Naman Bastar Resort is currently the best choice for the royal capital Jagdalpur - 6kms from the city on the road to Chitrakot Falls. If you wish to stay in town, Hotel Rainbow at Sanjay Bazaar is the best on offer. Please note that although some other projects are coming up, accommodation is limited, and check GreenGondwana Travel News for latest updates concerning local conditions. Tribal areas of Orissa have basic but acceptable hotels in the main centres of Jeypore and Rayagada. On the Orissa and Andhra Coasts, Puri and Visakhapatnam have excellent selected seaside hotels. JAGDALPUR
The last royal capital of Bastar State (former capitals include the present village Bastar and Barsur on the Indravati River) lies just south of the Indravati some 306 km or over 6 hours from Raipur, 3 hours from Kanker, on National Highway 43. The town boasts a splendid Royal Palace; the Old Palace is in disrepair while the contiguous New Palace is the present residence of the heirs of the former Kakatiya ruling family. Just outside Jagdalpur is an Anthropological Museum full of details of the tribal life and culture of this region. DASSEHRA AT JAGDALPUR
Throughout North India, Dashehra is celebrated as the victory of Lord Ram over Ravan, the demon king of Lanka - of Good over Evil. Nine nights of puja (worship) known as Navratri are followed by Vijay Dashmi, 'Victory Day' - the tenth day.
In the former princely state of Bastar, however, Dassehra has long held a different meaning, being the time when the Rajput ruler and his tribal subjects reaffirmed their special bonds over several days of spectacular celebration.
Dassehra is the principal royal festival of the state, dating from perhaps the 15th century, and uniquely linked to the personal Goddess of the Kakatiya ruling family, Sri Danteshwari Mai, an aspect of Durga, representing the feminine principle of shakti that is the object of worship and renewal in other parts of India at this time of Navratri (notably in the Durgapuja of Bengal).
Jagdalpur's Dassehra also reflects the long historical influence of Orissa Brahmins on the rites of the Bastar royal house, with giant chariots in procession recalling the worship of Sri Jagannath at Puri.
Traditionally, huge numbers of (non-Hindu) forest people from all over Bastar converged on Jagdalpur with their tribal gods to honour their Hindu Raja and relate their grievances. Members of certain clans and villages have age-old tasks to fulfil each year in building the chariots with specific woods and performing other rites.
Today, since the demise of the last ruler in 1966, the Festival, while still spectacular and unique in India, has been somewhat usurped by more temporal political powers. Today's hereditary Maharaja Kamal Bhanj Deo is still a college student, though he and his family are still able to take part in some essential ritual. Dashehra in 2007 will be celebrated on October 21 (Vijay Dashmi) and in 2008 on October 09.
KANGER VALLEY NATIONAL PARK
South-east of Jagdalpur only 26 kms away begins the Kanger Ghati (Kanger Valley) National Park whose still dense forests recall the natural paradise that all of Bastar once was. It includes Asia's first biosphere, a 28km-long area of giant ancient trees. Among the eclectic protected fauna is Chattisgarh's only crocodile sanctuary. Kanger is full of picturesque waterfalls, notably the Tirathgarh Falls on the Kanger River. Also famous are the dramatic stalactites and stalagmites of Kutumsar and Kailash Caves, whose exceptional length makes them one of India's unique natural wonders.
CHITRAKOT FALLS
The Indravati River flows a short distance north of Jagdalpur before turning west on its run to the Godaveri in Andhra Pradesh and thence to the sea. Forty kms from the capital, it falls dramatically over wide horseshoe falls known as Chitrakot (or Chitrakut) which are considered Bastar's own mini-Niagara. Chitrakot was an important location in the Ramayan story and many would wish the Bastar falls to be the original, as it is believed the whole area was Dandakaranya (Dandak's Forest) in which Lord Ram spent most of his 14-year exile from Ayodhya.
There is however another Chitrakot on the borders of northern Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh which would have made the journey from Ayodhya much less arduous. Nevertheless the falls on the Indravati, especially after the monsoon when the headwaters in Orissa are in full spate, are spectacular and romantic enough. This, and the adjoining Dantewara District to the west and south, is the home country of the Bison Horn or Dandami Maria, a Gond tribe so-called because of their magnificent horned dancing head-dress. The combination of glorious riverscapes, near-primeval forests and the local tribal dances makes the area around Jagdalpur a rich experience of nature of every kind. DANTEWARA DISTRICT
The District headquarters is 55 kms from Jagdalpur and 12 km from Gidam. Dantewara is noted for the South Indian-styled Danteshwari Temple, abode of Sri Danteshwari Mai (Maiji or Respected Mother), goddess of the former ruling Kakatiya family of Bastar State. Legend has it that Annam Deo, founder of the Bastar Kakatiya dynasty, fleeing the Muslim conquest of Warangal in neighbouring Andhra Pradesh in the early 14th (or possibly 15th) century, brought the family deity with him. She instructed him to proceed into the unknown Bastar territory without looking back for as long as he could hear her ankle bells. Crossing a river, the bells fell silent and he turned to look, marking Dantewara for ever as the place where the goddess would go no further.
