Journey Date : 24th Dec, 2023
Mode of Transport : Private Car
History of the Fort
Mangi-Tungi is a prominent twin-pinnacled peak with plateau in between, located near Tahrabad about 125 km from Nashik, Maharashtra, India. Mangi, 4,343 ft (1,324 m) high above sea level, is the western pinnacle and Tungi, 4,366 ft (1,331 m) high, the eastern. Mangi-Tungi is 30 km (19 mi) from the city of Satana. There are numerous temples and is considered sacred in Jainism. It enshrines images of Tirthankaras in several postures including Padmasana and kayotsarga. Sometimes, it is described as Siddha Kshetra, meaning a gateway to the state of enlightenment.
Around 3,500 (7,000 Up & Down) steps lead to the foot of the peak, which is enriched with several monuments of historical and religious prominence. Besides, there are numerous caves named after great Tirthankaras such as Mahavira, Rishabhanatha, Shantinatha and Parshvanatha. A grand fair is held here annually during Kartik (September–October) where people visit in large numbers to witness festival.
There are many inscriptions on idols, most of them are not clear due to deterioration with time. Many idol installed in 595 CE(V.S. 651) are here. Many inscriptions on rocks of the Adinatha and Shantinatha caves here are in Sanskrit Language.
In February 2016, The Statue of Ahimsa, a 108 ft idol carved in monolithic stone was consecrated here. It is recorded in the Guinness Book of World Records as the tallest Jain idol in the world.
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| Mangi Tungi Montain |
Travel and Trek Experience
Each and every day of your life does planned by the God! The line come true on 24th of December, Still it is unbelievable for me that, i got chance to visit Mangi Tungu Fort. Since four years i was trying to plan Mangi Tungi Trek, but due to low frequency of public transport, plan was remains on the paper. on 23rd of December there was a "Shree Satyanarayan Puja" in my building, but due to some reason i was sitting upset in my study room. In the evening at around 8:00 p.m. I got a call from Vilas uncle to meet as, he himself and other three friends came at my building for "Satyanaray Puja". When i met all of them, suddenly Ravi uncle said he is going Mangi Tungi tonight, and he invite me to join them, but it was difficult to decide in very short span of time. Vilas uncle, Dnyanesh uncle along with friend Shailesh and Latesh forced me to go to Mangi Tungi, as they didn't got chance to visit Mangi Tungi due to some unavoidable reasons, they advice me not to miss this chance. I requested Ravi uncle to give me 10-15 minutes to decide, as I need to discuss with my parents about there health condition, as due to age factor their health remains ups and downs.
Immediately I went home and discussed with parents, they gave me a green signal also a additional thing was on next day there was Sunday and my brother had holiday. So he was at home if any medical emergency arise. Immediately I called Ravi uncle and I confirmed that I am joining with them for Mangi Tungi trek. He told me, they will pick me at around 9:30 p.m from my building. I keep my bag always ready to go, just i had added some snack and water bottle in it. Exactly at 9:30 p.m we started our journey towards Mangi Tungi, but before that we went to Thane to pick up Ravi uncles friend Umakant. This was the first time Me and Umakant uncle meet each other. We three moving towards Mangi Tungi with full excitement. Just before Igatpuri we took a 20 minutes halt, had a hot "Kanda Bhaji and Tea", after that we directly stopped at the Mangi Tungi Dharma Shala at around 4:30 a.m. We parked car in the parking area outside "Dharma Shala", Inittially we though, this was the starting point of Mangi Tungi trek.
