Amravati - Buddhist Relics

After the Buddhist Temple Caves at Undavalli, we drove on to the nearby town of Amravati, which was an important Buddhist center in the 2nd and 3rd Century BC, and has a number of important relics from that period. But first, a bit of the lovely Andhra countryside, on the route from Undavalli to Amravati on narrow country roads...

Guntupalli - Bhuddist Temple Caves

After Yanam, we turned inland towards Vijaywada, taking a long detour to take in the Buddhist Temple Caves at Guntupalli. These 2nd Century rock-cut temples are not terribly well known outside Andhra Pradesh (at least, I'd never heard or read of them before). We arrived there after hours of biking through country roads. Here was our first view of the caves, nestled in the hills...

This is a general shot of the terrain...

The Bamboo Temple

Still on the way home from Kunduli market, we stopped at a rather interesting temple - it is a bamboo grove that doubles up as a temple to Durga. There is no idol, as in conventional temples, the bamboo trees serve as a representation of Durga. Here is the entrance to the grove: it is the only bit of masonry in the temple.

A village of the Mali Tribe

After Kunduli market, we stopped over at a village of the Mali tribe. The Mali tribes people are great agriculturists. They have been doing crop rotation, rain water harvesting, water conservation and all the latest fads for several centuries. They have amongst the most productive fields in all India - and it is all 100% "bio", as we would say.Here was a woman painting her hut red.

The Mali do seem to like glitzy colors, unlike the relatively more drab houses we saw in villages of other tribes.

The ladies of the village in conference. Were they discussing us?

 

A lovely painted door...

A girl with Mhendi on her hand - much like in the rest of North India, but note the tribal motifs...

Onkudeli Tribal Market

On Thursday, we went to what was supposed to be the highlight of our Orissa Trip - The Thursday Market of the Gonda tribe in Onkudeli. The Gondas are supposed to be one of the oldest tribes on Earth. We went there early morning, and stationed ourselves on the banks of a narrow stream, from where we could watch the Gonda tribespeople walking over meadows and hills and fording the stream to get to the market. It was a lovely sight, with some funny moments. A tribal man was herding his goats over the stream. In the melee, one clever goat slipped off and hid himself in the bushes. The goat had no intention of being sold. The tribal went off, none the wiser. Whoever said goats were stupid? Another little old lady was carrying an enormous fish, still live. It slipped off her shoulder and fell into the stream. She grabbed at it before it could swim away.

But, sadly... no pictures. The good old Govt. of India has forbidden photography of the Gonda tribe. The silly thing is that this ban came into effect just a few years ago - the Internet is full of pictures of the Gonda taken before that. So the ban seems kind of pointless. Also, foreigners need a special permit to visit the Onkudeli market, and need to be accompanied by a licensed guide. Since Blandine is technically French (although she claims to have been Indian in a past life), we had to get the permit and guide. There are horror stories in the Internet of foreign tourists being turned away from the market because they did not have the permit. There are also stories of cameras being confiscated when tourists attempted photography. There are even scarier stories of how the Gonda are allergic to people photographing them, and can become violent of you point a camera at them.

We found it all overblown. We did not see a single policeman within a 100 km of that place. No one checked our permits. We were rather disappointed, having gone to all the trouble of getting one. There was no one to stop us pulling out our cameras. Far from being allergic to cameras, a couple of the Gonda approached us and offered to let us photograph them - for the payment of the nominal sum of Rs. 100. Unfortunately, we could not take them up on the offer. Our  guide acted the spoilsport. He insisted he would get into trouble if he allowed us - he could lose his guide license.

Now I'm a law-abiding citizen. I kept my hand firmly off the iPad. But Blandine, being French, hates laws of any kind: she sneaked off a couple of photos of a Gonda tribeswoman when the guide wasn't looking. Here they are: very poor quality because taken in a hurry, from behind a concealing paper bag.

Dear Govt. of India. If you see this post, please don't blame our guide. He did his best to stop us. Don't blame me either. I'm a law-abiding Indian citizen. Blame my crazy, lawless French girlfriend, if you must.

Kunduli Tribal Market

The following morning we headed for Kunduli village, where every Friday there is the weekly market of the Paraja, Mali and Kuvi Kondh tribes. It is also the biggest tribal market in Orissa. Here we are, just at the entry to the market, watching the tribes people coming over with their goods, walking over through meadows from their own villages..

This is the cattle market.

This is the goat and sheep market

A Village of the Paraja Tribe

After the pottery village, we passed by a village of the Paraja Tribe. We went in and confabulated with the denizens. We dropped in on this lady pounding millet and tending to her baby, by turns.

Here's a little old lady wearing a traditional dress made of a thick rough cloth that she had woven herself from wild cotton, many years ago. She is the oldest citizen in the village. No one has the time for that kind of work, nowadays. They buy saris in the market. Even this old lady takes out this dress only when there are foreign visitors in the village.

A village gone to pot

Winding our way back to the hotel for the evening, we made one more stop, a village of tribal potters. Nearly the whole village indulges in pottery, whether legitimate or illicit. They have, in a word, gone to pot. As always, here's a bit of the countryside on the way...

