Ramtek

Ramtek, literally meaning 'Ram's vow' ,we visited this wonderful Ram temple on a day trip from Nagpur. Its about 70 kms from Nagpur and like thousands of temples on hills in India,this is another temple on a hill with the town of Ramtek at its base. A look up on wikipedia gives the following facts, Ramtek has got Historic temple of lord Rama. It is believed that Ramtek was the place where Rama, the Hindu god, rested while he was in exile. Legend has it that the aashram of great Hindu sage Agastya was situated close to Ramtek. While the sages performed religious rites, the demons used to disrupt their activities and slayed a great number of holy men. Lord Rama was distressed to hear about this, and took a vow to relieve the world from the demons. 'Tek' means vow in local language, hence the word Ramtek comes from 'Vow of Ram'. Thus it is believed locally that whoever takes a vow at Ramtek is blessed by the gods for its fulfillment. The 'padukas' of Lord Ram are believed to have been worshipped here for centuries The present temple is believed to have been built by the King of Nagpur Raghuji Bhonsale,after his victory over fort of Deogarh in Chindwara. This place is also famous for its relation with Great poet Kalidasa. Kalidasa has written Meghdootum in hills of Ramtek The place is more popular for Kalidasa writing Meghdooth here and there is a Kalidasa smarak built here. Also,the fun part are the 'Rama doothas' who have appropriately taken residence in this temple - black faced Langur's. They are a rowdy lot and are notorious at snatching things from people,but when shouted at and instructed to take things in a disciplined way they surprisingly listen,sit on their haunches and decently take the 'channa' from your hands. If Kalidasa really stayed here and wrote his meghadoot then that puts this place atleast at 1500 years old as Kalidasa was from the 4-5th century Ad. But wiki mentions that the latest temple was built by Raghuji Bhonsale who died in 1755 which puts the current temple at atleast at 300 years. But it is a very nice place,calm and serene.