (The land of Gods).
A small town on the hill slope
enroute Uttarkashi, Uttarakhand
 

My mother had earlier visited two of the four main Dhams, Jagannath Puri Dham and Rameshwaram Dham. She had a wish to complete the rest of the two Dhams visits, Dwarkadhish Dham and Badrinath Dham. Though she wanted to visit Dwarka first when some of my relatives came back from Badrinath and Kedarnath Dham and described their pleasant journey, I decided to visit Badrinath Dham first. From them, I came to know about "The Char Dham Yatra" of Uttarakhand. But after a lot of thinking we finalized that out of these four, we would not go to Yamunotri because it required about 14 km on foot / horse-ride journey. We had time constraints and could not afford to exhaust my old mother. Kedarnath Dham was also a difficult journey but it was an equally important religious place. This Shiva-linga being one of the twelve "Jyotirlingas", we could not miss this opportunity. The road to Gangotri dham was motor-able so we decided to visit there too. We decided to visit first the Gangotri Dham then to Kedarnath Dham and finally to Badrinath Dham. Though many travel companies offer package tours for these visits, but I decided to travel by rented car because it gives one sufficient time to enjoy
Milky water of a stream meeting
the Bhagirathi River between Uttarkashi and
Gangotri- Simply fascinating
the scenes and move according to will. 

          That year the doors of Badrinath Dham had opened in the first week of May and on the very first day, Mr Anil Ambani had visited there. Our journey started in the second week of May. We four persons, my mother, wife, daughter, and me, set on a "Chevrolet Tavera" vehicle from Faridabad, NCR very early in the morning. By noon we reached Haridwar. Since we were on a holy trip, we all took dips in Ganga here. Next in Rishikesh, we had to wait for half an hour since the driver had to complete some formalities of registration. From here the journey began on the hilly roads and the topography changed completely. The roads have been made by cutting the hill slopes. So on one side of the road, only the high mountain side is visible and on the other deep downhill slope full of forest and mostly some hilly rivers can be seen. The scene all around is lovely. There were many very small springs of water coming to the road from the uphill side. The population was very thin. Some villages along the road had very few houses visible, that too at different levels. I think people in these villages will naturally be fit and healthy because the difference in levels certainly consumes more energy from the body in moving from place to place. No need for morning or evening walks. Due to the nonavailability of plain land, these people utilize whatever land is available by step farming. 
First view of a snow-capped peak en route Gangotri
 that filled us with instant joy

We had never visited the Himalayas before. It was like a new world for us people living in plain areas. By the afternoon, the summer days of NCR had changed to pleasant days like September in these hills. We stopped three or four times for snacks, refreshments, or meals. By the evening we reached Uttarkashi which was like some small town and the holy river Bhagirathi flowed through the middle of it. Lovely place. 

           That was the time before I had started using the internet on a full scale. I had never tried online booking of hotels and we reached here without a hotel booking. As the evening descended we felt that such a town would not come soon on our onward journey, so a search for a hotel began. But we could not find a suitable one and the other end of the town got near. Just as we were thinking of searching back in the town, we saw a hotel named "Vijay Raj". There was space for Parking of vehicles in front of the hotel and the hotel itself looked clean. We asked for a room and they said that rooms were available. I saw the room that was on the first floor. The room and toilet were clean and affordable too. Later, we realized that since we had started our journey early in the season, tourists were comparatively fewer in number and we got rooms without prior bookings.
Bhagirathi Ghat and the other side of the river
at Gangotri, Uttarakhand

           All the day we had traveled about 425 km. Exhausted and hungry we took our meal and went to bed. The night was somewhat cold like February days. We had a good sleep and awoke early in the morning to get ready. When I came out of the room. the scene behind the hotel was lovely. We had not noticed last evening that there was a high hill very near to the hotel and on the misty morning, it looked wonderful.

