This year on the 1st of January, [2012] we decided to go to Anjaneri Mountain and visit Hanuman Temple from my home at Nasik. Nashik has pleasant weather the whole year but January is usually chilly and left Nashik early at six in the morning.

Anjaneri Phata

Anjaneri Phata is a place on the main road connecting Nasik and Tryambakeshwar and is around twenty kilometers from Nasik. It took me twenty minutes to reach this junction. There is a relatively new Hanuman Temple at Anjaneri phata with a tall Hanuman murti in a sitting posture. There is a signboard announcing that Anjaneri is the birthplace of Lord Hanuman. One can take a public or private transport mode and alight here to go to Anjaneri. Anjaneri Mountain could be seen on the backdrop of this Hanuman temple.

Anjaneri hills

We took a left turn from the main road and drove for another kilometer, passing through the Anjaneri village. We parked our car just after the village and started our walk towards the mountain, but one can drive further half a kilometer till the beginning of the steps leading to the Anjaneri hills.

The climb towards the mountain is in two phases, with a huge plateau in between. The first climb is tough, with narrow steep rocky walkways and a deep trench on the left side. There are small cliffs like “Navra” en route, which are favorite destinations for ‘rock climbers’ and ‘Vallet Crossers’.

Anjani Mata Temple

One could see monkeys doing all their tricks on the way, reminding the ‘Bal-Hanuman’. After the initial climb, we reach a barren plateau. ‘Anjani Mata Temple’ is in the middle of this place. It is a very pleasant sight from here with the mountains forming the background for the small temple. This temple houses a deity of Anjani Mata with Bal Hanuman in front of His Mata with folded hands in a leaning posture. We offered our salutations to Sri Anjani Mata and Sri Bal Hanuman here.

The weather was good and we started walking across the plateau soon. We then reached a small beautiful lake, which is in the shape of a footprint. The lake is very clean and surrounded by greenery. The view was very refreshing.

There was a turn for ‘Sita Caves’ and some other caves, but we didn’t visit them. Walking along the lake, we reached the start of the second phase of our climb. It was more vertical and a little exhausting. As we climbed up, we could see the beautiful view of the lake, and the plateau, and the vehicles on the main highway looked like tiny toys.

Anjaneri Hanuman Temple

Climbing over the second hill, we reached on top of the Anjaneri mountain. From one end of this cliff, we could see the valley and the Sahyadri Mountain ranges on the west and backwaters from various dams built over the tributaries of river Godavari. Once we reached this point all the tiredness vanished.

Walking across the mountaintop, we reached the “Hanuman Temple”. It is a small temple having the deity Lord Hanuman in a unique posture. Here we can see infant Hanuman sitting in the lap of His mother Anjani.

After praying there for some time, we started our return journey. It took almost one and a half hours for us to climb, but now that gravity was on our side, we finished the descent in thirty minutes and reached the parking.

Note:

Anjaneri Mountain is not a popular tourist destination or a commercial place. So it is better to carry some drinking water and foodstuff. One can also clump Trimbakeshwar in the same trip, however, there are destinations like Gangadwar and Brahmagiri near Trimbakeshwar that need an uphill climb and may be exhaustive.

 

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SRI HANUMAN THINKS DIFFERENTLY, THINKS FAST
THINKS AHEAD AND ACTS FOR SURE

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Ed [January 2013] Sri Hanumath Jayanthi Special
Updates: [Jan 2025]
*The author is a practicing pediatrician

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