No matter how big or small any state of India is,
definitely, a corner of it would be having a hidden gem, so is the case with
Maharashtra. The state proudly boasts Lonar Crater as it is just one of its type on the Planet but still remains unexplored. The moment I read CRATER, I
could feel my adrenaline rush at the highest level. The Crater can never be count in the places which you can visit on
one of your innumerable usual trips. Perhaps it is my obsession for the offbeat
places, that Lonar Crater attracted me like a magnet until I was sitting on
its corner one fine morning.
Overview
In the first glimpse, it looked like any other lake in
India, but Lonar Lake is a saline soda lake formed by a meteor impact. The lake
maintains its mystery by not allowing anybody to identify its true age.
Although people say that it is some 55000 years old but some new studies claim
that it is much older. Until studies come to the conclusion, mystery remains unfolded. As the name itself
suggests, it is created due to some meteorite impact, which hit the earth with
a high-speed, itself weighed a few
million tons. Due to this, the heat got
released which was so tremendous in amount
that it melted down the nearby rocks and water got deposited over time thus forming the lake.
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| Lonar Lake |
How it happened
It all happened when we were having lunch for the day on
some road side Dhaba after visiting Ajanta Caves. It took us some 20-30 mins to
come to the conclusion to leave for Lonar
instead of spending one more night in Aurangabad. We hit the road only to find
out that it was going to be a bumpy ride. But nothing matches the natural
scenery, from a moving car, which includes myriad of green farms on both sides
of the road, people working hard under the sun, and it was sufficient to divert
my attention from the road to the beauty of my country.
It took us around 5 hours to reach Lonar. By that time sun had already set. Lonar being a small town has
a limited number of hotels/guest houses. Although MTDC has one of its resort on
one side of Crater, but it must be booked
well in advance. So the usual hunt for
the hotel started which ended on a small lodge
named Gitam Lodge. We got two rooms; one of them was for Rs. 300 and another
for Rs. 600 for a night. Lonar crater was about 3kms from our guest house.
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| First View of Lonar Lake |
The Trek
Either you can plan to trek on its periphery which is a
total of 6 km or you can trek downwards
in the Crater itself or try both. We chose the downward trek in Crater, which
starts from the entrance gate of MTDC resort. No need to mention, with every
step you get a closer view of the green lake. Lake is surrounded by the
not-so-thick forest which offers you an
additional opportunity to spot few of the rare species of the birds. Of course, people come here to spot a variety
of birds, but we were not so lucky that time and could rarely spot few of the
birds. Nevertheless, the forest was unusually
calm and soothing, probably because of early hours of the morning and it was more than sufficient for us to enjoy
the quiet surroundings. By that time, no
other human soul was around but we three. We all kept moving, we with few inches
and cameras with few clicks.
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| Way through Forest around the Lonar Lake |
The Ancient Temples known as Yadava Temples
We could hardly walk for some meters only to find a few of the abandoned buildings which were looking
like temples. In an attempt to
sneak into one of them, we came across a ruined hall, which was quite intact in
shape but so infested with bats that no single
bat was visible owing to the darkness inside
but screams of them had filled the whole of it. This condition of the ruin which seemed to be more like one of the
oldest temples in the area was enough to
pop up the thoughts if there is nothing that we can do to maintain our heritage,
is this what we are going to leave for our future generations etc etc.
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| Shiva Temple |
The thoughts did not end
there & we found another temple in the vicinity which was damaged badly but
we could go inside it and with the help of phone light could spot a Shiva
Lingam in the sanctum. It
was quite predictable that nobody had ever cared to even clean it. We stood
there for some time drowned in our own thoughts but then like everybody else we also moved further.
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| Shiva Lingam |
On the side of the lake, few other ruined temples still
stand, probably waiting for their situation to get better in future or they
might join other ruins which are already half submerged in the water of the
lake.
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| Other ruins on the side of the Lake |
By that time, we realized that we had actually forgotten about the sunrise, got so engrossed in the beauty of the Crater and the surroundings. The color of the water
is green due to the presence of algae. Water of the lake is highly alkaline. This alkalinity of water gives it a unique feature of being highly productive ecosystem and that’s
why Lonar Lake is home to the several medicinal
and aromatic plants and shrubs. Later we got to know that it is sunset, not the
sunrise which is best viewed from the Lake. Probably next time I would be able
to embrace it.
Kamalja Devi Temple
Eventually, we reached
to the Kamalja Devi temple and relaxed for a while by the side of it. Kamalja Devi Temple is probably the only temple
on the periphery of the lake which is still well maintained. The presence of so many temples, seemed more of
an outcome of religious sentiments of the people living around in the older
era, most likely because they were not aware of the uniqueness of the lake.
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| Kamalja Devi Temple |
We entered inside the premises of Kamalja Devi Temple to
seek blessings of the Goddess, a local
deity of Lonar. Outside the temple is
standing a statue of Lord Hanuman on the back of which a weird looking tree
structure is standing. A gate is there, which is
used to reach the main temple, which has a big bell on the top of it. Just
opposite to the main temple on the side of the lake is standing a big pillar
made of bricks & cement. It must definitely have some significance but I’m
not aware of it. The architecture of the
temple is still intact depicting the creativity of the people of that era as it
is one of the oldest temples standing in Lonar.
Outside the temple, there is a big banyan tree which is
having certain things tied up to its branches by the people who have their belief
in the deity and wished her for the fulfillment of their wishes. Under the tree,
two pairs of stones are kept on one another painted in orange color same as Lord Hanuman’s. Initially,
we just noticed them but thought to enjoy the beauty of the Lake and went by
the shore of it to take pictures. While we were busy with our cameras, we
noticed a group of locals came and sat by the side of those stones.
Out of curiosity we reached there and asked them what they
were doing. They told us that if they would move one of the stones of one of the pair, then other stone on another pair would move automatically. If it
happens then their wish will definitely be granted by Kamalja Devi. We stood
there and noticed their moves for a while. You can also try the same when you
go there and let me know if you could move the stone.
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| The locals trying their luck |
The Watch Tower
We started to ascend to the periphery by a different route which lies on the side of the Kamalja Devi Temple. The route was told by the locals. This route directly took us to the Watch Tower
which is standing there to provide a full bird's
eye view of Lonar Crater. We got to the top of the Watch Tower so that our camera could make good use of itself.
We came back to our rooms, got ready for the day and checked out the guest house only to explore Lonar further.
Other Places which you must visit with Lonar Lake:
- Daitya Sudan Temple: It is a must visit if you are interested in Khajuraho Temples as it is said to be a mini replica of them. Built by Chalukya Dynasty anytime between 6th and 12th century AD.
- Gomukh: It is a perennial source of fresh water with some masonry work done by Peshwas to channelize the water.
- Motha Maruti Temple: As per legends, Hanuman Statue is said to be the actual piece of the meteorite and has magnetic properties.
- Kamalja Devi Temple: The local deity temple on the bank of Lonar Crater Lake.
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