Muktagiri is a Jain Pilgrimage centre, located on border of Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra in India. It comes under Bhainsdehi tehsil of Betul district or Baitul district in Madhya Pradesh, India. It is 14 km away from Paratwada, Dist. Amravati, Maharashtra. Muktagiri is 7 km away from Kharpi village on Paratwada - Baitul road.
Muktagiri is also called as 'Mendhagiri'. There are 52 temples on the mountain, surrounding a beautiful waterfall. The waterfall is generally visible only when there is enough rainfall in the area. One can plan trip to Muktagiri between June to September to see the waterfall. A lot of monkeys can be seen near the 10th Temple - Bhagwan Sheetalnath temple - near which the waterfall is located. The 10th Temple is an ancient temple and is inside an ancient cave. The cave is prone to stonefall (which is generally said to happen only during night). Also, lot of honeybees are at a large distance from the cave. The 1st Temple, 10th Temple, 26th Temple and 40th Temple are the main temples.
Temple Timings
The temples close at around 11 am. Since the temples are in Satpura Mountain range and surrounded by jungle, it is better to visit the temples before 10 am. It takes around 1.25 to 1.5 hour for an average person to finish the entire upward and downward journeys and also little bit of puja in each temple. After 11am, one can not go inside the temples. One has to greet the Bhagwans from outside the door of each temple.
Since the nearby area is a jungle, one has to come down before noon or before it becomes dark. There are separate routes for upward and downward journeys. The temples are jagrut or holy and divine temples. So one should not carry out any bad acts in or around the temples.
Transportation
Though Muktagiri comes under Bhainsdehi tehsil of Betul district in Madhya Pradesh, it is also accessible from Paratwada in Amravati district in Maharashtra. Paratwada is 52 km from Amravati.The Autorickshaws are generally available from Paratwada to Muktagiri. The best way to go to Muktagiri from Amravati is Amravati->Paratwada->Muktagiri. State Transport (ST) buses for Paratwada are available every 15 minutes from Amravati ST Stand.
[edit] Autorickshaw Charges
The autorickshaws charge Rs. 100 for Paratwada to Muktagiri for a full autorickshaw of 3 to 8 passengers. Otherwise, they charge Rs. 15-20 per seat & they cram around 9-10 passengers in one autorickshaw. The area is totally backward. Generally, only adivasis are staying near this area. So it is better to travel during daytime / return to Paratwada before noon. The road is completely deserted from Kharpi to Muktagiri especially on Thursday - a weekly bazaar day for Paratwada.
For return journey to Paratwada, autorickshwalas bargain very hard. They try to extract Rs. 150 or more for full autorickshaw or Rs. 15 - 20 per passenger by cramming 8-10 persons in one autorickshaw. As such, the Muktagiri Kshetra and the Dharamshala staff as well as facilities there are good but the transportation facilities from Kharpi to Muktagiri are very poor especially for the return journey from Muktagiri. The road in Madhya Pradesh area after Kharpi is horrible. The road in Maharashtra area is excellent. It was the history of bad roads till 2008. Now the roads are good from MP to Maharashtra.
