NEW MARKET

The New Market is the best market market of Bhopal. It is located near Roshanpura square, though its name is just sufficient to locate it. Now the Bhopal Nagar Nigam has taken a very good step to further enhance the beauty of New Market, before what is there that all the people coming to New Market they let their vehicles inside and there is no room for the pedestrians to walk and do their shopping comfortably but Bhopal Nagar Nigam had blocked at all the ways to let the vehicles inside the market and now by doing this, the pedestrians can walk freely and can do their shopping freely and comfortably with out any kind of rush which was their earlier due to the vehicles inside the market.The plan is also to make an underground parking for the vehicles. Infact its a very good step taken by the Bhopal Nagar Nigam, the decision is very right because it helps to enhance the beauty of New Market and let the peoples to have a comfortable shopping in New Market.

TEMPLE OF SALKANPUR

Salkanpur Temple is located in Sehore district near Budhni, Budhni is a town formally known as 'Buuddha Nivasini' literally meaning the residential of Buddha , the temple is at a distance of 70 km from Bhopal by road and the nearest raiway station is Sehore which is on the Bhopal- Ratlam route.The Salkanpur temple is devoted to goddess Durga and the presiding deity here is Ma Durga Beejasan one of the incarnation of the goddess Durga. The Temple is situated on an 800 ft high hillock and have more than 1000 stairs and road is also available to reach the top at temple.
Thousands of devotees cane here and climbs up these stairs to get the darshan of Durga Maa. There is a story related to the temple that- when Parvathi was burning and Shiva was trying to save her then one of her body part fell down at this place and a temple was constructed today which is famous as Salkanpur Durga Temple ,which has a very rich glory.

DASHAVATARA TEMPLE

This amazing Temple is also situated in Kurwai Tehsil of Vidisha district. It is located on the northern side of the local lake. The Temple appears as the ruins of the Vaishnava shrines popularly called as Sadhavatra temple and a large open pillared and they both are dedicated to the ten avatars or incarnation of Vishnu, as described in the Puranas( literally meaning "belonging to ancient or olden time") there are ten avatars of Vishnu ,Matsya(the fish), Kurma(the turtle), Varaha(the boar), Narasimha(the Man -Lion), Vamana(the Dwarf Brahmana), Parashuram(Rama with the axe), Rama(Sri Ramachandra ,the prince and king of Ayodhya),Krishna(meaning 'dark coloured 'or'all attractive' ), Blalarama and the last one is Kalki("Eternity" or "Time" or "The destroyer of foulness") who is expected to appear at the end of Kali Yuga, the time period in which we currently exists.The ruins depicted all these incarnations and their ages ranges from 8th to 10th century A.D.On the western bank there are ruins of several Sati pillars, of the 9th and 10th century A.D.

SOLA-KHAMBI TEMPLE

One more place to see in Badoh-pathari area of Kurwai tehsil in Vidisha district is Sola-Khambi temple.
The Sola-Khambi temple is situated on the nothern side of a lake locally called Taraiya and is flat roofed, open and sixteen pillared building famously known as Sola-Khambi. The building is 7.62 metres square and stands on 1.524 metres high moulded plinth. The Archaeological survey of India after some researches, listed on the basis of the building structure that the building belongs to the age of Guptas. At a small distance ahead there are two temples worth to see for an archaeological aficionado,first Dashavtar Temple and the second one is Sat-Madhi temple
In the former temple there exit ruins of a group of small Vaishnava shrines and a open pillared hall and the latter is a group of six temples. These were Vaishnavite and Shaivite. One is dedicated to Ganesh. The sculptures found there include three seated Idols of the Buddha.

