Latest news with #GreatStupa
India.com
2 days ago
- India.com
This Weekend, Ditch the Car — These Bhopal Bike Routes Will Change How You Travel
The city of Bhopal functions as an entry point to multiple exciting motorcycle trips throughout central India's scenic routes while maintaining its standing for cultural history and key sites. The prime location of Bhopal enables motorcycle thrill-seekers to discover the surrounding forest areas while visiting ancient temples and visiting lakes and wildlife sanctuaries. Seven remarkable motorcycle routes starting from Bhopal will create memorable weekend adventures for people seeking adventure. 1. The visit to Bhimbetka Rock Shelters allows travelers to step into history. Distance: Approximately 45 km (one way) Travel Time: Around 1 hour Travelers can find the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Bhimbetka Rock Shelters among the closest fascinating attractions in proximity to Bhopal. The prehistoric treasure at Bhimbetka Rock Shelters comprises about 700 rock shelters with prehistoric paintings extending from beyond 30,000 years old. During the journey passengers experience a gentle ride as they see farmland with charming villages and scenic rural areas. Spend adequate time viewing the historical artwork of the site while enjoying the peaceful surroundings before you return to Bhopal. 2. Sanchi Stupa – A Spiritual Retreat Distance: Approximately 46 km (one way) Travel Time: Around 1 hour Situated nearby Bhopal stands Sanchi which features the famous Great Stupa as its star attraction together with being classified as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. During Ashoka's rule a Buddhist memorial appeared which embodies both Indian artistic vision and sacred principles. Travellers experience a pleasant drive exploring the route to Sanchi because it passes through paths that offer panoramic views of nature. You should dedicate time to meditate at the stupa followed by visiting nearby monasteries before doing so. 3. Van Vihar National Park – Nature at Its Finest Distance: Less than 10 km (one way) Travel Time: Around 20 minutes Individuals who need a brief yet invigorating break should visit Van Vihar National Park. The expansive refuge at Upper Lake welcomes visitors who can see resident deer along with monkeys and migrating birds. Visitors can make relaxed drives through Bhopal's lakefront streets to see natural splendor while they need little movement within the park area. The journey to this destination makes a perfect selection for a six-hour exploration. 4. Pachmarhi Hill Station – The Queen of Satpura Distance: Approximately 210 km (one way) Travel Time: Around 5-6 hours Pachmarhi holds the title of 'Queen of Satpura' because this hill station finds its home within extensive wooded areas along with dramatic rocky formations. The trip from Bhopal to Pachmarhi features an exciting journey stretching across hundreds of kilometers as it reveals scenic views of Dhuandhar Falls and Dhuandhar Cave together with Echo Point observation points. The stretched distance between points becomes more manageable because the highways remain in excellent condition. A complete connection to this lush paradise requires an overnight stay. 5. Hoshangabad and Narmada River – Serenity Along the Banks Distance: Approximately 75 km (one way) Travel Time: Around 1.5 hours Visiting Hoshangabad presents an opportunity to experience a special combination of historical sites, cultural attractions and natural landscapes. The town exists near the holy Narmada River where it attracts visitors through its religious importance and its active marketplaces. From start to finish you will travel past little towns as well as endless agricultural lands. Take advantage of the river's sunset viewing experience while also visiting the Tawa Reservoir because these natural features make this serene destination even more attractive. 6. Indore via Dewas – Urban Exploration Meets Scenic Routes Distance: Approximately 185 km (one way) Travel Time: Around 4 hours A trip to Indore represents an excellent option as Madhya Pradesh's biggest city where you can reach by driving this slightly extended route. Dewas offers visitors historic temples along with stepwells that should be visited while traveling towards it. You can have plenty of open-road enjoyment as the Bhopal to Indore highway offers smooth surfaces with agricultural fields beside it. Indore's residents can experience local food favorites poha-jalebi before they check out Rajwada Palace and Sarafa Bazaar on their journey back. 7. Raisen Fort and Bhojpur Temple – Historical Marvels Await Distance: Approximately 40 km (to Raisen Fort) + 20 km (to Bhojpur Temple) Travel Time: Around 1 hour each A combination of Raisen Fort and Bhojpur Temple attracts historical enthusiasts to a single-day excursion through their region. Your first stop on the motorcycle tour should be Raisen Fort which stands proudly on a hill dominating the entire horizon. You should proceed from there to Bhojpur where you can see the Bhojeshwar Temple which remains unfinished but will leave you in awe because of its dedication to Lord Shiva. The historical sites located near Bhopal can be reached easily because of their convenient accessibility. Tips for a Memorable Motorcycle Road Trip The first task begins with examining road conditions alongside weather reports because of their importance for your journey. A traveler should pack lightly with water and food as well as medicine and minimal bike maintenance tools and a first-aid emergency kit. The first priority for comfort and protection during riding involves wearing helmets together with gloves as well as riding jackets. Drinking water regularly remains vital for travelers since the Central Indian regions experience intense heat throughout the journey. People visiting places with cultural or religious value should modify their dress code while honoring local guidelines. Stop for refreshment whenever possible since these moments let you appreciate the surroundings while resting. To preserve your trip memories, bring either a camera or utilize your smartphone to record special moments. Conclusion Bhopal functions as an ideal location from where people can start thrilling motorcycle tours that satisfy travelers of all backgrounds including historians and nature enthusiasts and those looking for seclusion. The state of Madhya Pradesh presents visitors seven magnificent locations that will create action-packed weekends packed with discovery and lasting memories. The moment has come to get ready for driving adventures that will start now.
