Shirdi

Shirdi

Shirdi

Town in Maharashtra, India

Not to be confused with Shiraadi.

Shirdi (pronunciationⓘ; also known as Sainagar) is a city and pilgrimage site in the Indian state of Maharashtra.[1][2] Shirdi is home to 19th century Indian satguru Sai Baba's samadhi mandir. It is located in the Rahata taluka of Ahmednagar District. It is accessible via the Ahmednagar–Malegaon State Highway No.10, approximately 83 km (52 mi) from Ahmednagar and 15 km (9.3 mi) from Kopargaon. It is located 185 km (115 mi) east of the Ahmednagar–Manmad road.[3] Shri Saibaba Sansthan Trust is located in Shirdi.[4]

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Every day, over 60,000 tourists and devotees from all faiths and religions throng to the temple, and this number increases during festive seasons. The temple opens at 4:45 am[5] Other places related to the life of Shri Sai in Shirdi include Dwarkamai Mandir, Chavadi and Gurusthan.[1][2]

Dwarkamai Mandir, where Baba lived, with a temple inside, is the only one of its kind and importance in India. Another interesting aspect of the dwarkamai mandir is that the Dhuni, or holy fire that Sai Baba lit here has been always kept burning to this day. There is a Gurusthan under the Neem tree where, according to Baba, the original samadhi of his own guru is located and Where Baba was found during his Balyog or Yuva avastha.This place is considered to be a very important because of this reason.[6][7]

Demographics

As of the 2011 India census, the population of Shirdi stood at 36,004. Males constitute 53% of the population and females 47%. Shirdi has an average literacy rate of 70%, higher than the national average of 59.5%: male literacy is 76%, and female literacy is 62%. In Shirdi, 15% of the population is under six years of age.[8]

Transport

Train

The Sainagar Shirdi Railway station became operational in March 2009. As of 2011, there are trains from Chennai,[9][10] Mumbai, Visakhapatnam, Kakinada, Vijayawada, Hyderabad, Mysore[11] and other cities/states that have Shirdi railway station as their terminal stop.

Air

Shirdi Airport was inaugurated by the President of India, Ramnath Kovind, on 1 October 2017. There are major destinations from Shirdi airport, viz. the airports of Delhi, Hyderabad, Chennai and Mumbai. The airport is located at Kakadi in Kopargaon tahsil area, 14 km south-west of Shirdi.[12] The construction, according to the original plans, was completed in February 2016, and the first trial flight landed on 2 March 2016.[13] There are plans to lengthen the runway from 2,200 metres to 3,200 metres. The target completion date is 2017 or 2018.[14]

The nearest major airports are at Aurangabad and Pune, 115 km (71 mi) and 186 km (116 mi) respectively from Shirdi.

By car

Shirdi is accessible via the Ahmednagar-Manmad State Highway No.10, approximately 83 km (52 mi) from Ahmednagar and 15 km (9.3 mi) from Kopargaon. It is approximately 240 km (150 mi) from Mumbai on the Eastern Express Highway.

References

  1. [1]
    Bureau, The Hindu (25 October 2023). "PM Modi to inaugurate various projects in Shirdi tomorrow" – via www.thehindu.com.
  2. [2]
    "Shirdi Sai Baba should not be worshipped as deity, says Dharma Sansad". 25 August 2014 – via www.thehindu.com.
  3. [3]
    "Shirdi". Amazing Maharashtra.
  4. [4]
    "India's top 10 richest temples". www.indiatvnews.com. 10 September 2013. Retrieved 14 December 2019.
  5. [5]
    "Shirdi Temple Timing & Daily Programme - Shri Saibaba Sansthan Trust, Shirdi". sai.org.in. Retrieved 20 June 2023.
  6. [6]
    "Shirdi | Incredible India". www.incredibleindia.org. Retrieved 20 June 2023.
  7. [7]
    ""The Combined Diary", Installment 156, Sunday, 11 March 2007". www.avatarmeherbaba.org.
  8. [8]
    "Census of India 2001: Data from the 2001 Census, including cities, villages and towns (Provisional)". Census Commission of India. Archived from the original on 16 June 2004. Retrieved 1 November 2008.
  9. [9]
    "New trains will start operations from July". The Hindu. 30 June 2011. Retrieved 27 April 2012.
  10. [10]
    "Coimbatore-Tuticorin Express service from today". The Hindu. Tuticorin. 1 July 2011. Retrieved 27 April 2012.
  11. [11]
    "Mysore-Shirdi weekly train from Aug 1". The Times of India. Hubli. 29 July 2011. Retrieved 27 April 2012.
  12. [12]
    "Shirdi airport work in full swing: Official". The Times of India. 2 July 2010. Archived from the original on 14 June 2012. Retrieved 3 June 2012.
  13. [13]
    Yogesh Naik (3 March 2016). "First trial flight touches down at Shirdi airport". Mumbai Mirror. Retrieved 5 April 2016.
  14. [14]
    Kunal Anand (10 February 2016). "Maharashtra govt made the runway for Shirdi Airport in 2013, rest of it will be made in 2017!". India Times. Retrieved 5 April 2016.
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