GADARMAL TEMPLE

The Gadarmal temple is located in Badoh- pathari in Kurwai tehsil of Vidisha district.There are two ways to reach the temple ,one is by road, it is 84 kms from Vidisha by road and the other is train root it is 19 kms from the railway station of Kulhar,Kulhar is small station on the Delhi- Bombay central line. The convenient way is by train as every body knows that the conditions of road in MP is not good especially in the rural areas.The Gadarmal temple is devoted to Jains. On the north-west side of the temple there is a group of Jain temples in ruined conditions in the base of the hillocks.Archaeological testing of these idols shows that they are from 8-10 century A.D.The temple is mainly famous for its enormous height which makes it visible from a very long distance. The temple as it stands, is of two distinct parts belonging to different periods :
first, basement of the shrine and the porch which are the remnants of the original temple, are of the 9th century A.D and the second one, Its Shikhara that replaced the original one. It is made up of the heterogenous pieces picked up from the ruins of Jain and Hindu temples.

MALADEVI TEMPLE

Maladevi temple is located in Gyaraspur tehsil of Vidisha district,which is at a distance of 35 km from it, on the Sanchi-Khajuraho highway.The town's name is derived from the big fair which is used to happen on the 11th month of every year.The temple was built in 10th century and it was once a Hindu temple but was later converted for use by the Jains, this fact can be visualize by seeing that there is a figure of a goddess occupying a block on the outer door frame and some other decorative sculptures also indicates that the temple was originally dedicated to the goddess of Hindu and then it was subsequently appropriated by the Jains. And now the shrine room and hall is occupied by the Jain images.
This temple is very attractive and one of the beautiful site near Vidisha which is liked by most of the tourists, it is situated on the slope of a hill overlooking the valley.Located on a huge platform cut out of the hillside and strengthened by a massive retaining wall, the temple is in fact an imposing and stupendous building. It comprise an entrance-porch, a hall and a shrine surrounded by a circum ambulatory passage and the Mandapa has two small balconies on both the sides.

LOHANGI ROCK

One of the interesting place to see in Vidisha is Lohangi Rock ,an isolated sand stone peak at the center of the city.The rock is about 6.087 m high and have a flat top diameter of 9.129 m.It is one of the main objects of historical and tourist interest in Vidisha.This sand stone peak is named after Shiekh Jalal Chisti who was also called as Lohangi-Pir. The view of Vidisha city from the top of the rock is very beautiful and also one can imagine that a long rock peak at the center of the city, creates what a scenic beauty.Each and every area of the city is visible from the top of peak.The tomb of Lohangi-Pir(title of Shiekh Jalal Chisti) and an old covered masonry tank are present at the top of the Lohangi rock.On the western side of the rock there is a low mosque with two Persian inscription inside.One of the inscription is dated 1460 A.D ,belongs to Mahmud Khilji-1 of Malwa and another inscription is of Akbar, dated 1583 A.D. At the top of the rock there also present a bell capital of huge Buddhist pillar which is famously known as Pani- ki- kundi.

BIJAMANDAL TEMPLE

Bijamandal temple was built in 11th century A.D and it was demolished in 1682 A.D during the reign of Mughal king Aurangzeb and a mosque was erected at the same site using the material of the temple. And due to this reason only it is a controversial site.From an inscription carved on one of the pillars of the original temple it is evident that the temple is devoted to goddess Charchika, Vijaya is another name of this goddess after whom the temple is called Vijayamandir. And the same inscription also recorded the name of Parmara king Naravarman. This mosque is the center of attraction for the Muslims, the Muslim clerics called it as Alamgiri Masjid whereas it is locally known as Bijamandal Masjid. Excavation conducted on the site by the Archaeological Survey of India(ASI) in the year 1971-1972 bought in to light many facts which shows the in humanity of Aurangzeb and the condition of secularism in India.Though it had been known fof a long time that Bijamandal is a tepmle and the mosque is built on it then also, Namaz at E-id time continues up to 1965, thereafter the chief minister of M.P banned Muslim worship in what was a protected ASI monument.The ASI was doing well and it had cleared many facts but then also the excavation work was stopped by the congress government in 1993. The Bijay Mandir is a very important archaeological site and therefore its a shameful act of the government that they are not starting the excavation work even on the demand of the localites here.

