Shirdi, Aurangabad, Ellora and Ajanta Caves Trip
My mother and wife have been wanting to visit Shirdi from quite sometime and one fine day in Dec 2019, decided to go ahead and planned the trip. Kids had winter break and thought will mix Pilgrimage with some other heritage travel. Booked a package for return trip from Hyderabad to Shirdi which included sleeper bus fares from Hyderabad to Shirdi and a stay a Hotel Sai Paradise for 2 nights. Decided to go to Shirdi, Aurangabad, Ellora and Ajanta Caves Trip and parents returned from Shirdi after two days.
Day 0(Night travel): Hyderabad to Shirdi
Day 1: Local Shirdi visit including Baba darshan, Shani Shingnapur
Day 2: Grishneshwar Jyotirling temple and Ellora Caves
Day 3: Ajanta Caves
Day 4: Aurangabad local site seeing including Bibi ka Maqbara and Daulatabad fort
Day 5: Back to Hyderabad from Shirdi
Day 0: Started off from Hyderabad by sleeper bus around 7 pm and reached Shirdi by 7am in the morning the next day
Day 1: Checked into Sai Paradise hotel and went for Darshan after having breakfast. Had darshan at Shirdi Baba temple which took around 1 hour and came back to the hotel room. After lunch, took some rest and went to Shani Shinganpur temple which is around 70 kms from Shirdi(Hired a vehicle for to and fro trip). Had darshan of Shani(Saturn) and returned back to Shirdi.
One significance of Shani Shignapur is that there are no doors to the houses as it is believed that if someone tries to steal anything here, they will be cursed and something bad will happen. On the way there were a lot of Sugarcane fields and also tractors carrying sugarcanes to the Sugar mills. On the way back to the hotel, stopped at a place where we had sugarcane extracted using the mechanized roller pulled by bulls. Came to the hotel, had dinner and slept for the night.
Day 2: Parents stayed back at Shirdi and would travel back to Hyderabad tonight. Engaged a cab for 3 days to cover Aurangabad, Ellora and Ajanta caves. So 4 of us started from Shirdi around 8 am in the morning had breackfast on the way. Reached Grishneshwar temple, which is one of the 12 Jyotirlingas near Ellora caves around noon. After darshan, had lunch and went to Ellora caves(just one km away), which is one of the UNESCO World Heritage sites around 2 pm.
There are a total of 34 caves that are open to public and cave 16 is the main cave which has the huge Kailasha temple cut in monolithic rock. It is cut from top to bottom with intricate carvings. This was built in 8th century CE by the Rashtrakutas. Out of the 34 caves which were built across 5 centuries from 6th to 10th CE, 1-12 are Buddhist caves, 13-29 Hindu and 30-34 Jain caves. Each group of caves have the deities, mythological characters and monasteries. Covered all the caves in around 3.5 hrs and checked into Hotel Pearls in Aurangabad. Had dinner in a nearby restaurant.
Day 3: Started early in the morning around 8.30 am to Ajanta caves which is around 120 kms from Aurangabad. Since the road was being built, it took around 4 hrs to reach Ajanta caves. Had lunch at the Maharashtra tourism restaurant and went to the caves by State Road Transport bus from the car parking area. There are around 30 caves in a semi circle shape hill along the Waghara river, one after the other unlike Ellora caves which are spread across. The Ajanta caves are believed to be much older than Ellora caves built in two phases in 2nd century BCE and in 5th century CE.
There are both Buddhist and Hindu caves with lots of beautiful paintings and sculptures. Most of the caves are monasteries. It took around 3 hrs to cover all the caves and came back to hotel in Aurangabad around 8 pm.
Day 4: Had breakfast and started for local site seeing in Aurangabad and reached Bibi ka Maqbara around 10 am. It is the mausoleum of Aurangazeb’s wife Rabia-Ul Durrani built by their son Prince Azam Shah in 17th century CE. It resembles the Taj Mahal and hence called Taj of Deccan. It has four minarets at the corners and made of pure marble. After that, went to visit Panchakki which is a water mill used in the olden days and there is a 600 year old Banyan tree in the same compound.
From there, went to Daulatabad fort, also known as Devagiri fort, which was the capital of Yadava dynasty. It was also the capital of Delhi Sultanate for a brief period from 1327 to 1334 CE, when Sultan Muhammad Bin Tughluq shifted it from Delhi and later shifter back to Delhi. He named it from Devagiri to Daulatabad. It took around 1.5 hrs to cover this and had lunch at a nearby restaurant. On the way, there were a lot of cotton fields, where we took a few photos. Returned back to Shirdi and boarded the bus back to Hyderabad after having dinner.
Day 5: Reached home in the morning around 8 am. Enjoyed this trip very much and would suggest this to others for a 5-6 days road trip from Hyderabad. You may checkout my other road trips here.
