Maithon travel: rediscovered this place in a week end trip

Our week end Durga Puja tour got cancelled due to rain and heavy cyclone Phailin in Orissa. So we were planning for a quick weekend tour near Kolkata. We were discussing of various options for 2-3 days tour in nearby weekend gateways from Kolkata. We finally selected Maithon as our weekend destination. This was our second trip to Maithon , but place was so good and enriched with natural beauties , our family members agreed to for Maithon tour for the second time after 3 years .

Since this tour was planned in a day notice, so we were  sure not get any place at  Majumder Niwas . But we are on holiday mood, so we immediately booked Car and six people (two family ) set out for Maithon Darson .

View of Bhandar hill from our hotel room

Now, where to stay at Maithon ?

Since tour plan was done in a hurry, so planed to book hotel after reaching there. In fact, there are many hotels near Kalyaneshwari temple. We checked 2-3 hotels there. It was not a rush time , so we easily got our room. We booked one of the best hotels named “ Hotel Yatri Niwas “ . Room rent stars from 500 to Rs 1000. We booked two deluxe A/c room at Rs. 1000 per night. Very good hotel with lots of space , clean , homely food and the most important it is safe .

Hotel booking information: If you miss booking at Majumder Niwas , then you can check about 8 -10 hotels near kalyaneshwari temple . And 2-3 hotels are good. Here I mention booking number of Hotel Yatri Niwas  ( Ph -03412520004 /M- 09563568709) .

Rediscovering Maithon :

We have already visited Maithon , so this time we planned to cover unexplored places and distant tourist attractions from Maithon .

I have already shared my Maithon experience in my first article on Maition Travel . Here I plan to cover some new places those we missed during our first visit .

1. Amarnath Shiv mandir: It’s located atop Bhandar Pahar ( Bhandar hill ) . It is very close to our hotel, in fact we could see  the Mandir from my hotel balcony . We climbed the rocks to reach top. From here you can see full views of Maithon Dam. Approach road to temple  is full of stones , so it’s a almost 45 degree climbing along the hilly roads . You can locate the entry gate near check naka before entering DVC dam area.

Way to Amarnath Shiv mandir at Bhandar hill

We spend some time there, very cools views of vast swathe of greens forests over the hillocks and dams made our mind fresh.

Amarnath Shiv mandir on the top of Bhandar hill

2. Garpanchkot – This is really one of the best memories in Maition . Last time, we could not go there. But this time, we targeted this place with top priority for visit. This place is 40 Km off from Maithon. After morning breakfast, our team set out for Garpanchkot .

Garpanchkot Garh -awesome view!

It was a long journey through country side in Jharkhand. On the way we first reached Panchet dam. We didn’t stop there, as we planned to spend time there during our return journey from Garpanchkot . So we crossed the Panchet dam and followed the road heading toward the Panchyet Hill.

Awesome view of Panchyet Hill on the way to Chinnamasta Mandir

But you trust me, if you like to enjoy your journey, you must take  journey to make round of that beautiful Panchyet Hill . You can directly go to Garpanchkot directly taking right from this main road.

We are at Garpanchkot Prakiti Bhraman Kendra near Panchyet Hill

But after few km drive , we asked local youths for Garpanchkot  Prakiti Bhraman Kendra (Panchyet Hill) , based on their advice , we took right turn ( this place comes before the normal route directly take you to Garpanchkot) to enter deep jangle safari ride . Road condition is ok  and this road takes you to Prakiti Bhraman Kendra (beneath the Panchyet Hill).  On the way we stopped at Garpanchkot  Prakiti Bhraman Kendra , it’s a awesome place , located at the lap of the Panchyet Hill . Then we move stratgiht ablogn the jungle road leaving behind Prakiti Bhraman Kendra . We took a full 15 km jungle journey ride and on the way we saw locals villages, natural small waters falls , jungle Mandirs ( jungle temples ) . The Most thrilling experience to spend some time at Chinnamasta Mandir at Jungle Village.

Jungle path take you to Chinnamasta Mandir

We were amazed to see the natural beauties of jungle, small villages roads hiding behinds the jungle , invitation of Hilly slopes at Panchyet Hill . It was simple an awesome journey.

Distant view of Garpanchkot Garh

Finally we made around of Panchyet Hill and reached Garpanchkot  school more ( junction ) , from there we took about 1 km direct approach road directly connected to Garpanchkot Temple  , local people called it Raja Garth ( Fort of King )  .

We reached the Garpanchkot Temple around 12 noon. This is an awesome place and we could see old Garpanchkot  garh from the distant road . We noticed many nearly collapsed towers of garh spread across the jungle.  Here, you can hear the whisper of history, uncanny smell of jungle and the quietness of nature.

Local people informed us   a water fall is there nearby. We walked a little inside the jungle to locate that waterfall. But no trace of falls after a few hundred meters walk, so after watching birds and hill tops clouds, we returned back to Garh area.

We are Garpanchkot – nature speaks here

Our team members tried to reach top of the main fort, but stairs are almost leveled up due to erosion. It was dark inside fort. Still two members climbed up slippery path to top of the fort. We spent about an hour there and we sit in front of Garpanchkot  garh , watched panoramic views of distant hills , clouds , greenery of jungle spread over the valley .Slowly we set out for our next destination Panchet dam.

We are relaxing at Garpanchkot

History of Garpanchkot garh : I did some Goggling about the history of this garh and found different accounts of this fort .