Another widespread belief connected to Danteshwari concerns the goddess Sati, consort of Shiv, whose immolation caused Vishnu to cut the corpse into pieces to assuage Shiv's violent grief. Parts of the body were scattered to fifty-two places in India known as Shakti Pith. It is believed that a tooth of Sati fell here, creating Danteshwari Shaktipith, an object of devoted pilgrimage to this day.
The Temple of Danteshwari is situated at the confluence of the sacred Shankini and Dankini rivers, now polluted a permanent red from the outflow of the gigantic world class iron ore mines at Bailadila 40 kms away.
BARSUR
Barsur, strategically located on the southern bank of the Indravati, was the ancient capital of the Chindaka Nag dynasty who ruled Bastar for three centuries. They are thought to have come in the train of the army of southern emperor Rajendra Chola nearly a thousand years ago. Barsur today is notable for the ruined so-called Market Temple recognised by Hindus as a Shiv temple and by local villagers as a temple of Danteshwari. It is open for worship only on market days. Its carvings are held to be quite different from any other sculptural style in India, in what Postel and Cooper call a unique 'Barsur style' - see Bastar Arts & Crafts. WILDLIFE
The Indravati National Park on the Indravati River in Dantewara district is 86 kms west of Jagdalpur, 392 kms by road from Raipur Airport. The Park was established in 1981 and included in Project Tiger in 1983. The National Park has moist and dry, mixed deciduous cover rich in teak and bamboo. Most unusually, teak and sal (Shorea robusta) cohabit this forest. Indravati is home to tiger, leopard, blue bull, spotted deer, sambar, some bison, chausinga, sloth bear, hyena, wild boar, pangolin, flying and giant squirrel, porcupine, barking deer and wild dog among other species. It is famous, along with Udanti Wildlife Sanctuary in Raipur District, as one of the last homes of the endangered Wild Buffalo (Bubalus bubalis - B. Arnee), State Animal of Chattisgarh.
Indravati National Park is considered a viable alternative home for the endangered Barasingha, the magnificent twelve-tined Central Indian swamp deer (Cervus duvauceli branderi) at present confined to Kanha. No Barasingha have been sighted at Indravati since the 1980s. Two other small Wildlife Sanctuaries are located in Dantewara District - Bhairamgarh east of Indravati National Park, also on the river, and acting as a buffer zone for the bigger Park and Pamer (or Pamed) to the south on the Andhra Pradesh border. Check GreenGondwana Travel News for updates on road and security conditions in Dantewara District, South Bastar.
At present (Season 2007-2008) conditions do NOT permit visits to these Reserves. NEIGHBOURING ORISSA AND ANDHRA PRADESH
Orissa's Koraput and Rayagada Districts are home to several remote tribal groups, most living far from the road in the rolling, dramatic hills of the Eastern Ghats. Weekly markets are the optimum time to get a close-up view of the Bondo, Paraja, Gond, Gadaba and different sub-groups of the Khond peoples. Depending on local conditions, it is sometimes possible to visit tribal villages in these areas - which may involve some mildly energetic trekking well away from the comforts of airconditoned vehicles. Local guides will always advise on the immediate possibilities. After an extensive but enthralling journey through the tribal districts of Bastar and Orissa, a special treat awaits the adventurous with a unique passenger train journey across the Eastern Ghats to Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh on the palm-fringed strands of the Bay of Bengal - a well-kept secret with which to conclude a passage through Secret India.
For more details on this and alternative extensions including the world-famous Sri Jagannath Temple of Puri and the Sun Temple of Konark, see Beyond Bastar on the next page... |
NAMAN BASTAR RESORT is a new venture located in the countryside about six kilometres outside bustling Jagdalpur, Bastar's capital, along the road to Chitrakot Falls and close to the Anthropological Museum. This project of Jayesh Sangani, scion of a long-established Gujarati family of Jagdalpur who were once the royal family's jewellers, lies among pleasant mango trees on a large plot of nearly four acres. 
