Bah and Bateshwar
Don’t be shocked if you haven’t heard of these names. Neither had I. That is, till a few days back. And then suddenly I was driving through these faceless, unknown towns of Western Uttar Pradesh - where the wild ravines of Yamuna nearly embrace the dreaded ones of Chambal.
It’s astounding how many untold stories lie within those rocky crevices, buried under the wild grass, seeped in the sandy earth.
It was a business tour. But our accompanying official was from this region, and all through the rough ride in the white Indica, we were regaled with narrations from the past - some mesmerizing myths, some unbelievable legends and many goresome tales of crime and criminals. Fact and fiction intertwined so tightly that often I was confused trying to unravel the two. In the end, I chose to stay mum and absorb as much as I could. His stories were not chronological, and neither did I note them down. Yet, whatever I could gather, I will try to replicate here, to the best possible means. Readers from this region may forgive me for some serious lapses.
This was the region of Bhadawar - one of those countless princely states that formed India in the past. Once upon a time, one of the kings made a strong friendship bond with another king (probably of Gwalior). In a surge of friendship, they promised to wed their children, should they be of differing genders. Alas, both gave birth to girls. However, the King of Bhadawar, to keep his word, hid the girl and kept her disguised as a male…to the extent that he even married her off to his friend’s daughter in order to maintain his vow. On wedding night, all hell broke loose when the new bride realised that her ‘husband’ is in reality a girl. The bride’s father swore revenge, and a war ensued. The ‘groom’ (princess in disguise) couldn’t bear the sad fact that all the rampage was due to her, and she jumped into Yamuna. It is said that Lord Shiva himself rescued her, and brought her to shore.
The King then built 101 temples at the behest of Lord Shiva. And, the Lord saw to it that Yamuna flowed upstream, away from her normal course, for some six kilometers. Now, this is where fact takes over. The Yamuna does change its course somewhat drastically. And there are 101 temples in one row on the banks of Yamuna.
This is the pious town of Bateshwar. And the main temple houses a ’swayam utpann’ lingam - not man made, self-made lingam.
When Aurangzeb was on his temples destruction spree, he came to the Bateshwar Temple as well. He could desecrate a few, but when he came to the main one, he was stalled. And how? He attacked the lingam with his sword. Water flowed out. He attacked again. Milk flowed out. In his third attempt, blood flowed out. He fled the place, and never returned. No mosque was built there, and the locals proudly boast of this fact.
The temple is beautiful. And the lingam, with heavy cuts at the top (where Aurangzeb’s sword hit it) still exists. One of the best sights is to step down from the ghats on the side to the bank of River Yamuna. The entire scenario is exceedingly peaceful.
That was Bateshwar. But before that, we had gone to a wayside town called Bah. And from there to Shahpur Brahman. Six kilometers more, and you are in the thick of Yamuna ‘beehad’. From nowhere, suddenly, erupts a fort that once housed the Bhadawar family. It was jaw-dropping to see its well concealed location. Though now a relic, it’s peeling walls whispered untold tales of a bygone era. We managed to gain entry, and enter its rooms. The fort had been occupied till quite late, as signs of modernity (electricity, photographs, etc) were all there. It is at once creepy and exciting to enter into the decandent premises, as if one is intruding upon the past. The clouds darkened. And rains washed down, adding to the gloom and dreariness.
An old caretaker showed us the way. The king’s descendent now lives in Agra, and is in politics. He hasn’t given away his property to ASI as yet.
Our friend-cum-guide continued with his stories - some as outlandish as that those kings who died without heir returned into the fort as snakes - and not ordinary ones at that! Snakes with huge moustaches! A tiny shiver crawled through my spine. Another legend was about a cannon that went off on its own in the night, and destroyed a nearby ‘haveli’.
We stepped on a slippery parapet, and climbed over rusted barriers to reach the terrace. The view was breathtaking. The rain washed ravines echoed an eerie silence, while River Yamuna snaked on its course quietly, just a little distance away; she sighed, as if pining for the lost time and valor. Today, the dacoits use the thickets by her banks to hide and run away after some shameless plunder.
The fort’s temple, specially opened for us by a drunk person (whom our guide for the day befriended), was another lovely sight. The murals on the walls were intricate; and the paint, though a tad faded, still held its self-esteem and blushed about its bygone days.
That drunk person told us that the rains had come there for the first time that year on that day. ‘As if to welcome us,’ I joked. But, the moistness in the atmosphere, and the sogginess in the mud below were a bit disconcerting.
As our taxi wove its way back from the place, the friend informed that the drunk person had no other work but to ‘hide and supply food’ to the dacoits.
