Rani Cave, Chitapur, Jagdalpur
(Blog by Jitendra Nakka)
Introduction
Coming down to the landscapes of Bastar, the first curious thing, of which we can talk about, is its bio-diversity. The exotic valleys, enchanting mountains, ravishing waterfalls, spellbinding dense forests, rich flora and fauna and its mysterious caves combine to form the bio-diversity of Bastar. Talking about the famous caves series of Bastar, Kanger Valley is the king of caves in Bastar, but apart from this exotic valley, there are few more mountain series which are famous for caves, one among them is Chitapur mountain series which is famous for some of the most beautiful caves. One such cave is Rani Cave.
Fig. showing the cave entrance behind the author
Where and how to reach?
This exotic cave is approachable from two ways:
(1) NH-16: We can reach Chitapur from Jagdalpur-Hyderabad Highway. From Jagdalpur, Chitapur is nearly 25 kms away in NH-16.
(2) NH-221: Chitapur is approachable from NH-221 also. After reaching Tokapal, one has to cover a distance of 3 kms more to reach the entrance gate of Erindpaal Gram Panchayat, which lies just left to NH-221(nearly 23 kms from Jagdalpur). From this entrance gate, we have to travel over the villages of Dhumaguda and Bade Kadma, and finally swinging down the valley road to reach the village of Chitapur. As we reach the Balak Ashram of Chitapur which lies to the left of a metalled road, we have to go back 200 meters back and follow a concrete road to reach the end of village. But this is not how we have to reach our destination, after reaching the end of village along the concrete road, we have to follow a zig zag unmetalled untrodden single path, which after nearly 1 km, reaches to a limestone mine(abandoned). To the other end of this limestone mine, there is a small hill. To the feet of this hill, lies the beautiful and mysterious Rani Cave.
As this exotic cave is very near to Divisional Head Quarter, Jagdalpur can be opted as the premium destination for lodging and boarding. Jagdalpur offers a lot of hotels and motels with good boarding facilities and some exciting tour packages. For the ease of tourist, Forest department also has made a beautiful rest house near the Head Office of Kanger Valley National Park. Chitapur is approachable throughout the whole year, but it is advisable and more over mandatory to visit this cave at the time of winters and summers only.
Being in Rani Cave:
Rani cave offers a premium destination for researchers to deeply analyse the growth procedure of Speleotherms. As usual, the entrance of this cave is very narrow with just a height of nearly 2 feet. There are three chambers of this cave out of which the middle chamber is the biggest. As we observed that the entrance is a very narrow task to enter, same is the case for first chamber which is nearly of 2.5 to 3 feet of height. This makes the way of first chamber a bit more difficult as there are a lot of boulder sized stones in the way around first chamber.
As soon as we reach the second chamber, we can observe that the chamber hall turns wider and the height of the chamber increases up to 6 - 6.5 feet in height. This chamber is the most beautiful chamber of this cave and displays the most beautiful play of budding of stalactites.
Figure shows the growth of Stalactites(Middle Chamber)
Figure shows the growth of stalactites behind Mr. Ashish Gadpale
Figure shows the growth of Stalactites(Middle Chamber)
As the floor of this chamber is covered by sand cover, it hardly displays any growth of stalagmites in this chamber. In the middle of this chamber, to the flow of water nearby, there are two stones having cylindrical and spherical shape, seems like stalagmite. This two stones actually hold the importance in this cave and are meant as “Shivlings”, so giving the cave, a look of abode of Lord Shiva.
Figure showing the Shivling like Stalagmites
One peculiar fact to be noticed is the presence of water on the sides of the chamber, gives you a kind of swampy look for this cave, but this is just a prejudice, as the sand cover has got mixed up with a lot of mud and has attained a bit not-so-loose surface in order to help the tourist to find the other end of the cave.
One more interesting fact about this cave is that this cave has two openings, due to which, unlike the other cave of Bastar division, there is availability of plenty of air-pass and air-supply.
To the end of this second chamber, the path way is quite wet and muddy, so we have to pass through side end of this chamber, in order to make it possible for the third and last chamber.
Figure showing the last chamber behind the author
The third and last chamber makes our view a bit easy, as it receives adequate amount of light from the environment outside. This chamber is again divided into two small chambers, the inner one of which receives very less light from outside and can show some most beautiful structures in this chamber. Unlike the inner chamber, this outer chamber has very less amount of structures, but receives more light than the two chambers behind. Reaching this outer chamber, we can happen to see the other mouth of the cave or the other end of the cave, which is partially covered by plant cover. Removing them, we can come outside, with an endless memories of this marvel.
Exit end of Rani Cave
Religious and Historical Importance:
According to one legendary story between the fellow villagers, once this place(Chitapur) was the capital of one dynasty and the quuen of that dynasty used to bath here near the small pond of Cave and used to worship the Shivling inside the cave, thereby getting the name "Rani Cave" after the queen of that dynasty
. During Maha-Shiv Ratri, this cave faces a huge crowd of followers and devotee people.
Conclusion:
Some people say that this cave has one more opening, as it is worthy to see the flow of water from the other end of cave and making a tiny pond like accumulation nearby. As this area is completely dominated by Dhurwa tribes, they believe that once at the time of “Bhoomkaal” revolt(1910 A.D.), nearly more than 100s or 1000s of this tribal fighters hided themselves in a group before attack against Govt. Hence, we can also say that the combination of geological phenomena with a historical and religious importance makes it more worthy to visit, watch and enjoy this cave.
