Beautiful Brahmagiri trek with hidden tunnels to Bhandardurg ❤️

Brahmagiri & Bhandardurg ( Durg Bhandar ) trek were on my radar for a long time. Brahmagiri has huge religious sentiment as it is the origin of River Godavari and Lord Shankar appeared here to absolve Goutam Rishi. There is another fort on the other side of Brahmagiri known as DurgaBhandar or Bhandardurg fort. Durgabhandar / Bhandardurg is quite beautiful & unique as it entrance is carved through huge rocks via stairs & tunnels. Additionally it has a huge rock bridge as well, well its difficult to express in words – scroll through photos for better understanding. I was here to witness the grand entrance of Bhandardurg. The first portion of this Brahmagiri Bhandardurg trek blog describes the Brahmagiri trek while the latter portion describes Bhandardurg trek. While the last part will discuss few more temples at the bottom of the fort. More adventures like this one at the end of the post.

How difficult is Brahmagiri trek ?

Its a pleasant climb to the top. However the monkeys do cause havoc on the stairs. The best way is to not look them in the eyes & carry you backpack in front, If you have girls with you make sure to carry their backpacks as monkeys try to snatch them.

Bro tip:

• Try to take the normal route beside the stairs wherever possible while getting down to reduce stress on knees
• Carry some spare food which you can use to divert the monkeys attention.
• Also keep your cameras mobile etc packed properly within the confines of your bag. Loose items will be snatched. A monkey stole a girls purse which had her iPhone6. Monkeys still send selfies to her friends 😁

The BhandarDurg trek is easy but definitely not meant for those who are scared of heights.

Things to see on Brahmagiri Fort

1. At the entrance there are two doors & the rock cut stairs. Few rock cut tanks as well
2. For religious people – Shiv jata Temple, The Origin of river Godavari, The Brahmagiri temple
3. Anjaneri fort visible on the East side
4. Harihar fort visible on the west side

How to reach Brahmagiri from Mumbai and Pune ?

One can easily reach from Nashik to Trimbakeshwar (29 Km) through the various transport facilities available. Below photo shows how Brahmagiri & Bhandardurg are sister forts

As shown above there are many temples below the fort as well on top of it. To reach Bhandardurg you will first need to climb Brahmagiri & then walk towards it. As such there is only way to reach the top following the blue route mentioned above

Brahmagiri & Bhandardurg trek : TheFreeBird’s story

My freind picked me up at Kalyan around midnight & we started on the Nashik highway. We took a left from Ghoti Budruk to reach Trimbakeshwar at about 3 in the morning. After a short 2 hrs nap we started the trek.  Walking under the moonlight was a cool experience.

In the year 1908 these 500 stone steps were built at a cost of Rs. 40,000. We saw beautiful carvings on the way like the following

By the time we reached the main stairs the sky started to get more colourful. The sun would be out soon.

Here is where we had the first encounter with the monkeys near the stairs. Even this early in the morning the monkeys were in complete aggressive mode. They dont think twice before attacking the people. We were 7 well built guys , but it was irrelevant to them. We packed our cameras in the bag and use sticks as a weapons. First I felt mad at the behavior of the monkeys, but then it was we who were intruding their space. Kind of whats happening in the world. This little stint with monkeys got me excited as I know similar thing would happen on the stairs of Bhandardurg

Monkeys  were guarding these stairs which are beautiful architectural wonders . Imagine cutting the stone with hammers into such masterpiece. Respect. All though out this rock-cut trail are various idols carved idols . Ohh the skills .

Religious History Of Brahmagiri

Lord Shankar was pleased with Lord Brahma when he meditated here and said ” I shall be known by your name”. Hence it is called as Brahmagiri. Five peaks of this mountain are called Sadyo-Jata, Vamdev, Aghora, Ishana and Tat-Purusha and are considered as five mouths of the Lord Shiva and they are worshipped.

The water flows in three directions on the Brahmagiri mountain. The one flowing towards east becomes Godavari river, one flowing towards the south is Vaitarna river and the one flowing towards the west is called the west-flowing Ganga and meets Godavari near Chakra Tirth. River Ahilya meets Godavari in front of the Trimbakeshwar temple. Childless families worship at the Ahilya sangam and it is believed that they do get a child. Many saints have supposed to done penance on this hill and as such this hill has a lot of religious value.

Looking at the carvings & keeping an eye out for monkeys we reached the second entrance ( again carved in a huge rock face). Crossing this door we can see the stairs cut in the huge rock. The coolness as you walk through this rocky tunnel stairs was noticeable.

At the end of the stairs, we reached the plateau where we could see the skies lit beautifully. Sun rise is on the way

The sun had just reached the horizon and the view was amazing. Going ahead there are many idols , Shiv lings & Hanuman Mandirs on the way. Moving further towards Brahmagiri i saw the entire hill being covered in sonki and small purple flowers. The entire mountain had come alive with colourful vibrance.

