HARIDWAR :

MATHURA :

Mathura : Sight Seeing--

Shri Krishna Janmasthana

Shri Krishna Janmasthana, behind the Deeg Gate, is believed to be the birth place of Lord Krishna.

Kansa's Fort :

Kansa's Fort, royal abode of King Kansa.

State Museum :

The Mathura Museum, near the Dampier Park Telecom Centre , houses historical sculptures from 400 B.C. to 1200 AD.

Geeta Mandir :

Geeta Mandir , on the Mathura-Vrindavan Road, 3 km from Mathura , houses a beautiful statue of Krishna and a chariot with Arjuna and Krishna, made of red sandstone. The Geeta is inscribed on the walls.

AYODHYA :

Sightseeing : AYODHYA

VARANASI :

As a place of devotion and worship, with hundreds of temples dotting the city, Varanasi attracts thousands of pilgrims every year. Many Hindus in the latter part of their lives wish to spend their retirement here


UJJAIN :

Ujjain is situated on the right bank of river shipra. It is a very holy city for the Hindus, a site for the triennial Kumbh Mela. According to Hindu scriptures, it was originally called Avantika. There is an interesting tale behind the sanctity of the city. It's origin is ascribed to the mythological legend of Sagar Manthan ( churning of the primordial ocean to discover the pot of nectar). The story goes that after the nectar was discovered, there was a chase between the gods and the demons to have the nectar first and thus attain immortality. During this chase a drop of nectar spilled and fell on Ujjain, thus making the city sacred.

Apart from mythological legends, the city has a long and distinguished history. It was governed by the likes of Vikramaditya and Ashoka. Kalidas wrote his soul stirring poetry here. Today, Ujjain represents an interesting blend of an age old legacy and the modern day lifestyle.

DWARKA :

Dwarka situated 145 kms . from Jamnagar,is one of India's seven sacred cities, a visit to which for the Hindu denotes eternal happiness. These are Ayodhya , Benaras, Mathura, Gaya, Kanchipuram, Ujjain and Dwaravati, nowadays known as Dwarka. Dvara means door and Dwarika means a small gateway or doorway.

The sacred town of Dwarka, one of the main centres of the Krishna legend, sits on the western most tip of the Gujarat Peninsula, a sentinel overlooking the Arabian Sea. Dwarka is a scene of frenzied religious activity on Krishna's birth anniversary or Janmashtami in August every year.

The other places of interest in / around Dwarka are Hanuman Tank, Sun Temple at Vasai, the ancient Maitraka capital called Kankavati, the museum of Sharadpith Math, the Mahadev temple at Nageshwar, the Ved Bhavan , Shri Jagatguru Shankaracharya Math (Hindu Monastic establishment founded in 8th century by the revered teacher Shankaracharya). Archaeological excavations show that present day Dwarka is the 6th city on this site, the earlier five having been submerged in the sea. The inner sanctum of the main Dwarkadish Temple - known as the Nij Mandir - dates back 2500 years. The 5 storey temple is supported on 60 columns and is crowned by a soaring elaborately carved spire.

KANCHIPURAM :

Established by the Pallava kings in the fourth century AD, Kanchipuram served as their capital for five hundred years, and continued to flourish throughout the Chola, Pandya and Vijayanagar eras. Under the Pallavas, it was an important scholastic forum, and a meeting point for Jain, Buddhist and Hindu cultures; today Hindu temples alone dominate the town, spanning the years from the peak of Pallava construction to the seventeenth century, when the ornamentation of the gopuras and pillared halls was at its most elaborate. All can be easily reached by foot, bike or rickshaws, and all close between noon and 4 pm. You'll be offered a panoply of services - from sanctuary priests, shoe bearers, guides , women giving out food for fish in the temple tanks, and well -trained temple elephants that bless you with their trunks - so be prepared with a pocketful of change . Always animated, they really come alive during major festivals such as the car Festival (May) and Navaratri (Oct/Nov).

Ekambareshvara Temple

Kanchipuram's largest temple and most important Shiva shrine, the Ekambareshvara temple also known as Ekambaranatha is easily identified by its colossal white washed gopuras, which rise almost 60 m north of town. The main temple contains some Pallava work, but was mostly constructed between the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and stands within a vast walled enclosure beside some smaller shrines and a large fish-filled water tank.

Entrance , through a high arched passageway beneath an elaborate gopura in the south wall, leads to an open courtyard and a majestic " thousand pillared hall' , kalyan madapa, whose slightly decaying grey stone columns are modeled as nubile maidens, animals and deities. This hall faces the tank in the north and the sanctuary in the west that protects the emblem of Shiva , an "earth" lingam that is one of five linga in Tamil Nadu that represent the elements. Legend connects it with the goddess Kamakshi ,who angered Shiva by playfully covering his eyes and plunging the world into darkness. Shiva reprimanded her by sending her to fashion a lingam from the earth in his honour; once it was completed , Kamakshi found she could not move it. Local myths tell of a great flood that swept over Kanchipuram and destroyed the temples, but did not move the lingam, to which Kamakshi clung so fiercely that marks of her breasts and bangles were imprinted upon it.

Behind the sanctum, accessible from the covered hallway around it, an eerie bare hall lies beneath another profusely carved gopura, and in the courtyard a venerable mango tree represents the tree under which Shiva and Kamakshi were married . This union is celebrated during a festival each April, when many couples are married in the kalyan mandapa.

The somewhat neglected twelfth century Javaraheshvari temple, in leafy gardens to the south, is the only Chola structure in Kanchipuram not to have been modified and overshadowed by later buildings. Unlike the Pallava constructions , it is built of hard grey stone; its sculpted pyramidal roof is an early form of the gopuras used extensively by the Pandyas.

Kailasanatha Temple

The Kailasanatha temple, the oldest structure in Kanchipuram and the finest example of Pallava architecture in south India, is situated among several low-roofed houses just over 1km west of the town centre. Built by the Pallava king Rajasimha early in the eighth century, its intimate size and simple carving distinguish it from the town's later temples. Usually quieter than its neighbors , it becomes the focus of vigorous celebrations during the Mahashivratri festival each March. Like the contemporaneous Shore temple at Mamallapuram, it is built of soft sandstone, but its sheltered position has spared it from wind and sand erosion, and it remains remarkably intact.

 Topped with a modest pyramidal spire, the small temple stands within a rectangular courtyard enclosed by a wall in laid with tiny meditation chambers and sculpted with images of Shiva, Parvati and their sons, as well as rearing mythical lions . On the south side of the spire Shiva is depicted as a begging ascetic ; on the north he's in the pose of the dance of destruction. Walls in the dim interior bear traces of frescoes , and the ceilings are etched with religious verses written in Pali. The sanctum ( inaccessible to non-Hindus) shelters a sturdy sixteen -sided black lingam, guarded by elephant headed Ganesh and Shiva's other son, Skanda, the god of war, with whom the king Rajasimha was closely associated. Double walls were built round the sanctuary to support the weighty tower above; the passage between them is used as a circumambulatory path as part of the ritual worship of Shiva.

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