Tracing the History - Veereshwar Temple Aasre

I had been to a Shiva temple when I was very young may be about 7th std. This visit was interesting now as I think back as it was connected to our history. The temple I visited was supposed to be installed and managed by my grandmothers family - the Hawaldars. I remembe everything including the travel that we undertook in a bus along with Pujaris and family members as we had planned for a Rudra at the temple. I also remember the welcome that we had received as Hawaldar Family.

The time then moved on.

I had an urge to connect back to this history and started tracing the place - as I only new briefly the name of the village. I searched and found the details and then decided to make a quick visit.

The whole place is now changed - as compared to what I remembered visiting as a child but few things still remain.

At then entrance , there is a board mentioning the history of the temple and the efforts of Hawaldar family in rebuilding the same. Today the temple has been acquired by the Government and is managed by a trust but interestingly the pujari still provided me with every support when I mentioned about being a family member of Hawaldars.

























This was the history of the temple!

The temple entrance and the deepmal is completely renovated now and is more of cement structure rather than the original stone structure.

The Garbha Gruh has been completely redone and has a shiva Linga The original Nandi and a lot of Shiva linga have been installed at another small temple next to this main temple.

Also a Ganesh Murty next to the entrance to the garbha gruh.

While the temple is completely rebuilt, the heritage stone work still is impressive. A lot of stone carvings are lying around the temple. The trust now manages this temple and is responsible for the running of the dharmashala and other facilities.

Its a nice histroical trip about 30 minutes from Khopoli.

The board at the entrance is the only remembrance of the history of Hawaldar Joshi and the temple.