The rain whipped the tinted glass. The wind howled. I looked out at the receding structures, once again left to their lonesome existence.
On the way back, the colleague’s faucet of tales didn’t close. One after the other they tumbled out - about his life, his past, and his village. Mid-way I realized that there was something grossly amiss in all his anecdotes. I couldn’t place it then. But later I realised what it was. All the stories revolved around some crime or criminal. A few were as bizarre as the fables he had told us. And a few others were unabashedly inhuman. That life is so different from mine, it is almost impossible to relate to it.
The Indica stepped onto the tarred highway. The heavy clouds were behind us, and we whizzed into civilization.
Behind me I had left a gray and anguished past and life - and as I type this today, I feel as if I had seen a hazy and disturbing dream. But I know it was for real. The interior India. The true India.
[My apologies to all readers for not visiting their blogs. Time is short with me these past days. Once I comfortably settle down, I will be regular again. My apologies also for any grammatical and typographical errors in the above piece. It is tough to write in an unfamiliar cyber cafe, with horrendously tight keyboard, and songs playing non-stop]
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August 24th, 2006 at 9:00 pm
arre kya baat mein phir se first aa gaye
August 24th, 2006 at 9:09 pm
Hey DJ …enjoyed reading the post….the way you describe every detail ……pics bhi dhikhao agar click kar hai toh.
Am just tooo scared to think of this part of UP…infact the whole of UP…the only word that comes to mind is Crime.
Am imagining you in the CC….with Himesh songs in the bg….n the tight dirty keyboard
August 25th, 2006 at 2:32 am
Wow, thats a nice expedition.
101 temples of Lord Siva in a single row ! i wonder how Mahabalipuram is so popular and this place is so unheard of.
Crime tales must be the bed-time stories in Chambal i guess
It’s so enriched with them.
This time around u dont have a IBM Thinkpad
?
Cyber cafes r always a pain. Soon we’d see them getting transformed into technology museums where antic computer accessories (&CPUs) would be abundantly available.
August 27th, 2006 at 3:29 am
….and the tales of faraway lands start again! I felt like I was reading omakara….hehee…great description as usual - would llove to see these 101 temples some day but am nnot sure if i should go as a tourist….sigh. But amazing..101 temples all together and no one has heard of the place!!!!! Sahi India ….true india dekh rahe ho …kya baat hai! Stick there for a year or two naa….I will surely come by!
August 27th, 2006 at 7:02 pm
Mehak - Gold phirse aapka
I hv the pics on mobile…only dunno how to transfer them onto internet on these cyber cafes…
Invinci - No, no IBM thinkpad…as yet… let’s see in the coming future… abhi toh computer ke naam pe kuchh bhi nahin hai
LOL@your description of cyber cafes… as of now they r my lifelines 
Kaush - Dunno how many of these survive now… i cud see quite a lot of them in a row… but whether all 101 exist now is not known… will try to find out if i go there again… Yep, its fun discovering new places… always exciting…
August 28th, 2006 at 5:01 pm
Hi there
I’m absolutely fine…I’ve been busy and lazy by turns and hence no post or comment for so many days. 
I’ve yet to read this one. I’ll post a comment again as soon as I read it. I’ve just written a new post…do read it…your comment on the previous one line post of mine motivated me to write this one 
No post in 20 days and then two in one 
))
August 28th, 2006 at 5:10 pm
Hey ! Just read the post. Amazing journey…the interiors of India…almost like a totally different country within a country. Like Kaush, I too felt that I was reading a bit of Omkara
Great experience and good description…I felt as if I was on some locations…and I could identify with the feeling of eerieness that you mentioned. You’re now in Agra, right ? I’ve visited the city once and like thousand others I too have been taken in by the Agra fort and the Taj…you’ll be able to see it from your home…sighhhhh !
August 29th, 2006 at 5:58 am
Wow DJ! Thats some write up. Made me wanna come there…
Good to see that you are having a nice time.
August 29th, 2006 at 10:16 am
Great Mehak! What a reveleation you have made of whole of UP. Crime. Yes, yes I am the criminal, and my profession is crime, and people like you are the suffered ones.
BTW, did it occur to you that those Chambal ravines Deepak talked about are in MP? Oh yes, now you will include MP too. Great generalisations! Kudos!
August 29th, 2006 at 10:19 am
Hi Deepak,
Yes I have heard the legend of Bah and Bateshwar, but long long ago! Never been there, but these graphics details have given me the full picture. Nice post!
