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is here that Brahma, Vishnu and Siva are believed to have been 'born' and taken
on their incarnations, which makes this town a popular Hindu pilgrimage place.
This large sprawling town stands on the banks of the Mandakini River, 128 km southwest
of Allahabad and 116 km east of Mahoba.
There is a strong belief that
some of the events mentioned in the great epic Ramayana occured in and around
Chitrakoot. It is believed that Rama, his wife Sita, and his brother Lakshmana,
sought refuge in a forest that covered this entire area, after being banished
from Ayodhya.
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Most of Chitrakoot's religious and leisure activity revolves around the small,
 charming, and
very central Ramghat, where boats with electric-blue mattresses and pillows create
a pretty picture against a backdrop of ashrams and ghats to either side of the
narrow, slow-moving river. Steps above the ghat lead to the Math Gajendranath
Shiva Temple, and its picturesque river views.
Here, deep in a cave twittering
with bats, water bubbles out of a spring, flows into another cave, pours down
the hill and vanishes. A protrusion of black rock is identified as the voyeuristic
demon Myunk. Along the pilgrim-bright ghat steps, touched by the river, are shrines
dedicated to the royal assembly, the durbar, where the exiled King's brother Bharat
tried to persuade him to return to the capital; one which, reportedly, marks the
spot where Lord Brahma lit the sacred fires of creation; and a platform associated
with one of the revered authors of the Ramayana.
Saffron-robed mendicants
and pilgrims flow like confetti-streams of drifting colours along the narrow lanes
of Chitrakoot, sharing it with the occasional trained elephant and inquisitive
troops of monkeys.
Up a wooded hill, in a white fortress-shrine, Hanumandhara
hill shrine, a spring gushes out of the living rock cooling an idol of the monkey-king
Hanuman, enraged after he burst the palace of the demon king Ravana. The views
of the ravine lands from here are spectacular.
Shrines have also been
built around the hermitage of Sage Atri and his demure wife and her sister. These
shrines are near rock-cut carvings which bear a resemblance to those of Angkor
Wat in Cambodia.
Then there is the curious hill, Kamadgiri. Pilgrims
to Chitrakoot traditionally perform the Parikrama, or ritual circumambulation
of this wooded hill. Devotees believe that it is hollow and that in its cavernous
interior sit seers wrapped in silent meditation. Only faith, apparently, can open
the secret doors to this esoteric place of power.
On its course around
the base of the hill, the five-kilometre path passes numerous temples and shrines,
including the big Kantanath Swami Temple, which holds a modern image of Rama and
Sita and a more venerated monolithic stone image, black and embellished with large
eyes.
 South
of Chitrakoot
Several shrines linked with the Ramayana are tucked
away in the region South of Chitrakoot. the major Janki Kund Temple ( " Pool of
Janki"; Janki is another name for Sita ), is just 2 km south of Chitrakoot on
the Satna road. Down the main road, 1 km south, a path through a complex of Ashrams
leads to the large flat rock of Sphatekshila , protruding onto the river, where
Sita used to sit. It supposedly bears the impressions of the feet of Rama.
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Winter: October to March.