Tour of Gargoti Museum and Gondeshwar Temple Nashik

Date of Travel :- 5th April 2024
Mode of Travel :- Four Wheeler

    Vaibhav and Yogesh are the two friends who made me love travel and trekking, but I regret that both of them are not with me today. Vaibhav went to America and Yogesh went to Pune for work. Had trekked to Raigad with Vaibhav in the year 2016, after that didn't got a chance. Today, after almost eight years, it was time to travel with him. Vaibhav returned to India after two years. He wanted to go to Shirdi to seek blessing from Saint Sai Baba, so he asked me to come along. The date 5th April was fixed, then instead of going to Shirdi only, it was decided to visit Gondeshwar Shiv Temple, Aishwareshwar Shiv Temple and Gargoti Museum in nearby Sinnar village.

Places we visited

• Sai Baba Temple - Shirdi
• Gargoti Museum - Malegaon MIDC
• Gondeshwar Temple - Sinnar
• Aishwareshwar Temple - Sinnar

Travelogue

 

    At 6:30 in the morning Vaibhav came near my house with his car, around 7:00 a.m. we both left Goregaon and around 9:00 in the morning we stopped for breakfast at "Shree Dutt Snacks" in the village of Padgha before Wasindh. After finishing breakfast at around 10:00 am we left for Shirdi. Taking a right turn from Igatpuri we joined Samriddhi Highway . As the traffic on the Samriddhi highway was less, the car was running smoothly, but as the continuous driving was getting tiring, Vaibhave stopped the car at petrol pump before Sinner and took some rest. After reaching Shirdi, with the help of Google maps, we found a car parking near the temple, which was a private parking area. After parking the car in the parking lot, we came out and bought flowers from a shop. It was 12:30 in the afternoon when we went to the temple and the aarti started. The temple administration has made good arrangements so that the devotees do not face any problem. We sat inside the temple premises and performed aarti and after the aarti the darshan line started.

    Around 1:30 in the afternoon, we came out of the temple after having Shree Sai Baba's darshan. Visited the other temples in the temple premises, like Ganapati Temple, Shani Temple, etc. we came out of the temple premises and reached the parking lot, bought prasadi from the same shop from which we had bought the flowers and brought out the car from the parking lot. As we were thirsty, we drank sugarcane juice from a handcart on the side of the road and then reached the Prasadalaya. Parked the car outside the Prasadala and stood in the queue at the ticket counter. Received the receipt and went inside, both sat in a row. The temple administration has now made Mahaprasad free. After having Mahaprasad (lunch), we came out of prasadaly, while the exhibition of ShivaSrishti was going on nearby. I wanted to go to see Shivashrithi but resisted the temptation because, then it would have been too late to go to Sinnar Gondeshwar Temple.

Gargoti Museum

    It was 2:30 in the afternoon when we left Shirdi and headed towards Sinnar. Decided to visit the minerals Gargoti Museum first. The minerals museum is located in the MIDC area of ​​Malegaon near Sinnar, due to the narrow roads of the village we were a bit late, we reached the museum around 4 pm. There is a small office right next to the entrance of the museum where we paid a hundred rupees each and got a receipt and entered the museum. There was a person sitting near the entrance of the museum, when we started looking at the mineral crystals, that person approached us and introduced himself. (Guide service is free ). He asked us that if you want to see the whole museum and know the information then it will take at least an hour, if you have that much time I will give you all the information. We have come from so far to see minerals in the museum, then need why rush? so we decided to give it an hour and the guide started telling us all the information. He was giving us information in simple language that we could understand. There was an information panel in front of each crystal, on which it was written what kind of crystal it was and in which area it was found. When we saw the word Malad in front of a crystal and were amazed, as it is the same place where we are currently staying in Mumbai, our curiosity grew even more. The Shivlinga and Ganapati idols made of quartz crystal in the museum were amazing. Fossils of dinosaur eggs were also seen, not only that, but the remains of stones from Mars and Moon are kept here. After seeing all the crystals in the lower section, we went to the first floor, where many crystals were kept and some idols are made from the crystals. On the first floor there is a shop for shopping, there are jewelery made from crystals and other items. If you have come to buy goods from this shop, you will not be charged 100 rupees for the ticket. This museum is still unknown to people, the crystals kept there are very precious and amazing, One need to visit this museum at least once in a lifetime.

1. Amethyst - Brazil, 2. Okinite - Malad,
3. Crystal Ganesha Idol, 4. Solicit - Nashik

    The Minerals Museum is India's one and only gem and mineral museum. It is the largest "private" gem and mineral museum in the world. The Pebble Museum has the largest and finest collection of Indian zeolite minerals and crystals in the world. The first museum at "Sinner, Nashik" came into being in April 2001; It was named "Gargoti the Mineral Museum". It was inaugurated by Hon. Mr. Balasaheb Thackeray did. The Gargoti Museum exhibits the personal collection of connoisseur Mr. KC Pandey, which is the result of his consistent work over the past 40 years.

