We woke up around 5:00 am with loud prayers in the Sai Baba Ashram. Both Baiju and I were getting hungry by 7:00 am. We walked through the village to the square where a tea stall was already open. We had Poha and tea. We got back to the room to get ready. By 9:00 we went on a tour of Historic Mandav city. There are ruins of palaces from
The 11th-14th centuries. The most famous one is Rani Roopmati Mahal (Palace), Rewa Kund, Baaz Bahadur Mahal, and Jahaz Mahal. There are others as well which we did not have time to see. We joined a group who had hired a local guide. He was 74 years old and had done this work all his life. His name is Davareji. He gave us a lot of details that may not be found in the books, including how sound traveled with in the large bedroom chamber where Rani Roopmati and Baaz Bahadur sang with each other. Many movies have been shot in these locales. Now days the trend is for young couples to come and shoot their own pre-wedding videos. Waiter at lunch showed us one. It was just like a Bollywood production. Tani Roopmati Mahal is on top of a 360 feet hill. This was used as a lookout post as well as housing for solders and horses in the past.
Rani Roopmati would come to the top of this Mahal to take Darshan of Narmada Maiya. Baaz Bahadur fell in love with her voice and asked her to come to Mandav. She said she would come only if she could have Narmada Darshan everyday. Davareji was telling the story in great details. We finished the tour by lunch time. We had lunch and moved to Shree Chaturbhuj Ramji Mandir. Room was so much better. We relaxed the rest of the day. Sunilji went home with the family to Devas. Tomorrow he will pick up Bharathi from Indore airport and come back.
I caught up with some writing and relaxed. Today we walked 7 kms around Mandav.