Visiting Sacred Sidhapur in India to Perform Religious Rituals After the Death

State of Gujarat in India has many places of pilgrimage that are regularly visited by the Hindu pilgrims. One such vital place of pilgrimage is Sidhapur. Sidhapur is located in Northern part of Gujarat State in India. It has tremendous importance in the Hindu religion and it is considered equal to places like Gaya and Allahabad of Northern India. When a person dies, his shradh ritual is to be performed after one year of his death as per Hindu mythology. Such vidhi for the dead fathers are performed by the elder sons at Gaya in North India. However, for dead mothers, such ritual is to be performed by the younger sons at Sidhapur in Gujarat State. This is the reason Sidhapur is always found full of people throughout the year to perform such religious ritual behind their dead mothers.

I had visited Sidhapur last year to perform such ritual for my mother who had passed away before around couple of years. You can reach Sidhapur by road through State transport buses or the hired car or taxi. It is not convenient to go to Sidhapur by train. Sidhapur is a small town having population of mere 20000 people. It is around 69 miles away from Ahmedabad and is on the national high way 8B near Mehsana. The road is excellent and it hardly takes around 2 hours to drive from Ahmedabad. You have to go to Bindu Sarovar to perform the religious ritual. This Bindu Sarovar is considered equally holy to the triveni sangam at Allahabad. There are three water ponds here. As soon as you reach Bindu Sarovar, lots of Brahmins come rushing towards you insisting to perform your religious rituals through them. Make sure to hire priest that is assigned to your caste. He is the only person authorized to perform such ritual after the death of your loved mother. The ritual takes around 3 hours and during this ritual, you have to take baths 3 times. The first bath in the first pond is to be taken at the beginning of the ritual. The second bath is required during the ritual and finally, the third bath is to be taken after the completion of the ritual.

There are few other spots also to be seen at Sidhapur. The most important is Rudra Mahalay, built by Sidharaj Jaisinh, who was the king of Gujarat in the year 1206. He was the ruler of Solanki caste and was the staunch follower of lord Shiva. This mahalay was built by him to show his love and faith on lord Shiva. It had seven stories originally having total height of 185 feet. There are only around 50 feet left now of this gorgeous mahalay and that too is in very bad shape. The government has not been able to preserve this vital historical monument unfortunately. The next spot is Kapila Ashram. This ashram was established by Shankaracharya Maharaj of Dwarka to take care of sick cows needing the help of medical treatment. The temple of Govind Mahadev is also famous spot here. This lord Shiva temple is around 600 years old. The Vora building is the last item that must be visited. It has beautiful glass engraving and the collection of glass paintings.

It would be advisable to carry your own bottled drinking water and the food with you as the items available here may not be hygienic. You need not stay for the night here as there are no good hotels here. Some dharmashalas are only available, which are not up to the standard. The best way is to reach Sidhapur by around 11 am and leave back after all site seeing and rituals at around 4 pm so that you can be back to your destination by late evening hours.

In spite of such limitations, each and every Hindu needs to visit this holy place to perform the religious ritual as per Hindu mythology at least once in their life.