Mahadev Temple in Harni – Very Scenic route to a hill temple

A small temple with a huge compound on top of a small hill should not be given a miss. As usual, i was browsing around on google maps (in satellite view) around my favourite area (the hills near to Saswad). Curvy roads on a hill terrain, interesting. Zoomed in and found a temple. Never been there, time to go!

The location of the temple: https://maps.app.goo.gl/3vhYEoEffKbWiSgQ7 . The route to go there (from Magarpatta) was straightforward. Go to Saswad, take the exit towards Veer Dam road, go all the way near Parinche and then a short climb on the hill. I had been on this route before, but had taken a parallel internal road for the trek to Narsinha Temple near Hargude (yet to write about it). The road (called Indraprastha road) until Pimpale is almost like a runway and should be a biker’s heaven! Utterly butterly smooth and going through narrow valley with greenery on either side. The windows just had to be rolled down!

The entire route until Parinche is green and calm with very less traffic. You should be extremely unlucky not to see/hear a peacock (or your car stereo is blaring!). In fact, there are spots on this road famous for birding. Before you turn to the left near the village after Pimpale, have a Basundi chai at the big bus stop on the left.

As you approach the hill temple, you will see steps leading up to it (could be a hundred of them). But you don’t have to take the steps. There is a road leading all the way up to the temple. If you want a bit extra adventure, stop at the base and climb the steps. The road is perfectly ok for all types of cars. The temple as such is small, but the complex around it is huge and looks to be relatively new. A very well made boundary wall and stone flooring, the location is great for relaxing.

Since there are no hills nearby, the view is excellent and you can even see the backwaters of Veer Dam from here. There is a priest who lives permanently here (his house is just behind the temple). While seeing the temple on the map, i had seen two more structures nearby without a clear path to them. Had included them as a “short trek” to be done once we are here. There is a Kanifnath temple at the top of the hill behind the temple. You will be able to see a huge sign of “Mahadev Harni Mandir” (like I Love Pune) and a small temple. This is NOT the kanifnath temple. The kanifnath is on the hill behind this and hence not visible.

You have to trek (more of a short climb) to these temples. I have marked the trail in red in the above image, but very unlikely that you will be able to catch it on the way. The trail is actually the path of water coming down and hence is visible only from the top. Go towards the priest’s room and then start climbing up in the direction of the structure visible on top of the hill. You may have to scramble through at some place, but nothing complicated at all. Less than 10 mins needed. After that, it is a short walk to the Kanifnath temple.

These two temples are at a greater height than the Harni Mandir and hence give a greater view. Do not miss this trek as it will make a simple temple visit into an interesting outing.

The Kanifnath temple is an one shed small temple. It was refreshing to climb until here. I flew the drone, took a water break and we were back on our way down.

More photos and after some walking around near the boundary wall, we started out journey back.

As always, breakfast was planned on the way back. The earlier week, we had stopped at Shankutala Misal for Bhel and Misal. This time, we stopped at Asmita Vada Pav. The Vada Pavs were excellent, but i understood that the Misal was better at Shakuntala. Around a 7 AM start and we were back home around 1130AM. Good start to the weekend 🙂