Satara: Exploring Ajinkyatara

28 June, 2009

On a fine morning of Sunday I decided to go to Ajinkyatara. It is my favorite place since childhood days. I used to go here with father every now and then. Ajinkyatara is particularly beautiful in Rains (so is Satara). This season rains are delayed but still this place is looking nice.

I started walking from the side of Guruwar Bag (Park). There are few stairs and then a small road which leads to back side of Ajinkyatara where I would join the Road coming from Char Bhinti Side. Before I reached there I realized that how green and fresh Satara looks in the morning. Here is one pic of Satara and one of Ajinkyatara.

Also, on this way there are two small temples. One is particularly nice due to its shape. It is a Shiva Temple and so, has the shape on 'Pinda'. Another good view of Satara city from here.

I visited the famous Maruti temple (as I wanted to cover all the temples). Everybody will know this temple because it is on the standard path. This is a nice area as there is small park behind the temple. Just at the end of this park, there is a small Shiva's Pinda. The Nandi (Bull) was previously not there. My father and his friends brought it to this place some time back.

On the back side of Ajinkyatara there is Devi Temple of Magali Devi. It's a nice, spiritual place. There is also a renovated temple of Ganesha near it. Devotees pray to Devi here every morning and evening. A must visit temple. Landscape is also nice here. They call it 'Khalachi Magalai' meaning Magali Devi temple near the base since there is another one on the top. We'll see that also soon... From the back side of this Devi temple, you can start climbing the fort.

The way is somewhat steep and many trees along the way. So, it gives a good feel. This will lead us to 'Dakshin Darwaja' (South Gate). On the way you can find trees with colorful leaves. Thank god, the Sun was not hot that day. I was very comfortable and not exhausted. You'll find a small hill range to your left as you travel on this way. This is called 'Untachi Path'- Back of a Camel since it looks like it :-) I have been there once. Little adventure. People who love trekking can like going there. Doesn't take much time. Sky and clouds were also spectacular.

This is how the Dakshin Darwaja looks as you approach it. It's a road known to fewer people. People usually arrive from front Gate/ Dwar. This could be a nice change sometime.

Ajinkyatara has in all 7 lakes on the top. Here is one of them. There were these reptiles roaming around there. Interesting creatures.

This is the Devi Temple I was talking about. It's called Magalai Devi as I had said. At the back side you can see the big boarding of Ajinkyatara (in Devnagari) written. It looks very nice from the city. Magalai Temple was renovated some time ago, now this area is very nice. Oh yes, and you can see many colorful and beautiful flowers on the fort.

This is one of the two Shiva Temples on the top of fort. I think this one is called Ratneshwar, not sure. Interesting part is you can see colorful clothes hung on a rope in the back. This is a part of ritual by Tibetans (who live in the city). They come here and hang this colorful clothes between two trees.

It feels awesome to roam around on the top of fort. See this one particular tree I noticed. It's growing horizontally.

From the South side of Fort top you can see Chalkewadi (Wind mills) and Sajjan gad also. In the photo, notice the shadows of the clouds which looks so fantastic. I used zooming capacity of my cam to to take a pic of wind mills. By the way, here I have really compressed the pics as I had to upload so many of them. But believe me all this pics are amazing when I view them on my comp since they were taken at full resolution on 10 Mega pixels.

Also, there are two main towers on the fort. I guess they are for radio and TV. There is security around them. And believe me, they are quite huge and tall.

These are the final photos on the way back. I love this photo of Satara. You can see every part of Satara from here. It is a great time pass to come here and hang around. This view of Satara and the hill ranges around makes climbing all the way up here worthwhile. :-)