Madhya Pradesh And Maharashtra To Create Religious Tourism Circuit Linking Jyotirlingas, Jointly Preserve Maratha Heritage

Madhya Pradesh (MP) and Maharashtra are planning to create a religious tourism circuit, involving the linking of Jyotirlinagas between the two states, The New Indian Express reported.

This comes after the historic signing of a Memorandum of Understanding for the world's biggest groundwater recharge, the Tapti Basin Mega Recharge project between the neighboring states.

A meeting in this regard was held between Maharashtra Chief Minister (CM) Devendra Fadnavis and MP CM Dr Mohan Yadav on Saturday (10) where the linking of Maharashtra's three Jyotirlingas: Shri Trimbakeshwar, Shri Bhimashankar, and Shri Grishneshwar and MP's two Jyotirlingas: Shri Mahakaleshwar and Shri Omkareshwar was discussed.

“Both, MP and Maharashtra will work together across multiple sectors, including industry, cultural and spiritual traditions, tourism, and horticulture. They will jointly preserve their shared cultural heritage and increase activities of mutual cooperation in these areas,” Yadav told media persons after the meeting.

Apart from faith, the shared historical heritage of the Maratha rule also binds the two states. Hence, the two states will also make efforts for historical preservation, under which histories of warriors like Bajirao Peshwa, the Holkars, Shindes (Scindias), Tatya Tope, Rani Lakshmi Bai, and Appaji Bhonsle will be compiled and digitised.

“As part of this initiative, both states can collaborate in preserving and publishing manuscripts written in the Modi script,” the MP CM said, referring to the script, which was predominant for writing Marathi once upon a time.

Notably, MP also uses Maharashtra's ports for the export of large volumes of pharmaceuticals, textiles, and agricultural items produced by it. Thus, building a dedicated freight corridor between Jabalpur and Nagpur would result in significant savings in cost, time, and freight charges for goods transportation in Central India, Yadav added.