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Sarada
Temple in Kashmir
P. N. K. Bamzai, New Delhi
That
Kashmir has been a part and parcel of Bharatvarsha from time immemorial has been
testified by Pandit Kalhana by recording in his Ragatarangani that pilgrims from
Kashmir used to visit holy places from Rameshwaram to Badrinath and Dwarka to
Puri and that devotees of Durga and Shiva from all over the country would flock
to the holy shrine of Sarada and the sacred cave of Amarnath in Kashmir. The
author, the renowned historian of Kashmir, describes the importance of the
Sarada Temple which now lies in Pak-occupied Kashmir : Editor
From
time immemorial Kashmir has been known all over India as Saradapeeth or
the abode of Sarada the goddess of learning and fine arts. Every orthodox
Brahmin in South India, for instance, on rising from his bed in the morning
faces north and with folded hands offers salutations to goddess Sarada.
"Namaste Sarada Devi, Kashmira
mandala vasini"
(Salutations to Goddess Sarada who resides in
Kashmir).
The place of pride which the Valley acquired in
Sanskrit language and literature as well as in humanities like medicine,
astronomy, astrology, philosophy, religion, law and jurisprudence, music, art
and architecture is attributed to the grace and benediction of the goddess who
revealed herself in all her divine grandeur to Muni Sandalya at Saradavana in
the Upper Kishenganga Valley in the north of Kashmir.
No wonder, the holy spot became a sacred shrine
to which thousands of devotees not only from the Kashmir Valley but from distant
parts of India were attracted to seek blessings from Sarada Devi, the goddess in
her three aspects of Sarada, Narada or Saraswati and Vaghdevi.
The exact location of the shrine where, in
course of time, a huge temple complex came up, is indicated by Kalhana himself.
He has occasion to speak of the siege of Sirahsila castle (Raj. viii-2556-2706)
wich took place in his own time. His references show clearly that the shrine was
in close proximity to this hill stronghold. Various indications gathered from
the general description of the locality pointed to the Upper Kishneganga Valley.
An earlier source, the Sarada Mahatmya,
narrating the origin of the tirtha mentions the various stages of the pilgrim
route. The Muni Sandalya, son of Matanga, was practising austerities in order to
obtain the sight of the goddess Sarada, who is a Sakti embodying three separate
manifestations. Divine advice prompts him to proceed to Syamal (the present
Kupwara district).
There at Ghusa, Mahadevi appears before him and
promises to show herself in her true form as Sakti in the `Sarada Forest'. The
goddess vanishes from his sight at Hayasrama, the present village of Hayahoma
situated about four miles to the N.E-E of Ghusa.
The Muni next proceeds to a spring now known as
Krishna Nag in which he bathes. Thereupon half his body becomes golden,
emblematic of the approach to complete liberation from darkness. The spring
situated above the village of Drang is shown on the larger Survey Map as quite
close to Hayabom and is undoubtedly the Drang mentioned by Kalhana (Raj
2607-2702). The place is nowadays usually designated by the local Brahmins as
Sona-Drang.
From thence Sandalya ascends the mountain range
to the north on which he sees a dance of goddesses in a mountain meadow known as
Rangavatika which lies below the pass by which the route leading from Drang
towards the Kishenganga crosses the watershed.
He then arrives at Tejavana, the residence of
Sage Gautama on the bank of the Kishenganga. The Mahatmya then relates how the
sage after crossing a hill sees on the east the god Ganesa and arrives in the
Saradavana. After reciting a hymn in praise of her triple form of Sarada, Narada
or Saraswati and Vaghdevi, an account is given how the goddess revealed herself
to the Muni at the sacred spot and rewarded his long austerities by inviting him
to her residence at Sirahsila.
Pitras now approach Sandalya and ask him to
perform their shradas. On his taking water from the Mahasindhu for the
purpose of the tarpana rite, half its water turns into honey and forms the
stream now known as Madhumati. Ever since baths and shradas at the sangama
of the Sindhu and Madhumati assure to the pious complete remission of sins.
The Brahmins from the neighbouring districts who
till recently performed the pilgrimage to Sarada, avoided the difficult gorges
through which the route above described, debouches into the Kishenganga Valley.
Starting on the pilgrimage on the Sudi 4th
Bhadarpada, the day when, as the Mahatmya says, special holiness accumulates at
the tirtha, they satisfied themselves by bathing in the rivulet which comes from
Drang, instead of visiting its source at the Krishna Nag. They then proceeded to
Ghusa where they visited a little grove of walnut trees and chinars situated by
the side of the Kamil river known by the name of Rangavaar as a substitute for
Rangavatika. From there they marched by the ordinary route to Dudinial on the
Kishenganga over the Sitalvan pass. Ascending the river on its left bank they
reached Tejavana and finally Sarada on the 4th day.
The sacred spot where the goddess appeared in
her divine form is marked by a stone slab seven feet long, six feet wide and
half a foot thick. The stone is supposed to cover a Kunda or spring cavity from
where the goddess rose and finally vanished.
