Nashik, a tourist center with links to the Mahabharata

#ramayana #mahabharata #muktidham #ayodha #Kurukshetra #nashik Nashik is a unique city that can boast of links to both the Indian epics Ramayana and the Mahabharata. As we all know, Ramayana is centered around Ayodha while the famous battle between the Kauravas and the Pandavas was held in Kurukshetra – and, both Ayodha and Kurukshetra are in north India. But, by a quirk of fate, Lord Rama and the Pandava brothers had spent some time in Nashik!!
Yes, believe it or not, the city of Nashik has links to the epic Mahabharata.
As one enters the city from the Mumbai side by road, one can see a range of mountains on the right hand. On top of these mountains is Pandavleni caves or the Pandav caves. There are quite a number of caves and the mythology goes that the five Pandava brothers had spent a part of their 14-year exile in these caves.
At the foothills of the Panduleni caves is a modern day park built in the 1990s – it is the Dadasaheb Phalke Smarak, a person who was a legend in his lifetime in the age of black and white movies.
Anyway, there is another link between Nashik and the Mahabharata. The name itself speaks volumes because ‘nasik’ means the nose. As per mythology, Bhima, one of the Pandava brothers, had chopped off the nose of Surpanakha, a she-demon, and it fell here in Nashik. If you visit the place called Tapovan, you can see the sight depicted in the form of a statue.
The fact of the matter is that Nashik has hundreds of temples and, while taking in these places of worship, one just cannot miss the Someshwar temple – a temple of Lord Shiva, situated on the banks of the Godavari. It is a picnic spot and has facilities for boating.
Near to this is the replica of the temple of Lord Balaji of Tirupati that one sees in the mountains of Thirumala in Andhra Pradesh.

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Nashik, a tourist center with links to the epic Ramayana

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