A Tour of Talegaon Temples

Today J, Laura, and I decided to go on a temple tour in the Talegaon district. Talegaon is located approximately 30 kilometers outside of Pune. It is also where Paul works, which is why I even know about its existence. Talegaon is a valley nestled amongst the 'hills' and during monsoon its location is very green and cool.

The first stop on our tour is to the new Sai Baba complex being built. It is clearly the newer temple and is absolutely beautiful with brightly painted colors and shiny brass.



Bougainvilleas . . .

Skipping stones in the rain puddles . . .

Nandi is decorated as we make our way to Sai Baba. Sai Baba. Luckily, the people working there did not spot my blond hair. (I just recently cut it all off and subsequently I am not receiving as many odd mouth dropping stares.) I did not receive the token tikka, coconut, and rose, but my merry companions did! I really do not care for the tikka, I believe the red one is from chili powder and it often makes my forehead itchy.

Now, we are off to the Ganesh shrine located off the old Mumbai-Pune Highway. When Paul and I first came to India in October 2007, he was still being built and was covered in scaffolding. Now he is complete, and the attention to detail on the sculpture is remarkable.

View from Ganpati . . .
Last but not my least, I took the gals to my favorite temple for Shiva. This is the same temple I took Molly to last year, and I still love it. Though it is not a new, fancy temple it has a lot of charm despite the age of the temple. Part of the charm is from the 1 kilometer hike up through some rocky terrain to have some amazing views, fresh air, and see a very ancient temple carved out of the rock.

We start our decent on these stairs, but first we navigate past the goats.

We finally make it to the top and head over to the cave.

At the entrance . . .

Devotions to Shiva . . . Shiva is signified by the cobra.

And, Nandi is decorated with jasmine and marigolds.

Some writing carved into the wall . . .

A temple with a view . . .

Laura and J climb up to some caverns . . .
Now, off to Vaishali's for some much needed sustenance. After lunch the it has begun to rain hard and it's back home to play with Lily.

A Hike to the Talegaon Temple and Ganesha

We set out this morning to Talegaon (near to where Paul works) to hike/walk to the temple at the top of a tall hill. Here is a photo at the beginning of our walk near near the entrance.






Molly stops to pose as we climb many steps up the hill.



We finally arrive at the temple, which is literally a small room carved into the mountain, and we learn that a small pooja was being performed for Lord Shiva. We are invited to stay and witness the ceremony. Below you will see a photo depicting a man strewing garlands of marigolds around the alter. They were also pouring milk into the hanging copper pot that streamed down into a small basin at the foot of the shrine. Sweets were spread over the shrine as an offering to their god. The reason why the photo is so cloudy is due to the incense that was being burned.

A close up shot . . .

We then walk back down the hill and go home to tidy up. We drive by the enormous Ganesha statue that is being erected on the Mumbai-Pune highway in Talegaon.