Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Visit to Gupteshwar Temple, Orissa





Gupteshwar is a Lord Shiva Shrine which is 70Kms from Jeypore, Orissa. As the name it is a Hidden Shiva ling inside a cave. Temple is situated above approximately 150 steps from the foot hills of the hill. There are many deep and dark caves present in the same hill. The Shiva ling is inside a cave in very dark atmosphere. Just next to the main shrine there is a cave extension which takes you to Kamdhenu. The way is pitch dark, either you have to carry enough torches to help yourself through the dark or take help of some local boy as a guide. One can also go above the hill to have a look of the entire area.
Many people come here for their Manasik(Mannat) and get their head tonsured, which is a hindu belief.

The atmosphere is calm and serene as we visited on a normal day. This place draws a huge crowds during Shivaratri. Gupteshwar is situated near the banks of River Kolab. It flows through huge rocks and the flow is quite good. It looked little dangerous to take a dip, though a fence has been created near the ghat for safety. But the whole sight looked beautiful. I was told that the Chattisgarh border is very near from the other side of the banks. Many pilgrims come from the other side to visit Lord Shiva and they call this place as "Gupta Kedar".

Other places to see:
Apart from the temple there are few more attractions. They are Medicinal garden, Paravadi, Swargadwar and Sangam.
The garden is next to the main road. I could not find many plants in the garden or may be it was my ignorance! Swargadwar was a cave which is very deep situated 1000 meters from the road. You have to climb to get into the cave. A shiva ling is present at the mid way of the cave. Due to lack of lighting instruments we could not explore much of it. Paravadi is another cave around 1500 meters from main road. But we found people staying there and doing some sadhana. The scenery is very beautiful.

How to Reach?
Most recommended way is to take a cab from jeypore which would take around 2 hours. Till Boipariguda the road is decent, after that road is not maintained properly.
Jeypore is in Koraput district in Orissa. Koraput is connected by train from Visakhapatnam and Bhubaneswar.

Where to stay?
There are many hotels in Jeypore. One of the decent hotel is "Hotel Hello Jeypore". There is a Pantha Nivas @ Gupteshwar.

What to Carry?
Water, Basic food, Torch, Umbrella.
There are some small shops where you can get some biscuits and some pakoda stalls were also present. The tribals sell Curd and some paneer based sweets.
Boipariguda is a place where you can get some basic

More Links:
Koraput Official website

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