Here is some trusted source history about Garpanchkot:

Panchkot is locally known as Panchet  , was a part of an ancient East Indian kingdom known as Rajchakla Panchkot . Damodar Sekhar, established Panchkot Raj probably during early 90 AD with the help of Sardars of Jhalda and expanded his kingdom over several other parganas. To give recognition to the main five (panch) clans (khunt) of the locals the kingdom assumed the name Panchkot.

Garpanchkot garh – nothing left to charm you only ruins tell its unsung history

Panchkot Giri has its references in the Puranas also. Panchakot Raj was probably a part of Tilakampa Kingdom. Telkupi was capital of Tilakampa Kingdom. Telkupi, a village under Raghunathpur police station, was submerged with the construction of Panchet Dam.

Garpanchkot garh was a part of the Singh Deo dynasty of Panchakot located at the southern foothills and a group of temples are still standing as mute spectators of the rise and fall of the dynasty .

The temples are of different architectural styles, the principal one being a ‘Pancharatna’ temple accompanied by ‘Jor-Bangla’type and more than one ‘Pirha’ type temples made of stone. The Pancharatna temple still carries some depleted but exquisite piece of presumably pre-muslim period terracotta work on its arches and pillars. 500 meters away and a bit uphill from the main ruins of the Garh Panchkot, lies ‘Dhara’ a perennial spring channeled through a ‘Cow mouth’ made of stone.

The temples are of different architectural styles, the principal one being a ‘Pancharatna’ temple accompanied by ‘Jor-Bangla’type and more than one ‘Pirha’ type temples made of stone. The Pancharatna temple still carries some depleted but exquisite piece of presumably pre-muslim period terracotta work on its arches and pillars. 500 meters away and a bit uphill from the main ruins of the Garh Panchkot, lies ‘Dhara’ a perennial spring channeled through a ‘Cow mouth’ made of stone.

The great poet Michael Madusuda Dutta visited the place during 1872 for a short period as an estate manager of Singh Deo dynasty. He wrote three poems on Panchkot namely, ‘Panchkot giri’, ‘Panchkotoshyo Rajosree’ & ‘Panchkot Giri Biday Sangeet’.

Historian J.D.Beglar who visited Telkupi in 1862 described it as ‘containing, perhaps, the finest and largest number of temples within a small space that is to be found in the Chutia Nagpur Circle in Bengal’. He listed over twenty temples and referred to several others and to ‘numerous mounds, both of brick and stone’. Telkupi dates back to the 1st century AD. The temples submerged at Telkupi were Jain temples.

(Source: West Bengal Forest Development Corporation )

3. Panchet dam: While returning from Garpanchkot , we stopped at Panchet dam . If you ask me which one is good for enjoying dam and nature: Maithon Dam or Panchet dam?

Panchet dam – quite nature and distant hills refreshing you a lot !!

It’s a subjective question. But I must say, natural beauty of Panchet dam is far better than that of Maithon Dam. Why?

1. It’s an quite place and located at beneath  the Panchyet Hill . Panchyet Hill is much bigger than small hillocks in and around Maithon dam. If you are a nature lover and love quietness of nature , then you will enjoy  Panchet dam .Actually Maithon dam  area is a bit  more commercial area . You get lots of facilities at Maithon dam, but here you wouldn’t get quite nature and beauties  of Panchyet dam and hill.

2. Panchet dam has good approach road takes visitors very close to lock gates of Dam. From here you can get very close and full views of Panchet lock gates, wafer fall areas.

3.  Panchet dam looks more spacious, neat and clean. You can enjoy your time in the very good park just below the dam area .

4. Moreover it’s very close to tribal village. You can go to local villages, do trekking etc.

Awesome view of Panchet dam

Again, this is a remote place, so you may not get good options for hotels, foods etc. But I must, you should spend about 3-4 hours there to feel the beauty of hills,  dams , local villages .

4. Boating in Maithon Dam: After visiting Panchet dam , we headed for lunch . You would  not get good food restaurants in and round Panchet dam  , so you directly came to Maithon Area and finished our lunch at Maithon Hotel ( near NH 2 ) .

Boating in Maithon Dam

It our lunch was over by 4 pm. We then parked our car near Maithon boating ghat . We took a boat for 30 min ( RS 200 for 30 min for 6 min ) . Boat took us for 30 min ride in dam. From here you can green island (there is a separate tour for green island) , Majumder Niwas  inside the reservoir  , splendid view of sunset behind   hillocks on the other side of  Maition Dam .

It was about 5 pm, boat took us back to shore . We came out from boating ghat , headed for evening walk on Maithon dam . Our team members sit on dams. We chatted the whole evening sitting on dam. It was very relaxing after a daylong touring and the Sun already set behind hills.

Sunset at Maithon Dam

We were still fresh after dam side adda ( gossip ) , now I tell you another part to enjoy evening at Maithon . We called our cab driver, asked him to take to tea stall in Maithon colony tucked away 3 km from the Dam areas. There is a good tea stall near post office more at Maithon Colony . Tea was really tasty and then we entered into small market. There is one big snack shop, we took Alur Chop (very big in size). Chops here are very tasty and big .Everyone gulped down 2-3 chops. After that evening snack break we came to small Shiva temple near market area. It  is small temple but very holy environment. We got relaxed and refreshed again after the darson  of God  .We observed arti there and then set out for hotel .