August 29th, 2006 at 3:16 pm
@Manish….well talking about Agra…dear
Even I am from UP… used to be…Uttranchal now…am scared to travel past Muzaffarpur,Meerut….& doon has ample of gangster stuff going on…aid coming in from Bijnor n adjoining areas….
August 29th, 2006 at 5:00 pm
this India seems oh-so-different from the India I have seen… its like so many different worlds make up our country……..
August 29th, 2006 at 5:53 pm
Oh sure, Mehak. Tomorrow if it doesn’t rain in your Doon, blame it on UP for sure. So if there goons in there, they must be from UP.
What do you know of “whole of UP”? Everyone seems to be gangster to you here, no?
August 29th, 2006 at 8:51 pm
Zoya - True , it was a very different experience. Yet to see Omkara, so cant say how much it resembled
Apoorva - Thanks
Manish - Yep I thought that u wud know about it
Well…umm, we do plan to visit the Chambal ravines also next time 
Anks - Indeed it is !
August 30th, 2006 at 9:21 am
@Manish….Grow up KID….those are my views…& I GUESS THEY’LL REMAIN THE SAME
August 30th, 2006 at 12:13 pm
Mehak/Manish - It does tantamount to poking my nose unnecessarily, but still hv to do so. Let’s call truce here please
Both of you are awesome readers, and no point in the two of you engaging in a verbal spat. Chalo, ab dosti kar lo 
Mehak - I hv known Manish for sometime, and met him personally too. He is a mature, sensible and stable person and comes across extremely rock-solid, hence if he has a point to make, I would definitely give it a serious thought. To agree and not to agree, of course, is one’s own prerogative.
As regards Uttar Pradesh, of course we all are given to such sweeping generalities. In fact, till the time I started reading Manish’s blog I would have said the same, and was also given to club ‘UP-Bihar’ in one common bracket. Thankfully, I m now trying to move away from such stereotypes, though to be honest, I cant claim to be wholly “cured” and often do make the mistake of conjoining the two states.
Since he belongs to Lucknow, I am sure he has a lot of love attached to the state, and wouldnt like to see generalisations done unnecessarily - just the way I hate many people talking ill of Delhi/New Delhi.
Manishbhai - Mehak and I hv interacted thru blogs for more than a year, and i m sure she is not given to such outbursts. We do often differ on many likes and dislikes, as any two individual would and should, and she has never taken me to task for that
A brilliant idea to both would be to visit each other’s blogs. The links are available on my site’s sidebar.
And , of course, beech mein padne ke liye, aap dono ab mujhse khaffa mat ho jaana
Take care… DJ
August 30th, 2006 at 4:56 pm
@Deepak…aare khaffa..not at all..
I have nothing against Manish or UP…I just wrote my views…am scared of the mafia RULE there so thats what I wanted to mention…does not mean that every person in the states mentioned is a criminal…n the rain thing was like …..leave it…
…Blogs is a medium to express what one feels and that is what I do…
they are my views..I agree I maybe wrong…
Manish pls dont take it tooo seriously…I have lots of frends from Lucknow/Sitapur/Lakhimpur/Bada Gaon…..
Sab Vaasi Ek Desh Ke…yahi maar khaa jaate hai HUM Hindustan !!
& btw I have visited Manish’s blog quite a few times…but never left a comment…ab toh aur darr lag raha hai…kabhi kuch bura na lag jaaye Manish Sir ko…
August 31st, 2006 at 2:02 pm
Hmmm..toh sirjee REAL INDIA ghoom rahe hain…
sahi hai…I have been to interiors before…
Guess india will always remain divided between economic boom and farmers suiside!!
This line is not at all relevant with ur post..just types it!!
;-)
October 9th, 2006 at 1:41 pm
How on earth did you gain access to this place???? Well I own that fort you spoke about and you have romanticised the place a bit. But it really is b eautiful and I do hope that more people come to see Bateshwar. It is really beautiful. But I really want to know who took you to the fort of Nowgaon and how you gained access there??? Plus thats only half the place you must see Ater, Pinahat and Bhind as well and of course Kachaura where the British fought the mutineers in 1857.
Tripurdaman Singh Bhadawar
December 6th, 2006 at 9:33 pm
His Majesty Shri Tripurdaman Singh Bhadawar ji
I have been visiting to ‘Hatkaat’ every year during summer vacations, which I used to spend at my native village Sarokhipura. Presently I am residing in Delhi and shortly planning to visit Bateshwar and would also like to see the Forts suggested by you, I have heard and read lot about Nawgaon Fort & Ater Fort, and would like to visit these palaces. Still I find that there is not much information available on Bhadawar History, I have compiled what ever information available on internet and planning to put up a website having brief history and legends associated with the Princely State every person in our village cherish.