            By 8 AM we came down near the counter to check out. After payment, the counter staff gave me a leaflet which was an advertisement for his hotel and information about the "Journey of four Dhams". Luckily there was a road map of the region showing different routes of four "Dhams". Later this map proved to be very helpful when we got back from Gangotri and set on for Kedar and Badri Dhams.  

            We came to near our vehicle, the driver too was ready but he had done a mistake. Last night before going to bed he had locked the gear rod for the safety of the vehicle. It was a push lock and needed a key only to open it. The driver had thought that its key was in his bunch of keys but in the morning while trying to open it he realized that the required key was not there. He tried other keys from other vehicles parked but of no use. He rang the vehicle owner back in Faridabad who said that the key was with him only. He advised the driver that if it does not open with other keys, try to break the the lock by hammering. More than half an hour passed, and other drivers and the hotel staff gathered to advise and help. Ultimately it had to be break opened by hammering. Relieved, we sat in the vehicle and started our onward journey to Gangotri. 

 
Awesome view from Bhagirathi Ghat at Gangotri,
Uttrakhand. It is a thin river with
water laden with eroded soil
      The day was sunny, weather pleasant but the road ahead was not in best of its condition. On the left was nearly vertical face of the mountain and on the right was the holy river Bhagirathi flowing 30+ feet down. The river here was not like the Ganga we had seen in the plains. At many places, its width was nearly 100 feet only but the current was faster and the river bed was full of stones, rocks, and pebbles. One can visualize the river goddess as a teenager here, frisky and naughty while at Varanasi she is mature and sober. At many places, small streams fell from a height to meet Bhagirathi. Due to the fall, the water of the streams looked milky. The scenes were fascinating. I had a Sony Ericsson camera then, having a 2 mp camera only, but its pics were satisfactory. On the way, I snapped many pics from the moving vehicle. 

             After a long pleasant drive, we crossed a bridge and the road ahead was near the other bank of the river. Now the river Bhagirathi was on the left side and the mountain on the right side. soon we reached a place where many tourist vehicles were parked and tourist activity was visible. On inquiry, we got to know that there was a hot water spring (गर्म कुण्ड) and some tourists were having a pleasure time in taking baths. Perhaps this place was Gangnani. Since we had no prior idea of this place or hot water spring we were not prepared, so refrained from it and went ahead. 

              Since the Himalaya is a series of mountain ranges, it has a vast width, and length many times the width, traveling on these roads does not give a visual idea of the distance or height of the destination. You see the high mountain on the side of the road and think that just crossing it you will be able to see to a distance, but no, what you see is that there is even a higher mountain ahead to cross which was not visible then. But after some time, you get accustomed to it. I was just feeling like that when we crossed a visible mountain and the higher mountain ahead in the distance looked somewhat different. Then I noticed that its top was white and exclaimed in joy realizing that the top of the mountains were capped with snow. I showed it to my daughter, wife, and mother. We were happy because we had never before seen snow-capped mountains. Since our journey was to an even higher level more and more such scenes came to give us pleasure.

             It was surprising that the width of river Bhagirathi was wider at some places at this higher level than that at Uttarkashi. We crossed the river many times and the vehicle started to go up a very dangerous valley called "Bhairo Ghati". We could see many vehicles negotiating the steep slopes and hairpin-bends turnings above us. At around 1 pm we came near Gangotri. The Bhagirathi here was flowing between the mountains that were not far apart. The speed of current was high and in centuries it had cut so deep gorges here that it was hardly visible. Only the sound of fast river flow amid rocks was coming to us. 

