Ancient Temple of Achaleshwar Mahadev at Achalgarh at Mount Abu in India

The famous hill station of Mount Abu, situated in the State of Rajasthan in India, is full of all types of site seeing places. The tourists can see artistic Delwara temple, beautiful view of sunset from sunset point, and various other places like Adhar Devi, Nakhi Lake, and Gurushikhar. One of the prime tourist spots at Mount Abu is Achalgarh. All the tourists including all foreigners visiting Mount Abu make sure to visit this unique place having lot of religious importance in Hindu religion. I have myself visited Achalgarh many times and hence am fully aware about its history.

Achalgarh is situated around 7 miles away from the town center of Abu. Many types of transports can be easily available to reach Achalgarh like taxi, bus, and jeeps. Make sure to book your own independent transport as otherwise the taxi and jeep owners may overload their vehicles in order to get more money. It would be better to live in the morning hours at around 9 am for visiting Achalgarh, as it would be extremely difficult to climb the mountain at Achalgarh once the heat picks up by 11 am. It may take around half an hour or so to reach Achalgarh from the town center. Achalgarh was the capital of Chauhan destiny in the ninth century. The Rajput King Rana Kumbha had conquered it from Chauhan destiny. As soon as you reach, start your climb up towards the Achalgarh fort, located at the height of around 2000 feet from its base. This route is very tough to climb for the weak and aged people and it takes around forty-five minutes to climb. There are Jain temples of Lord Adinath on the top of the mountain. The tourists can also see the palace of queen and the caves of King Harishchandra. There are two water ponds known as Shravan-Bhadarava near the fort. The aerial view of the entire area from the top of this mountain is really eye catching and beautiful.

Once you get down from the mountain, visit the Lord Shiva temple of Achaleshwar Mahadev, situated at the entrance to Achalgarh. This temple is ancient, around 3000 years old. The unique thing about this temple is it does not have Lord Shiva lingam as found in all Lord Shiva temples. But, it has a pit in place of the Lingam and the thumb impression of Lord Shiva's right leg. It is said that when Lord Shiva extended his leg from Banaras, his right leg thumb was placed here at this temple. The tourists can feel the impression of thumb by their own hands here at the temple. There is a large Nandi of brass at the temple opposite to Lord Shiva's thumb impression. One can see the hole in one of the legs of this Nandi. The story goes that when Mogul King Mahamand Begda attacked this temple, lots of bees came out from this hole on the Nandi and counterattacked the Mogul army. As a result, Mahamand Begda and his army could not destroy this holy temple. There is also a water pond opposite to this temple, which is called Mandakini Kund. This Kund was full of ghee in the ancient time. All the rishis were performing tapa here. The three devils were harassing them in the form of three buffaloes and not allowing these rishis to perform holy puja. As a result, the local king killed all three devils by bow and arrow. These buffaloes were converted to stone statues immediately after their death and still can be seen today at the bank of Mandakini pond with a hole in their bodies. There is a big shopping market here at Achalgarh having lot of shops of the souvenir items related to Mount Abu. However, make sure to negotiate the prices thoroughly prior to deciding on any purchase. Also. Make sure to carry your packed lunch and the mineral drinking water with you from your hotel, as there are no good restaurants here at Achalgarh. The tourists can start back their return journey at around 4 pm from here so as to reach Mount Abu town by around 5 pm.

I am sure that this article would encourage all my AC readers to visit this unique place at Mount Abu during their next visit to India.