Bhuleshwar Mandir, Pune

A temple that takes your breath away

Ancient, like eight hundred years old.....atop a hill.... stone structure....intricate architecture....exquisite sculptures.....simply beautiful.  

It was built in 1230 by Krishnadevaraya. It was interesting, as it's the priest in the inner sanctum sanctorium who told us the whole story......he seemed more intent on the history than on ritual, a nice change.

He told of  how it was built as a temple in the thirteenth century, and then in the seventeenth century the peshwa built a fort around it, and because of the fort it was attacked by the moghuls and part destroyed......he then showed us two holes from which apparently came out so many scorpions that the mughal invasion of the temple had to be abandoned.

The temple is mostly intact, except for some sculptures within, and you can still see remnants of the fort walls and the bastions around the temple.

The design is intriguing......in fact looks more mosque than temple from the outside.

The temple while being quite small is multi leveled, and has these seemingly long pillared corridors, giving it a perspective of depth and penetration of some kind. You enter the garba griha by first climbing and then going down some steep steps. There's also natural light and artificial lighting making the play of light on the pillars and corridors fascinating.

One side of the temple has sculptures from the Mahabharata and the other side from the Ramayana. The sculptures are so detailed, you can spend half a day there just looking at each.

Rest in pictures:

It's now under the archaeology department, and we can only hope they don't whitewash the other domes

Intricate lattice work on a very Islamic architectural dome

Steep steps up the temple

The play of light is fascinating

One of the most beautiful nandis I've seen

A scupture panel from the mahabharatha

The sculptures which have been destroyed

Deep and mysterious looking corridors

A huge trishul at the entrance to the sanctum sanctorium; it's a shiva temple

Mom and Diksha with the nandi

Enamoured by the corridors

An interesting picture I thought

Diksha ofcourse had to find a kitten even there, they both looked so focused on each other that I didn't dare try to move that trashcan out of the picture. She even went all the way back to the car to get it food.

Mom doing some acrobatics to get into the sanctum sanctorium, as the steps were too steep to do standing

Another panel, likely from the Ramayana

It had a massive bell that when rung seemed to reverberate across the mountains

The bell itself

Ruins of a masjid wall outside

An obelix looking structure

View from the top

Dad sat here patiently waiting while we went to the temple. He had his own interesting stories from there.

Visiting the Bhuleshwar temple was real bonus, as it's off the touristy or religious circuit. We'd never have known of it, except that Dhruva was taken there from college to understand background design, and he said we should go.

If you're visiting Pune, strong recommendation to visit. It's about 50 kms from city, and off the Pune Hyderabad highway.