When the Mountains Called - II

The next day we woke up at 9 and rushed again through our morning chores. By 10.30 we had checked out of the hotel and were on our way to the first destination – Guru Shikhar.


Guru Shikhar
Covering nearly 7 kms of hilly coal tarred road we finally reached Guru Shikhar. At an altitude of 5,676 feet (1722 meters), is the highest point in Rajasthan. Guru Shikhar has an amazing view of Mt Abu and the surrounding peaks.


Before our ascent to the top began we had breakfast. With the altitude, climbing up was difficult and both me and my friend blamed it on the white stick (cigarette). But once we realized that everyone around was panting, it dawned on us that it’s the air pressure which was making breathing difficult. We reached the top of the peak to be welcomed by a cool strong breeze and a beautiful view of the surroundings.





The peak has a temple of Dattatreya, an incarnation of Lord Vishnu. There is a huge brass bell outside the shrine, that overlooks the lush greenery of Mount Abu. A little to the north-west of it is another peak on which stands the shrine of Ahilya, the mother of Dattatreya. The landscape of surrounding plains from the high peaks is simply breathtaking.

On top of Guru Shikhar, The Dattatreya temple and

The Huge Bell

There’s another temple below which looks magnificent from the top. My colleague in office commented that it looked like the temple in the movie "Border".

We were racing against time since I had to take a train from Ahmedabad back to Mumbai so we decided to skip a few not so important sites and head straight for the world famous Delwara Temples .

Delwara Temples
We had to deposit our cameras and cell phones at the locker room since photography was strictly prohibited. The temple opens at 7 in the morning for Jains and at 12 noon for the general public.

The Delwara temples were built between 11th and 13th century AD and dedicated to Jain Tirthankaras. The temple is a cluster of 5 temples of which the Vimal Vashi temple is the oldest. There’s an interesting fable as to how the name Delwara came to be.
"During the time the temple was being constructed, the scrap used to be accumulated at the end of the day and thrown out. Using that scrap the local artists created another temple which was bigger than the original ones. Since these artists worked from their heart i.e "Dil Se" and not for money it came to be known as "Dilwala" which in Gujrati translates to ‘Delwara’!”

These temples are one the finest examples of ancient Indian Temple Architecture. Built in marble and chiselled to perfection, the carvings rivals that of the more illustrious "Taj Mahal". The image below has been taken from www.mountabu.com and just illustrates a bit of the beauty and elegance of the carvings.

The carvings on the dome have 3 layers. Each layer represents different sculpture and it has been carved from single stones.

Another interesting factor in the architecture was the domes at the top of the temples. These were built to give an impression to Muslim invaders that it was a mosque. Some foresight :)

After the hugely satisfying trip to Delwara and some shopping too we finally took off for Ahmedabad. Stopped in between for a beer and light lunch. Once we left the mountains we realised how hot it was outside. The drive back to Ahmedabad was not so eventful except when a monkey appeared all of a sudden to cross the road and we had to brake really hard to avoid hitting the our simian ancestor :).

Back to office on Monday in the grind of life, I still wait for another call from the mountains.