Baroda temples - 1

Friends
I am in Vadodara for my company project. I am in Vadodara for the past one month.
My project is nearing the final stage. I planned to visit near by places

First I visited the SAYAJI BAGH on 22nd January 2010. It is very near to my hotel ADITI. So I just walked to the park. From Vadodara railway station there are plenty share autos plying to the park. It is just 1km from the station.

Sayaji Bagh of Vadodara was built in 1879 by Sayajirao. Spread over 110 acres. Park is filled with lot of flowers, heap of grass and trees The one of the main attraction is the big clock. It is next to MS University. So, lot of students with their girl friends occupying the garden.

In the park we can find Baroda Museum and Art allery, founded by the Gaekwads in 1890s, The museums holds various exhibits belonging to many different subjects, viz. natural history, archeology and geology. One can also come across ancient manuscripts written by the Jain and Buddhist preachers on palm leaves and Mughal miniatures in the museum. Baroda Museum and Art Gallery also houses ancient Jain sculptures. It remains open from morning 10.00 hours to evening 5.00 hours everyday, except Thursday.

There is a ZOO and Birds sanctuary. There is a small toy train for kids.

The museum is very beautiful while watching all the pictures another person also roving alone. So I just talked to him he is Mr Amar singh Working as a IT professional. So we chatted a lot. He also want to see few places in vadodara. So we jointly seen the park.

Sayaji Bagh at Vadodara also contains a planetarium that remains open throughout the week, except Thursday. In the entrance we can see the SUNDIAL used for measuring time in olden days.

Inside the park there is a small Shiva temple behind this there is small Hanuman Temple. It remember the Ramayana when the hanuman is seen as a avatar of shiva by ravana. In the morning time most of the persons walking in the park will peep into the temple with their sports dress and shoes. It is nice seen it shows their heart than the dress code. There are several speakers in the walk ways it will be connected to the FM radio it is spreading the nice bajans in the morning


Photos can be seen in the below link
http://likes.forums-free.com/vadodara-wallpapers-t74.html


We then taken a share auto to Nyaya mandir. First we thought it is a temple. Then the automan told after dropping us. It is court. The architecture is good. They say it is Byzantine architecture. Earlier days the kings used the same place as court the place still used as a local court and judgments are given by Judges.
We moved here and there in the court. Finally we found the court used by kings. It is massive hall with balcony. The ceiling is very high approximately 2 floors high.
It is open to public from morning 11.00 to evening 5.00.

Opposite we can find the SHIV SAGAR Lake. In this a tall standing Shiva is placed.
It is a very big lake.

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Next day (23rd January 2010) I called my office colleague Mr THUSAR to accompany me. He knows Hindi & Gujarati languages. We finished our office work quickly and started to DAKOR DWARAKANATHJI temple in the afternoon.
There are frequent buses to dakor. It is a pilgrim center very famous for the Krishna temple. In full moon days from vadodara few pilgrims walks to this place.
It is approximately 50 km from vadodara. We have taken the bus at 1,30 PM and reached around 3.00PM. It is a very small village. The temple is walkable distance approximately 0,5 km from the dakor bus stand. On the way both sides there are plenty of shops selling Krishna photos, drums and other fancy items toys etc. those Krishna’s welcome us and speaking with his eyes. We can’t take away the eyes from the photos too.
We went near the temple and they said the temple open timing in the evening 4.00 to 7.30 pm only. So we went to the lake opposite to the temple
Roamed for some time and back to the temple at 4pm. Lot of people waiting outside.
The gate is marked with surya, Chandra, trees etc. once the gate is opened we all went inside we have to claim 10 steps to have darshan of dwarakanathji. The evening Aarthi started. After that priest just sit in the mandap and do the prayer. The dwarakanathji is in white dress. It is very silkly. It is aptly fitted to him. only one flower garland which add beauty to him. The bhakthas seeing the god say in chors “dhathi joorji ki jai” “dwarakanathji ki jai” Most of them clap here to get the attention of bhagwan. All show there sweets to bhagwan and do manasika naivaidyem. The hall is decorated with different type of painting it contains rasa lila and other Krishna leelas treat to our eyes.

The temple has four entrance. While doing pradhakshina we can see the live dwarakanathji in TV The CCTV technology is used here. nice to have moolastan on TV
Then we went to the lake again to spend some time and came back to vadodara.

http://www.ranchhodraijidakor.com/


EME temple

Next day is Sunday. One of my old office colleague stays in Vadodara. His name is Mr Saravanan working L&T. I called him to join the temple visit. So we went to EME temple on 24th January 2010. Situated in the cantonment near Fatehgunj it is a small and beautiful Shiva temple. Managed and maintained by the Army peoples.

The temple is constructed by army peoples in 14months and initiated by a Christian jawan. The temple contains islam style dome structure, church style tower on top kalasa by hindu style. There is Sivalinga with a bell in front of it. If you hit the bell the water flows from the pot to shivalinga. The Pot with water is placed above shivalinga. Like a child we hit the bell few times.

We came around the temple there is a radha krisha, Rama, Shiradi sai baba, Vinayaga, and Anjaneya,
Then there is a small cave in that like amaranth there is a small shivalinga on ice. The darkness in the cave & shiva nama from the tape will steal your heart.
There are plenty of statues around taken from Archeology department. Which are arranged in an order. Finally there is Buddha in sitting pose. All the places are clean and tidy even in amidst of trees. Hats off to them.