The Ganga Mandir near river Bhagirathi at Gangotri, Uttarakhand

            Our vehicle was stopped at a place behind the line of vehicles where the police were checking the papers. The driver went there with the papers and after 15 minutes we started again. Soon we reached Gangotri where the road ends. Ahead is only the path for pedestrians. The width of Gangotri is not much. All the vehicles were parked beside the road where some space was available. On the other side of the river a stream called "Kedar Ganga" was falling to meet Bhagirathi. We got down and went on foot for some distance to reach the temple complex. First, we went down to "Ghat" and saw the river flow. The depth of water was not much but the flow was through a rocky bed and fast. We touched the water with our hand and it was ice cold. Altogether it was very dangerous to get into the water for a bath. Slippery rocks, fast current, and very cold water - the combination was so risky. We had already taken a bath at the hotel in the morning, put on fresh clothes, and had not eaten anything till then - so we were ready for puja and darshan, but had there been safe waters at the "Bhagirathi Ghat", we would have sure taken a dip in it. Seeing us near the water the local "Pandits" too advised not to get into the water and said that in these places taking a dip in river water is not as important as in Haridwar, Prayag, or other places in the plains. The "Darshan" of "Bhagirathi" is as important as taking a dip. Even in those conditions, I saw a person taking a dip in the water with his 8-year-old son and he was near a rock about 30 feet away from us. Some people are really ready to take risks. So we took 'Panch Snan' - washed both hands, face, and both feet - and sprinkled the holy water over ourselves. On the "Ghat," there is a temple of "Raja Bhagirath" whose stupendous effort (known as भगीरथ प्रयत्न in Hindi and Sanskrit) brought the Holy Ganga to the earth from heavens. His name, the Ganga here is called "Bhagirathi". Going up the steps we stood in the queue for "Darshan" behind about 100 devotees. After half an hour we got a "Darshan" of Goddess Ganga.

Near Gangotri, Uttarakhand at this place the river Bhagirathi is flowing down in a gorge. It is not visible from this side but the sound of flow can be heard. The other side side of the river is visible with snow-clad and vertical rocks.

            After the "Darshan" was over we felt hungry and took our lunch in a local dhaba. We stayed there for half an hour more and enjoyed the lovely surroundings. Above the Gangotri, there is only a path for pedestrians that goes beside the river up to "Gomukh" where the glacier melts and river Bhagirathi emerges. There was a notice that said that one would have to take permission from the competent authority to go to "Gomukh". Since the ecosystem there is very delicate, restriction on the number of persons going there is necessary. Already, due to global warming, the glaciers of the Himalayas are receding, even the "Gomukh" has gone hundreds of feet higher than it was thirty years ago. 
We saw these black mynas with yellow
beaks at Gangotri, Uttarakhand

           Now it was time to return back. so we got into the vehicle and started our journey towards Uttarkashi. Around 4:30 PM we were in Uttarkashi. The driver filled his vehicle's fuel tank and I purchased some eatables for the onward journey and then we started our onward journey to "Kedarnath Dham". I had the road map given by 'Hotelwala' early in the morning. From here we did not take the road by which we had reached here yesterday, but crossed the river "Bhagirathi" and went ahead along the shortest route. We wanted to travel as much distance as possible before the evening. This route had very little traffic and the hilly area was full of forest. Mostly the pine trees were visible and fallen dried fruits of pine were numerous on the road and the roadside. The road was better than the "Uttarkashi-Gangotri" road but sharp turnings in the receding light in the jungle were very risky. Fortunately, the driver was an expert. In the evening after more than an hour's drive, we reached a place named "Dhauntri". It was like a village but some shops, dhabas, and places for a night halt were available. We had traveled whole of the day and were tired, so decided to stay here for a night. The hotel available was not as good as "Vijay Raj" where we stayed last night but in a small place like "Dhauntri," we could not have expected more. It was like villagers had turned their house into a lodging facility and themselves looked after it, so nothing was professional about it. From the entrance at the road to the room where we stayed, there was a level difference because the building (and in fact the whole village) was situated on the slope of a hill. About a hundred feet down the hotel there was a river flowing which we could see from our room window. We took tea and ordered for supper. From the locals, we collected some information about the route to Kedarnath Dham. At 8 PM we took our meal and went to bed. After the exertion of whole day we had a good sleep.

  Continued .. in ...the next blog Jai Kedarnath !!

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