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| Jain Temple inside Dharma Shala |
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| Tungi pincale view in the early morning |
When i came out of the car, feel very cold and was shivering even after i wore hoodie. The temperature was around 14 to 16 degree celcius, We entered into the Dharma Shala, got fresh and had a breakfast and tea. We enquired with locals about the starting point of trek, they said it was 1 KM ahead. Out side the gate of Dharma Shala, there were some mens who was selling wooden sticks which costs 20 Rupee, each. We purchased sticks for each of us, these sticks were going to help while descending the stairs. We sat in the car and move towards starting point, after passing around 200 meters, we saw there was two routes and had a sign board stating, left one is for car parking and right one for pedestrians. By taking left turn we moved ahead, we reached at the parking area, but the gate was locked also no one is there for enquire. We thought there will be another parking lot ahead, so we moved ahed, but we end up entering into the village. We realised that we took wrong turn, instead of taking left turn we need to take right turn. We took U-turn and reached at the point where we took wrong turn and moved straight, we saw some vehicles were coming from opposite direction, which was the sign of we are on the correct path. We took U-turn and reached at the place where we had took wrong turn, we halted (road which we missed to take right turn) for a second and moved straight, we saw some vehicles were coming from opposite direction, which was the sign that we were on the correct path.
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| View from Top |
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| Paduka and Tungi Pinacle |
We reached at the trek starting point at around 6:30 a.m. We parked the car and started the trek. At the starting point there is gate where the takes entry fee, but the didn't asked so we also didn't pay and went ahed. The time when we started the trek was a sun rise about to happen, we were trying to move fast so that we reach at the top to see sun rise, but my fitness level showed me the mirror. I experienced a slight pain in the chest, so i took a halt of 10 minutes to lower down the heart beat. On other had both Ravi uncle and Umakant uncle went far ahead of me, hats of to both of them for there fitness level. I resume the trek and when we reached haft of the way, observed sun rise was happened. We wait for a while, took some photos and resume the trek. We reached at the first pinacle within 75 minutes at around 7:45 a.m. There are several temple, so we removed our shoes and moved ahed to explore the ancient caves inside the pinacle. There are several statues of Jain saints inside the cave. We complete the circle around the pinacle, and took a halt of about 15 minutes for the snack.
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| Tungi Pinacle and Sunrise |
After taking the rest, we wore the shoes and moved ahed for second pinacle. We descend some stair and walked towards second pinacle through natural bridge. On both the side railing are installed by trustee to avodi accident. When we reached middle of the way, saw some mokeys beside the path and remembered the incident happened at Brahmagiri trek. Immediately I put mobile, selfi stick inside the bag and covered the bag with the hoodie. We moved ahed and reached and the stairs. Especially I was too tiered, and don't have energy to climb the stairs again, but giving up while trekking is not in my book. We started climbing the stairs and at around 9:00 a.m, we reached at the second pinacle. We completed the circle around the pinacle, saw the caves and statues carved inside the pinacle and decided to take a long break of about an hour. We had started experiencing the heat of sun raise, but on other hand we were also experiencing cold wind and fresh air. Also the view of first pinacle along with 108 feet statue of Shri Vrishabhdev was beautifull, it some what looks like China wall. At around 10:00 a.m. we started descending, I don't have a stick to provide support to my legs, as i gave it to old age uncle who lost his stick.
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| Beautiful Selfie |
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| Mangi Pinacle from Tungi |
After descending the one fourth of the stairs, we reached near the path which goes towards the 108 feet statue of Shri Vrishabdev. We paid entry fee 20 Rupees each at the gate and moved towards the statue. To reach near statue, there are two option, either you can go by stairs or by lift, we decided to go by lift. We had spent hardly 10 minutes at the statue and started our return journey. While descending we have observed many peoples are climbing and many of them are getting tiered due to heat. We were lucky that we had started trek early in the morning. At around 11:10 a.m we reached at the base. We washed our face at nearby tap water and at the nearby stall had a glass of sugercane juice, also purchased packaged dringing water bottels, as our water bottels were empty.
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| World highest 108 feet statue of Shri Vrishabhdev |
With the plenty of wonderful memories, we sat in the car and started our return journey towards Mumbai. At around 2:00 pm we stopped at the Balaji Hotel for lunch. The food taste, quality and service was good. At around 3:00 p.m we left for Mumbai and at around 7:45 p.m we reached Thane where we dropped Umakant uncle and at around 8:45 p.m. me and Ravi uncle reached home at Goregaon.
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