The magnificent and enchanting Harishchandragad

Many times life becomes boring, so routine and aimless. This is the time one feels like running towards the edge. In the movies people find love on the edge, while avid trekkers like me find life on the edge. Talking of edge, the one trek that really takes you towards the edge is Harishchandragad. So when I got to know that Jayesh had Harishchandragad on his itinerary, I was excited. I was going to be doing it after almost two years.
For the locals it is a pilgrimage while for the trekkers it is the magnificence that gets the adrenaline flowing. Equidistant from Mumbai and Pune, this location could be reached from Kalyan. In all we were 15 of us. We had hired cars and we took off from Mumbai at around 6.45 am from Bandra and on the Eastern Express Highway. From Kalyan, the drive was along the Ahmednagar-Kalyan road. The road traverses through the beautiful Malshej ghat. And during the monsoons the experience is most astounding. You drive along the waterfall that’s pouring from the rocks on to the roofs of the vehicles passing by. Harishchandragad guards the left edge of Malshej ghat.
As we drover along the Kalyan road we stopped for breakfast at one of our regular joints ‘Prajyot’. Everybody hogged on some tasty bhurji and omlette pav along with some tea. After breakfast we continued our journey towards the base village Kireshwar via Khubhi Phata.
Although I had been to Harishchandragad four times, this was the first time that I was doing it in the monsoons. The best part of this trek is that each time you go here it seems different. Harishchandragad is a long trek and in the monsoons it is also slightly difficult. The difficulty arises in the rock patch that one needs to traverse to get to the top point.
Considering I had not been to ‘Harish’ for so long I realized the place had changed drastically. I remember the first time around I had come to ‘Harish’ we had traveled by train to Kalyan and had to take an ST bus to Khubi-Phata and from Kubhi-Phata we had walked all the way to Kireshwar-the base village. But now there was a good road built from Khubi -Phata to Kireshwar and we could drive all the way that saved us of almost 45 minutes of walk to the base village. This village is at 4 km from the foothills of the fort.
We reached the base village around 11 am. We parked the cars and carried only the essentials for the overnight trek.
We took some rest at the base village and took off on the trek at around 12.30 pm. We had assumed we would take atleast 6-7 hours to reach the top. ‘Harish’ is a tiring trek but fun. The best part of this trek was that the weather was pleasant and it was drizzling when we took off for the fort. Mid way into the trek it started to pour. Our first halt was Tolar Kind where we stopped for lunch. We had a wet lunch that consisted of Theplas, Khakras and Rosgulla. After lunch we immediately took off. Walking few minutes from Tolar Khind, we come across a rock-patch on which railings are fixed. This is the most difficult aspect of the trek for the first timers. Despite the railings fixed there is some amount of fear that everyone goes through. The fear of slipping down and if you do then it is a straight drop. We had no such problems we managed very well on the rocks.
After ascending the railings, we come to the plateau region on which less dense forests are seen. From here, we walked for another to 2 hours and reached the temple of Harishchandreshwar- the temple of Lord Shiva. It was slightly difficult to spot the temple as the entire place of foggy and we could not see beyond a distance. Then suddenly we spotted a villager who led us to the caves.
Note: On this way, many arrows help in indicating the way.
As against our assumption of six-seven hours we actually made it to the top in five hours flat. While some from our group had already reached the caves with Jayesh, Yogit and Myself along with a few others reached about half hour later.
The cave was a blessing in disguise we were lucky to have got one large cave for ourselves as there were other trekkers too.
Once inside the cave everybody changed into dry clothes to feel warm and better. We relaxed by playing dumb-charades, singing and general chit-chat. For all the first time trekkers, the experience of traversing the rock patch and reaching the top and staying inside a cave was an exciting feeling and a completely different experience.