I feel that we should have developed these palaces into heritage sites and have introduced them to local masses as tourist destinations, at least what Mulayam Singh has done to his village –‘Saifie’ should have been done long back to restore the glory of Bhadawar Estate, here I am not talking of politics but I really feel the depleted state of these Mansions are showing collective neglect of everyone staying in Bhadawar.
We feel Pride in writing “BHADAWAR” on our Vehicles and Trucks and neglecting our real Jewels, which are remotely accessible.
Sir, When I find you here, I have confidence that things are now going to change now. Anyway Kindly allow me to visit the Forts named by you. Thanks.
December 19th, 2006 at 5:35 pm
Dear DJ, Your explanation is GOOD, and most of the details (stories) you learned on your trip are the ones known to me as TRUE, since my childhood. I am from the village “Kaliyanpur”; which can be seen across Yamuna from the 101 temples. I was visiting my village during every school summer vacation. Your description has made the memories afresh. Thanks for the same. I shall visit my village again when I return to India for vacation. You missed many more places nearby Bateshawar. May be you can visit again.
January 18th, 2007 at 8:31 am
Hi DJ,
I have always been searching for talks , blogs and stories about these places that you recently visited. Everything that you described here and as mentioned by Sandeep is known to be true to me as well since my childhood. It was an everyday discussion for most of us in the family. I am from this small town called Bah and Bateshwar was part of a regular vists for the family on most Mondays which happens to be the day of Shiva. The town of Bah was one of the offices of the British East India company and it now houses the Municipal office in one of the old bulidingsin the town. The current Maharaja Bhadawar as he called by the locals is Mr Aridaman Singh Bhadawar who is now into active politics as his father Late Maharaja Ripudaman Singh. On a whole it gave me a feeling that the story known to me since my childhood is known to many others and is more of a reality to us.
February 24th, 2007 at 6:37 pm
Hi Deepak!
Its nice to read ur experience about The Bhadawar Estate.
As most of the readers cited their views on crime in UP.
But the place you visited, was Naugawan, where the fort is situated, has historic importance. The crime rate is lowest there.
We are living in India not in US, so being surprised by the dacoits dont suit.
In high tech cities like Gurgaon, there is crime everywhere.
There are serial killers, cab killers even killers in the form of domestic aid.
What will you say to that…
Modern crime or urbanization of Chambal Crime…
Every coin has two faces…
If you were living US, then I cant even imagine what will be ur views about India….
Sorry but no sorry
April 3rd, 2007 at 1:36 pm
[…] Just break free, puff up your chest, take in a lungful of air, and go out and see that life is too huge to be confined. Don’t just live for the moment but live in the moment. Leave the route that you take daily, and turn your steps into a road that you aren t aware of. Who knows, you might across the most sensational garden. There are chances that it might be just a putrified garbage dump also, but then you won’t have the regret of not having taken the path, would you?Explore the world, and for that one doesn’t have to thumb through the Lonely Planet editions to enjoy the exotic destinations. If I had just followed the strict path, I wouldn’t have seen the Nawgarh Fort (near Bah). If I had chosen to hear the voice of reason, I wouldn’t have seen the Ganges flow at Soron. However irritating the bambas and bumps are, they have given me an enrinching insight into a country that I didn’t ever know existed.Yesterday I lived in Nepal, today I have pitched my tent in Agra, and tomorrow it could be another destination. I am not only prepared for it, but looking forward to visiting a new place and not just as a tourist, but as a citizen! I don’t know which one, but that’s where all the excitement builds up. […]
July 2nd, 2007 at 2:43 pm
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February 24th, 2008 at 5:55 pm
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March 3rd, 2008 at 5:42 pm
Hi Man , Thanks to visit Bah and Bateshware and Express bothe of the site
in such a fine matter. I am from bah , so i can better understand your visit.
agin Thanks to you for provide the detail of 101 shiv temp to some more people and firnd like it.
Some mmore fact abot bah,
Bah is home town of the Loard Kirshana father Vasudev. So you can say it is real home of loard Kirshna.
March 25th, 2008 at 3:00 pm
Dear,Friend
Mahabalipuram, or Mamallapuram, was the chief seaport of the Pallavas who
ruled most portions of South India from the first century B.C to the eighth century
A.D., and it is now recognized as the site of some of the greatest architectural and
sculptural achievements in India. The temples of Mamallapuram, built largely
during the reigns of Narasimhavarman and his successor Rajasimhavarman,
showcase the movement from rock-cut architecture to structural building.
Please Visit For More Detail
http://desidirectory.com/india-travel-guide/