Teli Ka Mandir or Telang Mandir was built in 8th Century during the period of King Mihir Bhoj .The structure of the temple presents a perfect fusion of the Northern and Southern architectural styles of India. The ‘Shikhar’ (spire) of the temple is Dravidian in its style, whereas the ornamentation is done in the Nagara style (specific to North India). Teli Ka mandir doesn’t have any ‘Mandap’ or pillared hall. The temple comprises a Garbha Griha a porch and a doorway.
Teli Ka Mandir , Telang Mandir Gwalior Fort
Teli Ka Mandir is 100 feet the tallest and most stunning temple in the Gwalior Fort. The temple is actually dedicated to Lord Vishnu in the form of his mount, Garuda. A honeycomb design with a series of receding pointed arches within an arch. The entrance door has a Toran or archway with images of river goddesses Yamuna and Ganga, romantic couples, foliation decoration and a Garuda . Diamond and lotus designs are seen on the horizontal band at the top of the arch
Entrance to the Garbha Griha , Teli Ka Mandir
Within the rectangular structure is a shrine with no pillared pavilions with a Barrel Vaulted or Valabhi roof 25 meters (82 ft) in height. Figures of amorous couples, coiled serpents, on the doorway one can see the ladies from a royal family sailing in a decorated boat , one of the maid having an umbrella for shade , above it are coiled snakes . At the The central position on the doorway is dominated by the figure of flying Garuda.
Torana or Arched door way at Teli Ka mandir
There are legends about the name of this temple . One says it was made from donation of a Oil merchant who locally called Teli, given its name Teli’s Temple. The other story says as it was built form princes from Telengana (region in South India) it is called Teli Ka Mandir. One more story says, “Teli Ka Mandir” term came as this Rajput Temple according to some legends, Rashtrakuta Govinda III conquered the Fort in 794 AD . He then handled the rites of religious ceremonies and rituals to Telang Brahmins , it seems to be true because of its fusion of Indo Aryan and Dravidian architecture from the Telangana region . For more information and packages contact +91 9810506646 Callers from Outside India + 44 7700093414 Email : promark@promarktravels.com Blog : www.promark@promarktravels.com/blog
24th April 2012 first helicopter flight for Yatra Char Dham Day 01: Sahatradhara Helipad (Dehradun/Haridwar) to Badrinath and Kedarnath
Yatra starts early in the morning from Shatradhara helipad for temples Kedarnath and Badrinath. Return same evening. The Abode Of Lord Vishnu In the twin mountain ranges of Nar and Narayan is the holiest of the four main shrines, Badrinath along the left bank river Alaknanda with the splendid Neelkanth mountains in the backdrop, it is an important destination on the scared itinerary of every devour Hindu. Once the spot was carpeted with ‘Badris’ or wild berries and hence was famous as ‘Badri Van’. Mythological Legend of Badrinath Legend has it, when the Ganga was requested to descend to earth to help suffering humanity, the earth was unable to withstand the force of its descent. Therefore the mighty Ganaga was split into twelve holy channels. Alaknanda was one of them that later became the abode of Lord Vishnu or Badrinath. The temple of Shri Badrinathji on the banks of the Alaknanda river, dates back to the vedic times. Situated at an altitude of 3,133 mts., the present temple is believed to have been built by Adi Guru Shankaracharya- an 8th century’s philosopher-saint, who also established a ‘math’ here. Also known as ‘ Badri Vishal ‘, Badrinath is one of the Panch Badris. The Celestial Jyotirlingam
Amidst the dramatic mountain scapes of the majestic Kedarnath range stands one of the twelve ‘Jyotirlings’ of Kedar or Lord Shiva situated at an altitude of 3584 mts. on the head of river Mandakini, the shrine of Kedarnath is amongst the holiest pilgrimages for the Hindus. Kedarnath is a majestic sight, it is in the middle of a wide plateau surrounded by lofty snow-covered peaks. The present temple, built in the 8th century by Adi Shankaracharya, stands adjacent to the site of an earlier temple built by the Pandavas. The inner walls of the assembly hall are decorated with figures of various deities and scenes from mythology. before the main entrance of the temple door a large statue of the Nandi Bull stands as guard. Dedicated to Lord Shiva, the exquisitely architecture Kedarnath temple is said to be more than a 1000 years old. Built of extremely large, heavy and evenly cut gray slabs of stones, it evokes wonder as to how these heavy slabs were handled in the earlier days. The temple has a “ Garbha Griha” for worship and a Mandap apt for assemblies of pilgrims and visitors. A conical rock formation inside the temple is worshipped as Lord Shiva in his Sadashiva form
Helicopter capacity: 04 adults with weight not more than 300 kg
Baggage: only hand baggage
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It was a special day, I had arrived from Jaipur to Delhi and was all set to depart for The Land of Gods and Goddesses, Uttarakhand. I was so excited in the train while travelling towards Delhi and couldn’t wait to start my journey. I reached Delhi and packed all my bags, took my camera, recharged all the batteries, emptied the memory cards and I was all set to leave. We left Delhi after lunch in our Scorpio Jeep driven by my father, who loves long drives especially in Himalayas, so I couldn’t even ask him for the wheel not even on the plain roads and spoil his ‘long drive‘. So I sat besides him and we departed from Delhi.