After relaxing for a while… Yogita and myself along with Jayesh got ready to prepare dinner for the gang. The menu was soup and dal kichidi along with some garlic chutney and masala papads. The sweet dish was Kaju Katri barfis. It was awesome!! Once after dinner we sang for a while and once the sleeping bags were given out nobody could wait to get into the cosy bag and doze off. The next thing I remembered was waking up at 6 am. I called for some tea from the ‘local mama’ who had parked himself in the next cave. The local mama actually provides for tea and also can get food prepared for you if you want.
Slowly and steadily everyone woke up by about 7 am and we once again got ready to prepare breakfast. It was Poha for the morning. Shuchi volunteered to make the morning breakfast and she made some tasty poha that left everyone licking their fingers.
By the time we finished breakfast it was around 9.30 and we decided it was time to pack up and start our journey back to the base village. On the way we had planned to stop at the Harishchandreshwar temple and take a good look at the historical temple and then proceed to climb down.
We set out from the cave at around 11 am and headed straight to the temple. The temple is marvelous example of the fine art of carving sculptures out of stones that existed in ancient India. Around this temple there a few caves & ancient water tanks. The river Mangal Ganga is said to originate from one of the tanks located close to the temple. There are three main caves near the temple. The cisterns near the temple provide drinking water. A short distance away, there is another Shiva temple. The fascinating thing about this temple is that it has been carved out from a single huge rock. Along side there is a huge cave filled with water and there is a ‘Shiv Ling’ in the centre. This cave stands on two and half pillars. The water it is said is filled through the 365 days of the year and is ice cold and never dries up.
The other interesting spot that one must visit on a trek to Harishchandragad is Konkan Kada. But this is possible only when you trek in the winters. Konkada according to me is India’s answer to the Grand Canyon. From Konkan Kada one can get a breathtaking view of the surrounding region and the setting sun. This cliff is a 900 ft vertical fall shaped in a sort of semi-circular edge. The wind tends to be very heavy here and due to the obstruction by the cliffs, it sweeps up vertically against the wall. It is said that a rainbow as a circle can sometimes be seen from here. That is known as the Broken Spectre... It can be seen only when there is a bit of mist in the valley, and the sun is right behind the person facing the valley. After a complete tour of the temple we quickly proceeded to descend the hill. The rock patch wasn’t a problem for us, we tackled it carefully and quite comfortably. It hadn't rained much during our whole trek down.
We were at the base village by 5 pm and completely famished as we had not eaten anything after breakfast. We ordered for good sumptuous lunch that comprised of dal, chaval, chapati, sabzi and achar and hogged it as though there was no tomorrow. Once we were done with our food. We were all ready to head back home. Many of them changed into their fresh clothes and got into the cars and we headed back to Mumbai.
All in all it was a great group and a memorable experience for me.

History of Harishchandragad
Let me now briefly take you through the history of Harishchandragad. The fort is quite ancient. Research indicates that remnants of Microlithic man have been discovered here. The various Puranas (ancient scriptures) like Matsyapurana, Agnipurana and Skandapurana include many references about Harishchandragad. Its origin is said to have been in 6th century, during the rule of Kalchuri dynasty. The citadel was built during this era. The various caves probably have been carved out in the 11th century. In these caves are idols of Lord Vishnu. There are two peaks atop the caves these are Taramati and Rohidas.
Great sage Changdev (one who created the epic “Tatvasaar”), used to meditate here in 14th century. The caves are from the same period. The various constructions on the fort and those existing the surrounding region point to the existence of diverse cultures here. The carvings on the temples of Nageshwar (in Khireshwar village), in the Harishchandreshwar temple and in the cave of Kedareshwar indicate that the fort belongs to the medieval period, since it is related to Shaiva, Shakta or Naath. Later the fort was under the control of Moguls. The Marathas captured it in 1747.
(Source Wikipedia)

Team of 15:
Nitin, Shuchi, Anindya, Myra, Vinod, Ashutosh, Kawaljeet, Manasi, Vikat, Samidha, Zen, Shweta, Jayesh, Yogita and myself –Anusha.