The beauty and grandeur of the marble rocks on the banks of Narmada River at Bhedaghat, Jabalpur in the state of Madhya Pradesh, India was earlier explored by me in a photoblog a few years ago. Bhedaghat is a small town in Jabalpur, which continues to be third largest city, a historical place, an important military station, and a hub and operating base for people visiting many places of tourist attraction in the region. Bhedaghat has been on the tourists map for decades best known for the the Dhuandhar Falls and a cluster of marble rocks lying both on the eastern and western banks of the River Narmada. The white marble rocks with the linings of black and dark green and interspersed pink and blue soaring to the height of almost 100 feet present an unparallel magnificent view in sunlight as well as a spectacular panorama during the moonlit night.
Apart from the marble rocks, the major attraction at Bhedaghat is the waterfall known as Dhuandhar which gives an appearance of the white smoke or a mass of mist coming out of the river. Here the otherwise placid river becomes turbulent as it plunges to a considerable depth presenting an awesome and picturesque spectacle. Owning to the fast-flowing river and constant erosion of rocks on the sides of gorge, the size, shape and volume of the falls too have undergone change over a period of time. While sailing in the river between the marble rocks, one could see a rather narrow point where high rising marble rocks on both sides come very close. Consequently, the monkeys in the area easily jump across them and the point is named as ‘Bandar Kodini’. Sailing on a boat through the marble rocks at Bhedaghat during a moonlit night gives a divine experience and pleasure to the people, particularly the young loving couples.
While in the government service, I lived in Jabalpur almost for two years in 2008-09, and ever since the place has undergone many changes for good. For example, infrastructure has been strengthened in terms of roads, hotels and pucca ghat for tourists’ convenience. A cable car service has been provided; the ropeway starts on the east bank of Narmada River, passage provided over and top of the river, and tourists are dropped off at the west bank of the river. Thus, tourists can now enjoy Dhuandhar Falls from both sides of the river. The western bank has a lot of scope for the development and expansion for the tourists; besides, the fall also looks more majestic and eye-soothing from the height on the western bank. The Vrindavan Gopala resort on the western bank of river offers a good choice for a comfortable overnight stay of tourists and temporary stopover for vegetarian culinary delicacies for visitors as well. Images shared in this photoblog (except one so mentioned) were taken from the western bank.
The nomenclature of the fall is of interesting genesis. The term Dhuandhar is a complex derivative of two Hindi language words, namely Dhuan (smoke) and Dhar (flow), which means the waterfall with a smoky atmosphere caused by the misty cascade (actually water vapour and tiny droplets create a bouncing mass of mist), giving a divine feeling to the onlookers. Actually, the River Narmada traversing through the marble rocks narrows down and plunges into this waterfall about thirty metres high. Not many people know that the Bhedaghat and Dhuandhar Falls have been traditionally portrayed in the Indian culture and cinema for long. For example, Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book finds a mention of the gorge of Bhedaghat in one of the Mowgli stories (Red Dog) in 1895, inhabited by an enormous coly of bees. Even today, the gorge in Bhedaghat is a home for the wild colonies of bees, and we observed quite a few large hives while spending time at the Narmada banks.
To add some spice here from the cinema unknown to many, the ambience of Bhedaghat has been depicted in a large number of Bollywood (Hindi) films for the last many decades. Here are just a few illustrations for the readers’ interest: The classical song “O Basanti Pawan Paagal” of Raj Kapoor’s movie “Jis Desh Mein Ganga Behti Hai” was shot at Bhedaghat in 1961. Raj Kapoor once again repeated the ambience of Bhedaghat in 1973 for the climactic scene of his film “Bobby” based on teenage love. Similarly, the climax scene of the Hindi movie “Pran Jaye Par Vachan Na Jaye” in 1974 was shot at the same venue. Even more recently, a few scenes of the movies such as “Asoka” and “Mohenjo Daro” were filmed at the Bhedaghat in the ambience of marble rocks by the Narmada River. The location of Bhedaghat was also used for the opening sequel of the Mahabharata series on the STAR Plus in 2013 depicting the meeting of the Hastinapur King Shantanu and Matsyagandha Satyavati.
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