Note: My heartfelt thanks to Mr. Ashish Gadpale for showing his courage and caliber in order to bring this photographs and data.
(Blog by Jitendra Nakka)
Introduction
Coming down to the landscapes of Bastar, the first curious thing, of which we can talk about, is its bio-diversity. The exotic valleys, enchanting mountains, ravishing waterfalls, spellbinding dense forests, rich flora and fauna and its mysterious caves combine to form the bio-diversity of Bastar. Talking about the famous caves series of Bastar, Kanger Valley is the king of caves in Bastar, but apart from this exotic valley, there are few more mountain series which are famous for caves, one among them is Chitapur mountain series which is famous for some of the most beautiful caves. One such cave is Rani Cave.
Where and how to reach?
This exotic cave is approachable from two ways:
(1) NH-16: We can reach Chitapur from Jagdalpur-Hyderabad Highway. From Jagdalpur, Chitapur is nearly 25 kms away in NH-16.
(2) NH-221: Chitapur is approachable from NH-221 also. After reaching Tokapal, one has to cover a distance of 3 kms more to reach the entrance gate of Erindpaal Gram Panchayat, which lies just left to NH-221(nearly 23 kms from Jagdalpur). From this entrance gate, we have to travel over the villages of Dhumaguda and Bade Kadma, and finally swinging down the valley road to reach the village of Chitapur. As we reach the Balak Ashram of Chitapur which lies to the left of a metalled road, we have to go back 200 meters back and follow a concrete road to reach the end of village. But this is not how we have to reach our destination, after reaching the end of village along the concrete road, we have to follow a zig zag unmetalled untrodden single path, which after nearly 1 km, reaches to a limestone mine(abandoned). To the other end of this limestone mine, there is a small hill. To the feet of this hill, lies the beautiful and mysterious Rani Cave.
As this exotic cave is very near to Divisional Head Quarter, Jagdalpur can be opted as the premium destination for lodging and boarding. Jagdalpur offers a lot of hotels and motels with good boarding facilities and some exciting tour packages. For the ease of tourist, Forest department also has made a beautiful rest house near the Head Office of Kanger Valley National Park. Chitapur is approachable throughout the whole year, but it is advisable and more over mandatory to visit this cave at the time of winters and summers only.
Being in Rani Cave:
Rani cave offers a premium destination for researchers to deeply analyse the growth procedure of Speleotherms. As usual, the entrance of this cave is very narrow with just a height of nearly 2 feet. There are three chambers of this cave out of which the middle chamber is the biggest. As we observed that the entrance is a very narrow task to enter, same is the case for first chamber which is nearly of 2.5 to 3 feet of height. This makes the way of first chamber a bit more difficult as there are a lot of boulder sized stones in the way around first chamber.
As soon as we reach the second chamber, we can observe that the chamber hall turns wider and the height of the chamber increases up to 6 - 6.5 feet in height. This chamber is the most beautiful chamber of this cave and displays the most beautiful play of budding of stalactites.
Figure shows the growth of Stalactites(Middle Chamber)
As the floor of this chamber is covered by sand cover, it hardly displays any growth of stalagmites in this chamber. In the middle of this chamber, to the flow of water nearby, there are two stones having cylindrical and spherical shape, seems like stalagmite. This two stones actually hold the importance in this cave and are meant as “Shivlings”, so giving the cave, a look of abode of Lord Shiva.
Figure showing the Shivling like Stalagmites
One peculiar fact to be noticed is the presence of water on the sides of the chamber, gives you a kind of swampy look for this cave, but this is just a prejudice, as the sand cover has got mixed up with a lot of mud and has attained a bit not-so-loose surface in order to help the tourist to find the other end of the cave.
One more interesting fact about this cave is that this cave has two openings, due to which, unlike the other cave of Bastar division, there is availability of plenty of air-pass and air-supply.
To the end of this second chamber, the path way is quite wet and muddy, so we have to pass through side end of this chamber, in order to make it possible for the third and last chamber.
The third and last chamber makes our view a bit easy, as it receives adequate amount of light from the environment outside. This chamber is again divided into two small chambers, the inner one of which receives very less light from outside and can show some most beautiful structures in this chamber. Unlike the inner chamber, this outer chamber has very less amount of structures, but receives more light than the two chambers behind. Reaching this outer chamber, we can happen to see the other mouth of the cave or the other end of the cave, which is partially covered by plant cover. Removing them, we can come outside, with an endless memories of this marvel.
Religious and Historical Importance:
According to one legendary story between the fellow villagers, once this place(Chitapur) was the capital of one dynasty and the quuen of that dynasty used to bath here near the small pond of Cave and used to worship the Shivling inside the cave, thereby getting the name "Rani Cave" after the queen of that dynasty
. During Maha-Shiv Ratri, this cave faces a huge crowd of followers and devotee people.
Conclusion:
Some people say that this cave has one more opening, as it is worthy to see the flow of water from the other end of cave and making a tiny pond like accumulation nearby. As this area is completely dominated by Dhurwa tribes, they believe that once at the time of “Bhoomkaal” revolt(1910 A.D.), nearly more than 100s or 1000s of this tribal fighters hided themselves in a group before attack against Govt. Hence, we can also say that the combination of geological phenomena with a historical and religious importance makes it more worthy to visit, watch and enjoy this cave.
Note: My heartfelt thanks to Mr. Ashish Gadpale for showing his courage and caliber in order to bring this photographs and data.
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