Website : https://gargoti.com/Timings: 9:00 AM to 6:00 PM (Open Daily)
Address: D-59, MIDC Malegaon, Sinnar, Nashik 422113

1. Ammonite Morocco Fossils, 2. Many types of minerals,
3. Pentagon - Pune, 4. Dinosaur egg fossils

Gondeshwar Shiva Temple

    Around 5:00 in the evening we came out of the museum and headed towards the Gondeshwar temple. But this time we were misled by google maps by showing us a shortcut road and guided us to go to a closed road, due to which we wasted 10 to 15 minutes. The most surprising thing is that when we asked the way towards the Gondeshwar temple, they replied that they don't know Gondeshwar temple. Temples close around 6:00 in the evening and in the dark I cannot see the temple, so we rushes. The problems didn't stop there when we got back to the main road. Going further, Google still misled us, as if Gondeshwar Mahadev did not want to be seen. We were equally stubborn, would not leave without having darshan, searched and searched and finally found our way to the temple. Around 5:40 pm we reached near the temple. Entered the temple premises and stood looking at the temple for two minutes. The magnificence of the temple and its beauty cannot be described in words. First we had darshan of Mahadev and came out of the temple and were looking at the carvings done on it.

Gondeshwar temple and its sculptures

    The Gondeshwar Mahadev Temple is built in the Bhumij style and stands on a pedestal. This temple is called Shivpanchayatana because there are small temples on all four sides of this temple. The pinnacle and culmination of the peak have been destroyed in the Islamic invasion. There is a large lake on the right side of the temple, the possibility cannot be ruled out that the stones from here were used for the construction of the temple. The temple area is secured by a protective wall. There were some more structures in the vicinity of the temple but their foundation stones are only available now, so it is impossible to know what these structures were. If the archaeological department excavates the site or dredges the sediments in the adjacent lake, it is not impossible to find many remains. The peak of the temple is exactly like the Shiva temple of Ambernath and the Amriteshwar temple of Ratanwadi. From this we can infer that this temple was built during the Shilahar rule. Although the information about who built this temple is available on Google today, there is still confusion as there is no evidence to support it. It is necessary to do research on this.

Gondeshwar temple and its sculptures

    The Gondeshwar temple was built during the Seuna (Yadava) rule and dates back to the 11th or 12th century. Sinnar was a royal stronghold in its pre-imperial period and modern historians identify it as Senapura, a city founded by the Yadava king Seyunchandra. According to local tradition, the town of Sinnar was founded by Gawli (i.e. Yadav) chief Rao Singhuni and the Gondeshwar temple was built by his son Rao Govinda at a cost of Rs.200,000. According to another suggestion, the temple - also known as Govindeshwar - was built by the Yadava feudal lord Govinda-Raja, but no historical evidence supports this suggestion. (Courtesy: Wikipedia).

Aishwareshwar Shiva Temple

    It was 6:30 in the evening. After seeing the Gondeshwar temple, we left to see the Aishwareshwar temple. Aishwareshwar temple is one and a half kilometers away from Gondeshwar temple, so it didn't take us much time to reach there. Aishwareshwar temple is said to be built before Gondeshwar temple. The culmination of the temple and most of it was destroyed in the Islamic invasion, only the core of the temple and the assembly hall remain. The carvings on the temple are worth seeing. On the right side of the temple is the Saraswati River. Took darshan of Mahadev and came out of the hall and sat in the hall and took some rest.

    To the north-west of the city is the Aishwareshwar temple, though it was built in the Chalukya style, but it has the pediments of the Nagar style throughout, and only its sanctum sanctorum and a few pillars remain. There are beams on the columns. There are pillars on the outside of the sanctum sanctorum. There is a lion figure on the top of the pillar and many idols are carved in the middle corner. Crafts are found in it. There is also sculpture at the bottom of the wall. On the door branch of the sanctum sanctorum are the images of Gajalakshmi, Seshashayi Vishnu and Saptamatrika. In the vitana (ceiling) there are idols of Ashtadikpalas and on both sides of the door there are idols of gatekeepers, and on the pillars in the front wall are beautiful idols of Brahma and Vishnu. The pillars in the prakara are square, hexagonal and octagonal and have beautiful idols of Vishnu avatars and dancing girls on them. Based on its architectural style, according to experts, it should be from the eleventh century. (Courtesy: Marathi Encyclopedia).

Aishwareshwar temple and its sculptures

    Due to spending too much time in the Minerals Museum, there was not enough time to see the sculptures at the Gondeshwar and Aishwareshwar temples. Determined to come again sometime and see the temple in detail, we headed towards Mumbai. We stopped for tea at a small shop near the Samriddhi Highway. After drinking tea we started our journey again towards Mumbai, after some distance I remembered that I had left the water bottle in the shop. Vaibhav started saying let's turn back the car to collect a water bottle, but could not find a suitable place to take a U-turn. I said told that with the amount of petrol wasted to bring the bottle, two to three more bottles can be bought. He backtracked three kilometers and picked up the forgotten bottle from the shop and again started the journey towards Mumbai. It was 11:00 o'clock in the night when we reached Goregaon in Mumbai.


Note:- All travel expenses are borne by Vaibhav so no details of expenses are provided.

Photographs taken at Gargoti Museum

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