The Guardian
18-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Ancient India review – snakes, shrines and sexual desire power a passionate show
About 2,000 years ago, Indian art went through a stunning transformation led, initially, by Buddhists. From being enigmatically abstract it became incredibly accomplished at portraying the human body – and soul. You can see this happen in the bustling yet harmonious crowd of pilgrims and gift-givers you meet about a third of the way through this ethereal and sensual show. Two horses bearing courtiers or merchants are portrayed in perfect perspective, their rounded chests billowing, their bodies receding. Around them a crowd of travelling companions, on horseback and foot, are depicted with the same depth. Their bodies and faces are full of life, in a frenetic pageant, a bustling carnival, yet this human hubbub is composed with order and calm. It's a Buddhist masterpiece, which helps explain the inner harmony: one of a group of stunning reliefs in this show from the Great Stupa of Amaravati, excavated in the early 1800s by the East India Company and now owned by the British Museum. A stupa is a domed structure holding Buddhist or Jain relics, perhaps modelled on prehistoric mounds, but this one was embellished in the first century AD with sublime pictorial art. Buddha himself stands further along the slender stone block, taller and more still than everyone else. The exact dates of Siddhartha Gautama, the teacher and seeker of enlightenment who became the Buddha, are unknown but by the time this work was created the movement he started was about 500 years old and spearheading one of the most influential renaissances in the story of world art. This exhibition gets to that artistic truth in an unlikely way. It doesn't bother with the minutiae of stylistic change or dynastic history. Instead, it tells a passionate story about the three great religions of ancient India – Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism – and their vitality across time. You meet practitioners of these faiths in Britain today, sharing their devotion on film. This is a wonderfully direct way to blast the museum dust off such ancient art – and when that dust clears, you get a much better sense of its living power. Hindu and Jain beliefs are older than Buddhism (far older, in the case of Hinduism) but it was after the Buddhist breakthrough in storytelling art that they too became brilliantly figurative. Is it crude to see this as competition? It was at the very least a dialogue. At first I mistook a display of beautiful Jain statues for Bodhisattvas, Buddhist saints. In fact, the slender swaying grace of these figures embodies the ascetic Jain ideal of universal compassion. Yet the biggest, most spectacular artistic transformation was achieved by Hinduism. You can't get a friendlier, more paradoxically human deity than the elephant-headed Ganesha. A statue of him in this show, dating from about AD1100 to AD1200, is a technical miracle in the way the artist fuses an elephant's head with a human body – both precisely observed. But it's the pathos that gets you, the artist's intuition of the wisdom and sensitivity of elephants. Ganesha here is not just divine but lovable. Such moving, homely art is a long way from a black stone lingam, the older, aniconic Hindu representation of Shiva as a male tube being inserted into a female yoni. But sexual desire is a feeling too and the big difference between Christianity and the religions here is Indian sacred art's embrace of the erotic. Statuettes and plaques that date from as early as 300BC depict Yaksis, female nature spirits, with jewellery on their curvy bodies and the same spherical, bulging breasts that you see throughout the show. Female sexual and reproductive power are celebrated simultaneously in the art of all three great religions. Another relief from the Great Stupa of Amaravati portrays The Birth of the Buddha. Its main character is Gautama's mother, Queen Maha Maya. She lies on a bed in a curvy pose, and gives birth in a posture almost as luxuriant. Growing up in a Protestant Christian church, I thought of religion as a taking away, a denial. Here it is an addition – human and elephant, spirit and body, dream and reality. Life infuses these religions: they don't oppose themselves to it. That appetite for reality, as they attempt to make sense of the cosmos, mortality and desire, to find the dharma, must be what made India's religions so exportable. Many of us don't think of Buddhism as specifically Indian because it has spread so far so quickly. One of the most captivating works here is a silk painting of the Buddha set in a dreamworld of deep reds and greens, from a cave near Dunhuang, China, created in the eighth century AD. Nearby in the same final space is a statue of Ganesha from Java, one of the many places Hinduism took root. This is an exhibition with a true sense of mystery. Not just in the atmospheric way it is lit with coloured misty veils separating displays, or even the marvels you encounter such as a nagini snake goddess floating in the shadows – but in the way it worships life. Ancient India: Living Traditions is at the British Museum, London, from 22 May to 19 October
