Place · forest tract · India
Shoolpaneshwar
/ʃuːlpaːɳeːʃʋər/
Also known as Shulpaneshwar
A forested and historically difficult stretch through Bhil country in the hills near the Gujarat border. Older accounts describe pilgrims surrendering their possessions here and walking on with nothing; the passage is remembered as the test of endurance and trust within the circuit.
- Periods
- Classical and Puranic Age, Regional Flourishing, Islamic Age and Bhakti Traditions, Early Modern Age, British Colonial Age, Republic and Living Practice
- Function
- Landscape & environmental change
- Confidence
- Established / referenced
- Location
- 21.800, 73.800
Worth knowing
The original shrine was submerged by the Sardar Sarovar reservoir and relocated, so the site on the map is not the historical one.
Connections (2)
- Site adjacencySardar Sarovar Dam
The original Shoolpaneshwar shrine, in the difficult forested Bhil country where parikrama pilgrims traditionally surrendered their possessions to be robbed and let through, was submerged by the Sardar Sarovar reservoir and relocated. The displacement of Adivasi villages across this reach drove the Narmada Bachao Andolan under Medha Patkar, one of the longest-running resistance movements in independent India, and the stretch is now as much a political landscape as a sacred one.
- Site adjacencyStatue of Unity
The Statue of Unity stands on an island below the dam, a hundred and eighty-two metres of Sardar Patel facing the reservoir, opened in 2018 and built partly with iron collected from farmers across India. It looks out over the Shoolpaneshwar forest and the villages the reservoir displaced, which makes the two neighbours on this reach an unusually direct statement about what the Narmada valley project was for and whom it cost.
On these journeys
Sources
Wikipedia, “Shoolpaneshwar Wildlife Sanctuary”. Archaeological Survey of India and State Archaeology monument records, and the standard regional literature.
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