A Visit to Deoghar

It was winter time in Kolkata. I was thinking of where to go. Suddenly, I thought that Deoghar could be the right place for my winter trip. Deoghar is a small temple town located in the state of Jharkhand. The famous Baba Baidyanath temple is situated here. So, I went to a Passenger Reservation Centre in Kolkata and reserved a ticket in the Janshatabdi Express. Our journey was scheduled to commence just a few days after Christmas.

Baba Baidyanath Dham Mandir

As usual, we went to the Howrah Railway Station from where our journey shall commence. We boarded the Howrah-Patna Janshatabdi Express which leaved Howrah at 14:05 hrs. We disembarked from the train at Jasidih. The train reached Jasidih, half an hour late from its scheduled time at 18:24 hrs. Outside the station, there were many auto rickshaws waiting to pick up passengers. We took one of them and set off on our journey to Deoghar which was situated at a distance of 8 kms from Jasidih. On reaching Deoghar, I had a tough time in booking rooms in hotel. All the hotels had No Vacancy. At last we booked a room in a hotel which was not of the standard we expected but there was no choice. After keeping the luggage in the hotel, we came out to have a look at the market near Tower, the city centre. Thank God, the hotel was near to the Tower. After that we went to have dinner. There were hardly 3-4 restaurants near the Tower. We had to stand in a long queue before we were able to sit in a table and place the order. The quality of food served was good and it was worth standing in the queue.

Tapovan

The next day we went to Baba Baidyanath Dham Mandir. It is believed that all wishes of the people are fulfilled on visiting this temple. The temple complex comprises of the main temple and several other small temples. There was a shop named Shree Janaki Shah Pera Bhandar which sold Pera, the speciality item of Deoghar. Pera is a kind of sweet for which Deoghar is famous. We ate some Pera and parcelled some of them. Then we came back to the hotel. Then we took some rest. In the afternoon, we went to Vineet restaurant where we had lunch. Then I hired an Auto Rickshaw which would take us to sight seeing. We planned to visit Tapovan, Naulakha Mandir and Balananda Brahmachari Ashram that day. The Auto Rickshaw first took us to Tapovan. As we were heading towards Tapovan we could see fields all around. Tapovan is a small hill full of giant rocks and stones. It is situated 10 kms from Deoghar. A number of caves is found in this hill and are a great source of attraction for tourists. Reaching Tapovan we saw that there were many hanumans. The scenery from the top of the hill was really wonderful. On the way back to hotel we saw the Ram Nivas Ashram and the Naulakha Mandir. Inside the Naulakha Mandir there were idols of Radha-Krishna. The amount spent in the construction of the temple was Rs. 900000 (9 lakhs) which was a very huge amount of money at that times. Hence, the name Naulakha Mandir. After coming back to the hotel we took some rest. In the evening we did some shopping at the market. The woolen clothes were especially cheap here. That day we had lunch in another restaurant named Sindhi. This restaurant was purely vegetarian whereas the Vineet restaurant was non-vegetarian.

Naulakha Temple

On the next day morning we went straight to Tower where we had breakfast. We had earlier planned with the Autowallah that we will meet him there. We met him and he took us to Trikut Parvat. This hill is situated 13 km from Deoghar. One can see the three peaks of the hill from a distance which is also the reason for the naming of the hill as Trikut Parvat. This hill is also the source of the river Mayurakshi. There is also a ropeway which will take you up the hill. Then we went to Rikhia Yogashram but unfortunately it was closed during that time. Next we went to Nandan Pahar. It is a small hill located near the town which has a large park for children. There was a mirror house where there were several types of mirrors which reflected images in different ways. Other attractions of this park are boot house, ghost house and toy train. And this ended our sight seeing tour.

Trikut Hill

That day evening we planned to visit the Baidyanath Temple. But this time we lost our way and ended up at Shivganga. This is a small pond where you can see the Sandhya Arati in the evening. Then we found our way by asking people and at last we reached the temple. We prayed there for some time and then we came back to the Tower market and had dinner. Next day we went back to Jasidih by Auto Rickshaw. From there we boarded the Patna-Howrah Janshatabdi Express at 9:30 am and reached Howrah station at 1:30 pm.

How to Reach :

From Howrah Railway station, 12023 Howrah-Patna Janshatabdi Express leaves at 14:05 hrs and reaches Jasidih at 18:24 hrs. 12303 Howrah-New Delhi Poorva Express leaves at 08:10 hrs and reaches Jasidih at 12:20 hrs. 12327 Howrah-Dehradun Upasana Express leaves at 13:10 hrs and reaches Jasidih at 17:10 hrs. From Patna Junction Railway Station, 12024 Patna-Howrah Janshatabdi Express departs at 05:45 hrs and reaches Jasidih at 08:56 hrs. 13332 Patna-Dhanbad Express leaves from Patna at 08:40 hrs and reaches Jasidih at 13:13 hrs.

Nearest Airport - Jai Prakash Narayan International Airport, Patna

Where to Stay :

There are lots of hotels and dharamshalas in Deoghar and Jasidih. Here are names of some hotels in Deoghar.
Hotel Yatrik - Rs 325-600
Yashoda International - Rs 325-600
Hotel Vinayaka Palace - Rs 250-650
Hotel Rambha - Rs 180-300
Hotel Vijaya - Rs 300-500
Hotel Gupta - Rs 250-350

Places of Interest :

There are many places of interest in and around Deoghar like Tapovan, Satsanga Ashram, Naulakha Mandir, Trikut Parvat, Rikhia Yogashram and Nandan Pahar. Other attractions are Ram Nivas Ashram, Shivganga, Harila Jori and the Ram Krishna Mission.

For more information, please contact :

Department of Tourism, Govt. of Jharkhand
F.F.P. Bhawan, 2nd Floor, Dhurwa,
Ranchi-4, Jharkhand
India