Devotees will be able to visit Sita Ji’s birthplace and Ram-Janki Temple in Janakpur, covered by road. The next halt will be Sitamarhi in Bihar.There, the tourists will visit Shri Ram Janmbhumi temple and Hanuman Temple, and additionally Bharat Mandir at Nandigram. Barely miles from the famously inaccessible caves that Ravana inhabited was the town of Ella.Shri Ramayana Yatra Train: Check the routes and stops When the duo reached the neighbouring country of Sri Lanka – once the kingdom of the demon-king Ravana who had abducted Lord Rama’s wife, as the epic goes – they were greeted by scenes of much contrast. We were speechless their devotion quite literally seeped into us.” “Even though we couldn’t touch it, we could see almost hundreds of devotees behind the barricades wishing they were in our place, some with even tears in their eyes. “Through our army contacts, we managed to go beyond the barricades and closer to Akshayvat,” said Kulkarni. To keep devotees away from potentially plucking all the leaves and tearing the tree down if they got to touch it, barricades have been erected around the fort. The tree, and the fort that encloses it, fall under the Indian army’s domain.
For centuries, devotees would fling themselves into it, until Mughal emperor Jahangir blocked it,” said Pande. “There used to be a sacred well that was famous for its powers to grant you nirvana if you died inside it. The cup of tea was simply symbolic of just how simple devotion can truly be, minus the pomp and grandeur.” And now, there’s a 20-foot clear road surrounding the temple. Over almost a decade, villagers would casually drink tea and chip away bit by bit. “It was then that an old, unassuming gentleman offered to serve a cup of tea to whoever chipped away at the mountain even if it was just for a minute. “There was a temple marking Hanuman’s birthplace back in the day, but it was surrounded by rocks from all sides leaving no area for circumambulation by devotees around the temple,” explained Kulkarni. When the duo then reached the holy city of Kishkindha in Southern India – said to be the birthplace and kingdom of the monkey king Hanuman who was also a loyal companion to Lord Rama – they realised that faith can often act as a life-affirming force for not just individuals but entire villages as well. The stones and sticks that were going to guard Pande and Kulkarni suddenly seemed irrelevant. “If he wants me to serve him, he will protect me as he has done for these 16 years,” the priest told them. Life and death were beyond his control, and there was no point fretting about it. His duty, he said, was to only serve the Almighty. “He wasn’t intimidated by the forest in the least bit, and seemed completely at ease,” recollected Pande. However, the bigger surprise came when the priest informed them he had been living there all by himself for 16 years. The duo, armed with sticks and stones to ward off potential bandits and animals, were naturally taken aback to see just one lone man living so deep inside one of the most dangerous forests in central India.