“Lord Shiva's Secret Cave Temple.”
Marleshwar is a holy cave temple in the midst of the Sahyadri hills (Western Ghats) in the state of Maharashtra. It is about 19 km from the town of Devrukh in Ratnagiri district. It is deep in the forest, between two hillsides, at the top of one of the hills, with a river flowing in the valley below. One has to trudge up a series of a few hundred steps along the steep hillside. But faith has overcome many obstacles.
It took us about 15 minutes to trudge up the steps from the base of the hill where we had parked our car. There are a number of shops selling snacks, sweets, souvenirs and pooja items (offerings for the gods) lining one side of the stairway all the way from the parking lot to the temple on top. There are hungry monkeys to keep you company, and ready to snatch anything you offer them.
We had to stoop down to enter the narrow opening of the cave temple. It was cool and dark and smoky inside. The priest inside helped us to perform the pooja (prayers) and accepted our offerings. There are supposed to be live snakes inside, but we did not see any. There were some idols of Lord Shiva protected by the symbolic brass snakes though. After taking the Lord’s blessings we stepped outside again. Even though it was March there was still a flow of water from the waterfall nearby. Indeed it must be a beautiful sight to witness this waterfall in full flow during the monsoon months.
On the way down we picked up a snack of hot ‘wada paos’, before heading back through the green countryside, as the sun was setting. We noticed a pair of hornbill birds flying home to their nest as we were driving back to Devrukh.
It took us about 15 minutes to trudge up the steps from the base of the hill where we had parked our car. There are a number of shops selling snacks, sweets, souvenirs and pooja items (offerings for the gods) lining one side of the stairway all the way from the parking lot to the temple on top. There are hungry monkeys to keep you company, and ready to snatch anything you offer them.
We had to stoop down to enter the narrow opening of the cave temple. It was cool and dark and smoky inside. The priest inside helped us to perform the pooja (prayers) and accepted our offerings. There are supposed to be live snakes inside, but we did not see any. There were some idols of Lord Shiva protected by the symbolic brass snakes though. After taking the Lord’s blessings we stepped outside again. Even though it was March there was still a flow of water from the waterfall nearby. Indeed it must be a beautiful sight to witness this waterfall in full flow during the monsoon months.
On the way down we picked up a snack of hot ‘wada paos’, before heading back through the green countryside, as the sun was setting. We noticed a pair of hornbill birds flying home to their nest as we were driving back to Devrukh.
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This review is the subjective opinion of a TripAdvisor member and not of TripAdvisor LLC
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