At the top Harihar fort became visible. Few days back when i was there the fort appeared humungous, but from here its just a small speck. Compared to that we humans are even more tiny in this huge canvas of life & we still cling on to our huge egos . Its time we give up those and embrace kindness & humility. I guess the spiritual ambience of Brahmagiri has got me philosphical. Back to the Brahmagiri trek blog.

Once at the top, all the temples are near by. We decided to visit all the temples and complete Brahmagiri trek & move on to Bhandardurg. These 3 temples below are supposed to be origin of 3 different rivers Godavari, vaitarna & west flowing Ganga (which meets Godavari). First we headed to the Shiv jata mandir situated on the western border of the Brahmagiri at the very edge.

Shiv jata Mandir

Brahmagiri Temple

Mulganga

Towards the south of Brahmagiri is a Hathi Darwaja ( Doors used for getting Elephants on the fort) . However the door has been in shambles due to loose rocks and erosion. We decided to visit  it some times later in the future. Instead had a small brunch. Nothing can beat cold lemonade on a hot day. With the sun out the things looked different than in the morning. We started towards the Bhandardurg trek.

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Bhandardurg Trek – The Rock cut miracle

History of Bhandardurg

From the year 1271 to almost 1311 the fort was under the regime of King of Devgiri. Around about 1553 , Nijamshahi took control of this fort. On Nijamshahi’s behalf the fort was controlled by Shahaji Raje from 1633 to 1636. After that the fort changed hands to The Mughals. By 1670 the fort was bought in Swarajya by Moropant Pingle. By 1691 the fort was again the control of Mughals.

In the year 1752, the warrior from Peshwa’s camp, Trimbak Suryaji Prabhu wrested the fort and established the Peshwa’s regime there. It was in the year 1818 that British forces led by Mc Dowell wrested the fort and gained upper hand in the region as the forces won a set of 16 other forts in the vicinity.

How Difficult is Bhandardurg trek ?

Its easy. 20 minutes of walking from Brahmagiri will can take you to the rocky tunnels. This rocky route may be a bit of issue for people scared of heights. The scenic route passes through the edge of the hill with yellow flowers all the way till the steps of the Bhandardurg.

There is a hanuman idol carved in the rocks at the start of the stairs. The stairs beautifully cut inside the huge rocks are an architectural marvel. Just to give the reference of the height have a look at this

At the end of the stairs , the steps curve a bit to lead to a small opening to take us across. One can only crawl across this spot due to the space crunch.

This used to be a full fledged door which is now appears as a small window due to the soil completely covering the area. Once we are across the tunnel we can see the rocky bridge to the vast rocky  walls of the Bhandardurg fort.

This narrow path connect us to another set of similar rock cut tunnel stairs on the other side which go to the top of the Bhandardurg. If one is to look at Bhandardurg fort from far away, the route would not be visible to the naked eye. As such we can see the smartness in building such a formidable fort. Through the small entrance we reach the another section of the rock cut stairs with the same “Slide & Glide”. The stairs are beautiful to say the least.

Once I climbed to the top of stairs Brahmagiri fort became visible in the backdrop.

We walked further to reach the end of the fort where we had rock cut stairs to lead us to a bastion / buruj

The spot has commanding position and gives a large area coverage of the Trimbak region. Very strategic location. We enjoyed the cool wind for sometime. I just sat there trying wrap my head around the fact that such architectural marvels were designed without any modern technology. All the huge rocks were carved with sheer will power. After enjoying this vantage point it was time to go back.

We took the same route back to reach the Shiv Jata mandir and started our descend . On the entrance stairs monkeys had become more aggressive. A big monkey kept on walking forward towards us. Finally some bright mind threw a piece of chapatti at the side of the road to distract the monkey and let us pass away. Classic example of protection money.

At the bottom of the hill we reached a old house what looked like a deserted palace with the Brahmagiri in the back drop. The palace is very beautiful with intricate carvings & idols. However it has been defaced by idiots who dont appreciate our culture & history. There is water tank behind the palace

After that we put our religious caps on and decided to do the famous shrines at the bottom of the rocky walls of bhandardurg.

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Gangadwar, Gorakshanath cave & 108 Swayambhu Jyotirlinga:

 Ganga dwar can be reached through around 700 stairs from Trymbakeshwar directly. Since were at a higher altitude we took the shortcut as I have mentioned in the the map at the start of the blog. The shopkeepers said it would be covered in 30 minutes.

Gangadwar:

There is a shrine dedicated to Goddess Ganga. The river appears here as coming out from the mouth of Nandi. The water for this Ganga first starts from the two temples we visited earlier , the water then vanishes into the mountain to reappear over here and then to vanish again

108 swayambhu shivalingas

GuruGorakshanath Cave:

After this spot we had no strength in us. We came down to our XUV. Had a big lunch in a nearby hotel  and left for Mumbai.

Bye !!

That’s it for the Durg Bhandar / Brahmagiri Bhandardurg trek blog.