The Start of The Great Himalayas
Journey from Delhi to Haridwar was on NH-58 and that was our resting place, we spent a night there to begin our actual journey in the mountains as the plains end at Dehradun, in our original we had to take a road to Chamba but we took the road to Barkot, a longer route, we knew it’d take longer but we were excited to explore the other side too. There were beautiful waterfalls, bumpy broken roads, fallingrocks, landslides, rubble over the roads. One can never cross these roads on a low rider vehicle. We had our Scorpio so it was an ease for us. Although we had to survive the jerks and vibrations which felt like as if my backbone rifted apart all together. We went past Dehradun and the Rajaji National Park stopped on the way to have some tea and breakfast. Went past Mussourie and The Kempti Falls, those are really beautiful falls but the natural beauty seems to be getting destroyed by the people. We didn’t stop for a second there and carried our journey further and got on to NH-123 and were heading towards Barkot.
On NH-123
Near Kempti Falls, Mussourie
The Alternate Route
This was a really tiring journey and we all were getting irritated as we had taken a long route due to which we reached about 5 hours late. But this tiring journey was full of Green Mountains, Valleys, Lovely River Banks, Waterfalls and hardly any cars on the road. We reached Barkot and gave second thoughts to continue our journey after seeing the direction board in the picture below which said Yamunotri to the left and Gangotri to the right. Stopped for few seconds and discussed about it, we chose Gangotri as it was planned as it was already late. All this time my mother was praying to the god that, we reach safely to the destination and back home, we both (me and papa) were getting irritated from that too but didn’t pay any minute attention towards that and she was so scared all the time that she was reminding papa to blow horn at every turn that we drove through.
The Barkot Bend
The Last City: Uttarkashi
We were following River Bhagirathi all this time and were back on to NH-108 by entering into a tunnel which was built inside a mountain and lead directly to Uttarkashi, as the dark appeared slowly our average speed started declining. After Uttarkashi, there was no big city and we had to travel a long journey of about 75Kms to Harsil. After Uttarkashi, we were heading straight to Harsil, on the way we went past Maneri and the Maneri Dam Project which was built upon River Bhagirathi and the water was flowing out of the small gate at very high speed which was creating mist in the atmosphere and just stopped by to take some photographs, it was dark when we left Maneri. So with no further delay we moved on, the weather started to go down. I was just holding tightly to the handles and whatever I could hold onto to save myself from spinal pains.
Landscape along the River Bhagirathi
River Bhagirathi
The Maneri Dam Project at Maneri, Uttarakhand
It was so dark, we could hardly see anything besides the road and the oncoming traffic whose frequency was like one car in 20 minutes. Those 75 Kms felt as if we were never going to reach Harsil that night. These 75 Kms on the plains seem just an hour drive but in the mountains it takes about 3-4 hours approximately on broken roads with rocks and pebbles all over. It was okay till now as the car stereo was playing nice music, the stereo mouth fell off due to the jerks and refused to join back as it broke off. After that it was a total silence in the car and still 50 Kms were left. I was just staring at the dark and the tiny lights on the mountains blinking all over the place, these were all small villages settled all over the mountains.
The Route Map
Harsil
I was just watching the road and eventually we reached Harsil, our final destination for that day and we spent a night at nice cottages in The Harsil Retreat, owned by Mr Rajiv Mehta. We had dinner and went to sleep. It was really a tiring day but I didn’t felt anything by looking at the beauty of The Great Himalayas.
Harsil Landscape
Gangotri
Woke up early in the morning and had a bath with hot water, clicked photographs, had breakfast and departed for the sacred land Gangotri. The road from Harsil to Gangotri was plain with less landslides and rocks, it was clear at most places as it is maintained by the Army and Border Roads Organization. On the way to Gangotri, which was 25 Kms from Harsil and was a 1 hour drive, we saw the 10 rivers meeting into River Bhagirathi and a beautiful and is one of the deepest gorge in Asia and ‘one of its kind’ bridge which is built over this gorge. The vegetation was pine and deodar trees all over and we could see pine cones everywhere on the roads and the sideways. Finally we reached our final destination, Gangotri, The Origin of The Holy River Ganges
Anuj is currently pursuing his Engineering Degree in Computer Sciences and has a keen interest in travelling to different places round the year. He also writes blogs and articles in many online blogs. Connect with him on Facebook (htttp://www.facebook.com/anujrajput) and Twitter (@AnujRajput)
