Friday, May 6, 2016

A quiet afternoon on the banks of Krishna at Menawali

Menawali  is a village about three kilometres from Wai in the Satara district of Maharashtra, India. As Sunder had already visited the place long back with his photographic club friends, he wanted us too enjoy the quaint charms of ghats at Menavali. From symmetrically laid down steps, spread in vast area , the elegant wall of Wada of Nana Pahandwis, the temples at the ghat to peaceful Krishna flowing placidly, the green surroundings and simple daily chores being conducted on the ghats by the village folks.....everything at the place had a balmy impact on  heart. The leisurely pace with which life seems to move here provide a restful feeling.

There are two openings to enter the ghat. We entered from the lane near Vishnu temple. Even at the first glance one is bound to have a cozy , comfortable feel .The wall of wada running along the wide platform leading to steps provide a kind of privacy to this ghat. May be that was the purpose when the ghat was originally constructed. It might have been designed for the exclusive use of inhabitants of Phadanvis wada. Today too I feel it is used mainly by women folk or may be the time we reached there it was occupied mainly by women busy in washing clothes etc.

Vishnu temple is built  on the highest level. Long steps from it's outer wall descend to the level where Shiva temple is erected on a high ,wide. square platform. We could not go inside the campus of Vishnu temple as the door leading to it was closed. However had a nice, peaceful meeting with Lord Shiva. It felt as if Shivlinga was installed on the bank of River and then high squarish platform raised around it and then in the middle the temple walls and shikhara were erected. Why I felt that ? narrow steps lead us to the garbhgrah. The garbhgrah was very deep and dark. If not the recorded voices of Shloka playing continuously ,it would have been difficult to reach Shivlinga.

We sat for a long time on the platform at the back of temple. From there we could see the steps leading to Vishnu temple, it's Shikhara, the fields behind it, the forests , trees running on both the sides of Krishna river, the river itself flowing calmly and then turning , getting lost midst the trees. At a distance in front of us we could see the village belle coming with the loads of clothes on head. Few were already their washing clothes.At a distance a man was bathing his bullocks, a dog was leisurely swimming in the stream. Travelling from a distance the voices and laughter of women reached us in soft, tinkling notes. Ripples of Krishna added to the sweetness of the hour.The moment was wrapped in a blissful indolence.

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All the pictures by SUNDER IYER.

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