HELIODOROUS PILLAR

Heliodorous pillar is located at a distance of 4 km from Vidisha railway station.The pillar was erected around 110 B.C by Heliodorous , a Greek ambassador of Indo-Greek king Antialcidas to the court as the Sunga king Bhagabhadra.The pillar is locally knowm as Khamba baba. A monolithic, free standing column, the pillar bears inscriptions which states that it was a Garuda pillar, raised in honour of lord Vasudeva.There are two inscriptions on the pillar. The first inscription describes in Brahmi the situation of Heliodorous and his relationship to the Sunga and the Indo-Greek kings.The second inscription on the pillar describes the spiritual content of the faith supported by Heliodorous. These inscriptions are particularly valuable historical record, revealing both the relations that existed between the region and the Greek kingdoms of the Punjab, and the remarkable fact that a Greek had become a follower of the Hindu god Vishnu.

UDAIGIRI CAVES

Udaigiri caves is a archaeological site of antiquities and is located at 6 km from Vidisha between Bes and Betwa river.This site is mainly known for its ancient rock cut temples excavated in an isolated stand stone hill, which extends to a km long and 11o m high.There are 20 gupta cave shrine dated back to the period from 4th to 5th centuries A.D. Eighteen caves are of Hindu and 2 are of Jain.The caves are mostly small chambers , enshrining idols or images of various dynasties carved in to the rock of hill. The caves and other remains found at the site shows that the site has passed through the influence of Buddhism, Jainism and Hinduism those days.An inscription in one of these, states that it was produced during the reign of Chandragupta-2 (382-401 A.D), thus dating these caves to 4-5 A.D. The caves have been numbered according to the sequence in which they were excavated, particularly spectecural is cave 1 , which has a fontage adapted out of a natural ledge rock ,thus forming both the roof of the cella and its portico.Cave 5 in which lord Vishnu is depicted in his Varaha (Boar) incarnation holding aloft an one tusk the earth goddesses Prithvi. There is another sculpture of lord Vishnu in the reclining postures. Cave 9 has 2.5 m high pillars, long portico and pillared halls.Cave 7 was build for the personal use of king Chandragupta-2.Cave 20 has detailed Jain carving .All these caves have been cut in to a sandstone hill and have all the distinctive features that gave Gupta art its unique place.

UDAYESHWAR TEMPLE

The Udayeshwar temple is dedicated to lord Shiva and is situated in Udaipur village near Ganj Basoda, a Tehsil of Vidisha district. One can visit to the temple either by road or by train, the road is from vidisha to udaipur via ganj basoda and by train one should have to go Bareth, a station on the main line of central west railway is at a distance of only 10 km from udaipur.The better option is to go by train because the condition of road is not very good.According to one of the old sanskrit inscription found here , Udaypura town was founded by the Parmara king Udayaditya during 11th century A.D and he built this temple dedicated to lord Shiva and named it as Udayeshwar temple.A big Mela is organized here every year on Shivratri ,people from nearby places comes here for the worship of lord Shiva.

VIDISHA

Vidisha is one of the important district of M.P situated in the fork of Betwa and Bes river. It is at a distance of 56 km from Bhopal and 10 km from Sanchi.Till 1956, its name was Bhilsa and after that it was renamed as vidisha for its close proximity to that glorious city of great antiquity. Also Atal Bihari Vajpayee former prime minister of India won his first election from Vidisha. The Emperor Asoka was governor of Vidisha and it finds mention in Kalidasa's immortal Meghdoor.The ruins of a Brahmanical shrine at Vidisha dedicated to lord Vishnu reveal that the foundation bricks were cemented together with lime mortar, the first known example of the use of cement in India.The ruins are the remains of the oldest possible known Brahmanical stone structure, dated not later than 2 BC.Vidisha museum has a superb collection of Besnagar's earliest antiquities,dating from Sunga period ,19th century sculptures and terracotta objects ,representing the art that flourished under Parmara patronage ,are also well represented in the museum. There are many places near to Vidisha which are very famous for tourism mainly they are of the ancient antiquities.