Bandhavgarh Fort

This point is known as Shesh Saaiya, here you see a unique 32 foot long statue of reclining Vishnu (the preserver in Indian trinity of Gods) carved around the 10th century, from whose feet the Charanganga river is said to flow. A rectangular pool of spring water lies just beneath the statue and the path to the main gate of the fort. The green cover on the pool is thought to be blue green algae, but it is actually cynanobacteria. The top few inches of water are dominated by air-breathing bacteria. It was communities of cyanobacteria that produced oxygen first and then made complex life simple. It is these aerobes that produce more than 60% of world oxygen. It is such old ponds and lakes that produce majority of world oxygen. Hence it is important to preserve such pools, and lakes. Is there a message that Vishnu the preserver sleeps on this pool of oxygen that preserves the humans?

You trek up from this point for an hour to enter through the beautifully sculpted gate of the fort. Then you reach the plateau of the imposing Bandhavgarh Fort whih is spread in about 560 acres of grassland. There are three lakes in this fort. When you walk around you see the treasury, the prison, the queen’s palace, the parliament, the school, the temple and some other remains of the human inhabitants. This fort was occupied until the Indian Independence in in 1947. As you follow the path southwards, the most remarkable sights are the 10th century rock images of the incarnations of Vishnu. A statue of Narsimhan (half man, half lion) towers almost 22 feet above the grass. There is a carving of Barah Bhagwan (the boar incarnation), and a small temple enshrining a large image of Vishnu in his fish avtaar. The tortoise incarnation stands unenclosed and flanked by later carvings of Ganesh, the elephant God, and other deities. The charm of this walk lies in discovering these monuments in the jungle, unspoiled and unexploited. Some of the statues lie off the main path and so it is best to take a guide. Apart from the avatars, well worth seeing are three small temples of around the 12th century. These temples are deserted, but the fort is still used as a place of worship. Kabir Das, the celebrated 16th century saint, once lived and preached here for close to two decades. There is a small temple in the fort, and a secret passage from this temple apparently was used as a route to move out of the fort. It is said that the famous musician Tansen one of the nine jewels of Emperor Akbar had spent time in Bandhavgarh Fort.