Mount Abu: history of different sorts

I had come to Mount Abu earlier; In my college days, with my friends, an excursion that we planned on our own and was not a college trip. While Udaipur was a trip soaked in history, Mount Abu was totally different! History of different sorts!
We stayed in two hotels. The landscape in first one was amazing. We enjoyed sitting in a lawn surrounded by rocks. Then came the troop of 'Langurs' who found the beautiful flowers delicious.

 I was reminded of the visit paid to us by a monkey in Dalhousie,

The Dalhousie monkey through our window!

who wouldn't budge, till all the kids were scared to hell! History!!
We went to see the sunset point. It was the most overstated sunset that I had ever seen. I had seen better sunsets in Delhi. But the best part was that while we were waiting for the sun to set there was a group of young people, may be office group or post-grads who were playing Dumb-charades. It was nice to be reminded of one's own college days. History!!
Dilwara temples are amazing, the intricate work that is done there is mind blowing.

The Mount Abu Langur fond of flowers and friendly!!

I tried to figure out, how they identify different tirthankars in the statues as all of them look so similar. For me, all of them looked like Mahavir Swamy. Then I was told that there is an insignia that identifies them. Photography in the temples is not allowed. The history written inside the temples is hard to believe! Various gods and goddesses were carved on the roofs and pillars. All of them had there noses desecrated, some had been reconstructed. We were told that it was Allauddin Khilji's army that destroyed the noses as a matter of insult to hindu deities and to prove his supremacy. It appears that Afghan-Turks and mongols incessantly kept on ravaging this part of the country for half a millenium. May be the glory of Somnath temple was such! In fact, that explains why the beautiful Dilwara temples have such an ordinary exterior that one feels that there are some domes in between the caves.

Our visit to Gurushikhar, the highest point of Aravallis also tickled my past memories.

I remember having been clicked with the large bell at the top! 

At the top: 22 years back

Notice the changed Ghanta: The metallic one, I mean!!

I have written about the peaks of various mountain ranges in India in my Pachmarhi blog.

Gurushikhar has around 300 steps to reach the top. There is a Dattatreya temple at 65 steps.