The makeshift potter's wheel...

A 7th Century Jain Temple in Tribal Orissa

On the way back from Nandapur Market, we stopped at Subai Temple, a 7th century Jain temple in the midst of the Orissa tribal belt. Here is a pic of T-Bird on the road to the temple...

And here is the temple, with the junior priest standing decoratively in front of it...

Nandapur Tribal Market

The following day, we rode over to the Nandapur Tribal Market, frequented by the Paraja, Mali and Dom tribes. It takes place every Wednesday, near Nandapur village. Here is a bit of the landscape on the way there...

In the market, we came across this chap selling dried tobacco leaves...

The temple of clay horses

After Kotpad Market, we stopped by an old Shiv Temple, very popular with the local villagers. It is a suitably mysterious place, in the midst of a forest with banyan vines all over it, on the banks of a still lake. It looks like something right out of an Indiana Jones movie. But the most striking thing about it is this enormous pile of clay horses...

... and this ancient banyan(?) tree with an enormous vine that forms a natural swing...

It seems that when you pray at this temple for something, and your wishes are granted, you gift a clay horse to the temple. Over the centuries, this enormous pile of clay horses has built up, that looks like a piece of abstract art.

You can spend hours staring at those horses. There is something fascinating about them, all layered on top of each other, each with a different expression, some broken, some not, some new, some mossy, each representing somebody's hopes and dreams...

But the temple has a dark side as well. It houses leprosy patients. When someone in one of the local tribes develops leprosy, they are banished to this temple. Here they are, looking at us from a distance. We contributed some money to their benefit fund.

The lake beside the temple.

Fishing in untroubled waters

While riding through the lush Orissa countryside, we occasionally came across gents taking it easy on the water...

It turned out these were tribal fishermen. They lay their nets in the numerous ponds that dot the landscape, and lie in wait for fish. It seems a pleasant way to spend the day...

Kotpad Tribal market

Random pictures from Kotpad Weekly Tribal Market in Orissa. I took tons of picture there -- can't possibly load all of them on the blog. Here are the most interesting ones...
A man selling a fighting cock. Fighting cocks are a big attraction at the market.

An onion seller with a killer smile...

The Master-Craftsmen of Kotpad

Still on the way to Kotpad weekly tribal market... we stopped at the village of Kotpad, not far from the market itself. This was the home of Govardhan Panika, master weaver of Tussar Silk. Panika is a tribal weaver, weaving cloth from wild silk cocoons (tussar) collected from nearby forests. He has won the President's Award for excellence in hand loom weaving. Here he is, working at his loom...

On the way to Kotpad market...

The next day we landed at Koraput, our center of operations for the next several days. The first day, we headed out to the weekly Kotpad market, the markets of the Bhatra and Dhura tribes. These weekly tribal markets are the best places to interact with the various tribes of Koraput and Bastar.
On the way, we came across this magic totem in a tribal field. Installed to keep off evil spirits from the grain. It works! We did not see any evil spirits within a 10 yard radius.

Road to Araku

From Rajahmundry, we left the coast headed into the hills, to the tribal belt of Orissa. Blandine wanted to check out the nomadic tribes of Koraput and Bastar. Me, I prefer to leave the tribals alone. The way I see it, they have enough troubles of their own without having tourists coming and ogling at them. But Blandine sees it differently, and on these trips, Blandine is the Boss. I am merely the chap who drives T-Bird. Or rather, I'm the chap who does not drive T-Bird, for T-Birds go wherever they please. I'm merely the chap who holds the handlebars and looks cool in a cherry red helmet.

Our target was the town of Koraput, which we were planning to use as our command center for various explorations into the tribal belt. But instead of going all the way to Koraput in one go, we decided to stay the night just 100 km short, in the scenic Araku Valley, which is right on the border of Andhra and Orissa, and is actually the start of the tribal belt.

Here is T-Bird on the road to Araku:

Going Bannanas in Rajahmundry

While leaving Rajahmundry for the next stage of the trip, we ran into this rather charming morning banana market on the banks of the Godavari. Banana planters and buyers get together every morning on the banks of the river for this impromptu market.

Bridges of Rajahmundry

T-Bird needed minor repairs at Rajahmundry. Luckily, there is an Enfield showroom there. Later, we checked out Rajahmundry's main claim to fame: its amazing bridges. It has the second largest bridge in Asia (4.7 km), and not one, but three of them. Here is the road-cum-rail bridge...

The arched bridge:-

Andhra and Orissa trip: setting off!

A couple of weeks ago, Blandine and I set off on a trip to Andhra and Orissa. Blandine and T-Bird on the highway...

Movie Land Ramnagaram

Beside's being 'Silk City', Ramnagarm's biggest claim to fame is that it was used as the location for the greatest blockbuster ever in the history of Bollywood - Sholay. Not surprising, the hills around Ramnagaram look something right out of a movie set. After checking out the cocoon market and Bashir's silk factory (previous posts), Blandine and I took a dekko at the local scenery...