After a long time, I went for a little outing with my younger brother Saurabh. It has clear in our mind that we would go out to a place where there is less crowd. And luckily, Saurabh found one exceptional location... Let me tell you about the lost history and the guts of ASI, India.
ABOUT BATESHWAR, Morena
The fact is, for this place, we all should praise Shri K K Mohammed who worked in the ASI department and whose vision led to rebuilding these forgotten temples of Bateshwar in the year 2005 to 2012. Shri K K Mohammed, who was a regional superintendent in ASI at that time.
If he had not shown his interest in this place, then today, here we only see ruins.
It is believed that in this place in the era of 750-800 CE that means some 1200-1250 years ago, there were 200 temples which were built by the Gurjara pratihara dynasty
All these temples are for Gods like Shiva, Shakti, and Vishnu.
This place was found by Alexandar cunningham in the year 1882. If you don't know about him, let me tell you that he was the founder of the Archaeological Survey of India.
In the year 1924, ASI took this place in its protection, and, for 81 years these ruins were studied, photographed, and took the record.
There is no proof of how these temples got destroyed. There are no shreds of evidence if these temples were destroyed by invaders. But, it is believed that somewhere in 1300 CE, due to some earthquake, these temples were destroyed.
I tell you a very interesting story about this place. In this and many other adjoining places, there used to be many dacoits. And the main dacoit here was Nirbhay Singh Gujjar. He had such terror that from here, not a single idol or sculpture get stolen. These people used to worship this place, used to live here. These dacoits saved this place from many smugglers.
But who was Nibhay Singh Gujjar. On him, there were 239 cases of murder, kidnapping, and robbery.
When Shri KK Mohammed Ji came here, then a pact was done in between ASI and Nirbhay company. That these dacoits will not come in between the construction of these temples. It is believed, Nirbahy also helped ASI in this construction.
Though the pact was very short-lived as Nirbhay was killed in a Police encounter in November 2005 and after him all his followers also lost in time.
ASI worked here for seven years and by 2012 they re-constructed 60 temples. And this place now can hypnotize you.
MY EXPERIENCE
When I came here, I was stunned. All the time, I thought about how people had matched Pillars, roof, idols. I was so much surprised.
Bringing this ruin into life is an amazing job. But as it is said.. when there is a will, there is away.
ASI proved that if the right people come in the right place, then everything is possible.
My gratitude to all the people who worked in this project.
Work here stopped instantly in 2012 for the reason unknown to me. If you come here,
It feels like workers went for lunch and work will again start in as soon as they return back.
You all should come here at least one time. Thanks to Saurabh, who bought me here. One more thing, there is no ticket to enter here and the best part is that there is no crowd.
HOW TO REACH HERE
We both came here in our car, and surprisingly this place is in google maps. However, after leaving the main highway, the road is single, and it passes through many small villages. The road is also not so good here but, we did not face any problem to reach here.
If you are coming from some other city then -
1.) By flight - Nearest airport is at Gwalior. From there, you need to take a taxi or a private car.
2.) By Train - Nearest railway station is at Morena that roughly 30 km away from Bateshwar temples
3.) By Bus - Nearest bus station is also at Morena but, you still need a private taxi or car to reach here.
After Bateshwar, we also went to see Chausat yogini temple, but that I will tell you my next episode, until then have a wonderful time, stay safe, and take all possible precautions while traveling.