Visit India - Temple of Zand Hanuman Near the City of Vadodara in Gujarat State

If you are fond of visiting places situated in the middle of thick, lush, and green forests, away from all hassles of the city, you will surely like to visit the temple of Zand Hanuman, which is situated at the distance of around 45 miles from the city of Vadodara in Gujarat State in India. I was lucky to visit this ancient, holy temple of Lord Hanuman during our recent visit to India during January 2011. I am going to share our unique experience of visiting this lovely, ancient temple with all my AC friends in this article.

It is very convenient to visit this temple of Zand Hanuman by a specially hired car from the city of Vadodara in the Gujarat State. However, the regular buses are also available from the central bus station of Vadodara for this holy temple. It takes around two hours to reach this holy temple from the city of Vadodara by bus service. However, it will take around one and a half hour only if you prefer to travel in hired car or taxi. The estimated expense of the hired car or taxi comes to around Rs.2000 ($40) for the entire trip. We started from the city of Vadodara at around 7 am in the morning with our entire family of eight. The route to this temple from Vadodara is via the towns of Halol and Pavagadh. As soon as you cross the mountain of Pavagadh, the road passes through the thick and dense forest. The condition of the road is not that good and it is worst during the rainy season from June to October, making it extremely difficult to visit this ancient temple. Once our car reached this holy temple, the entire atmosphere became cool and refreshing. The fresh cold forest air welcomed us and we all got down from the car. It is required to climb around 50 steps of stone to reach to the statue of Lord Hanuman. This statue is around 24 feet high and is believed to be nature made and not man made. This stone statue is very impressive and when we look in the eyes of Lord Hanuman, it creates the hypnotic effect in our minds. There is no roof provided on top of this statue of Lord Hanuman and it is open to sky. There is one well of sweet water situated just next to this ancient temple. This well was dug by Arjuna, one of the Pandava brothers, during their stay here in Mahabharata times with his famous bow and arrow, to satisfy the thirst of his wife queen Draupadi. The water coming from this well is very cold and sweet even today, after around 5000 years of its existence.

If you are interested in taking a walk in this thick forest, special adventurous hikes are available near by this temple. There is also a floor making machine used by Bhima, one of the Pandava brothers, during their stay here. This large size floor making machine is made of solid stone and can be visited by taking a walk for around 15 minutes in the forest area. We also visited this floor making machine and then had our picnic lunch. There are no good hotels available here at the temple. However, some simple dhaba type hotels are available which serve traditional Kathiawadi food delicacies at the rate of Rs.50 ($1.25) per person. However, the food at these restaurants may not be that healthy and it is best to avoid the same.

We relaxed for around couple of hours here in the middle of natural beauty. Finally, we started our return journey at around 4 pm in the evening and reached back to our residence in Vadodara city by around 6 pm in the evening after enjoying a wonderful outing of one full day, which was good enough to charge us with fresh energy for a period of three months at least.

I would recommend all my AC friends to make sure to visit this ancient temple of Lord Hanuman during their next visit to city of Vadodara in Gujarat State in India.

sources- information from local people