Through the course of centuries it has been the
object of worship and devotion of a large number of pilgrims who annually
visited the spot. The slab has ipso-facto become the sanctum sanctorum of the
temple which came up here on the model of the Aryan order of Kashmir
architecture. Though in ruins now the entire complex inspires a sense of
grandeur and awe.
The cella of the main temple is 22 feet square.
The entrance is from the west. The other three walls have blank refoiled archway
standing to a height of about 20 feet from the base to the apex of the arches.
The entrance is approached by a flight of a few steps. On each side of the
porchway are two square pillars about 16 feet high and two feet six inches
apart. The capital of both the pillars seem to have been hewn from a single
stone.
The interior of the temple is square and
perfectly plane. There are scarcely any traces of the usual pyramidal stone
roof. Bates (1873) noticed the temple covered by a low shingle roof having been
"recently erected by Col. Gundu, Maharaja Gulab Singh's Ziladar of
Muzaffarabad".
The temple occupies the centre of a quadrangular
court 142 feet long and 94'6" broad. The quadrangle is enclosed by a
massive wall six feet thick and eleven feet high from the level of the court to
the projecting rim at the foot of the coping. The latter rises in pyramidal form
to a height of eight feet above the top of the wall, giving it a massive look.
Seen from outside, the walls of the enclosure
appear still massive and imposing, as they are raised on basement walls built to
equalize the different elevations of the ground.
The entire complex stands at the foot of a spur
which rises above the right bank of the Madhumati stream and slopes up gradually
for some distance until it culminates in the precipitous pine-clad mountain
which is traversed by the direct path leading towards the Kashmir Valley.
The temple with its enclosed quadrangle is
approached by a staircase about nine feet wide of stone steps sixty-three in
number, having on either side a massive balustrade fallen into ruins. The
stair-case leads to the entrance of the quadrangular court. This gateway
occupies exactly the middle of the west face directly in line with the porchway
leading to the sanctum sanctorum of the main temple.
Judging from the fame which the shrine of Sarada
enjoyed not only in Kashmir but far beyond it, the number of pilgrims must have
been considerable. Kalhana himself in his account of Lalitaditya's reign (8th
century AD) refers to certain followers of a king of Gauda or Bengal, who had
come to Kashmir under the pretence of visiting the shrine of Sarada, but in
reality to avenge the murder of their king by Lalitaditya. This particular
reference to Sarada shows that its fame had spread to far off regions.
A witness to the fame of Sarada is Alberuni
(10th century AD) who describes its position in "inner Kashmir about two to
three days journey towards the mountains of Bolor" (upper Indus between
Gilgit and Ladakh). He speaks of the shrine as much venerated and frequented by
pilgrims and mentions it along with the most famous ones like those of Surya at
Multan, the Visnu Chakraswamin of Thaneswar and the Linga of Somnath.
Bilhana whose literary career falls into the
second half of the eleventh century also mentions the tirtha of Sarada,
in his panigyrical description of Pravarapura or Srinagar. Written when he was a
Deccan far away from his home, he ascribes the patronage of learning, claimed
for that city, to the favour of Sarada. The goddess is said to resemble a swan,
carrying as her diadem the glittering gold washed from the sand of river
Madhumati.
In a more legendary light the temple of Sarada
figures in a story related to the great jaina scholar Hemacandra (1088-1172 AD),
in the Prabhavakacarita. Commissioned by king Jayasimha of Gujarat to compose a
new grammar, he requested to be supplied with necessary material in the shape of
the older grammars which could be found complete only in the library of Sarada
in Kashmir. Jayasimha sent at once high officials to Pravarapura to obtain the
manuscripts. Arrived there they proceeded to the temple of the goddess and
offered prayers. The manuscripts were delivered to the king's-envoys and brought
by them to Hemacandra, who, after perusing them, composed his own grammatical
work, the Siddhahemachandra.
The Sarada shrine was known in distant parts of
India, long before the compostion of Prabhavakacarita (middle of the 13th
century) and hence the author must have known that at the temple of Sarada was a
massive library housing learned works of authors who had been blessed by goddess
Sarada.
Another curious reference to Saradapeeth is
found in Jonaraja's chronicle wherein he mentions that Sultan Zain-ul-Abidin
visited the shrine perhaps in 1422 AD to witness the miraculous manfestations of
the goddess. From Jonaraja's account it appears these were the appearance of
sweat on the face of the image of the goddess, the shaking of the arm, and a
sensation of heat on touching the feet.
We see from this account that a miracle-working
image of Sarada, probably the same of which Alberuni had heard was yet in
existence in the early part of the 15th century.
In the 16th century the temple of Sarada must
have enjoyed yet considerable reputation in Kashmir itself. Abul Fazl's notice
of the site (Ain ii-p. 365) : "At two day's distance from Hayahom is the
river named Madhumati, which flows from the Darda country. Gold is aiso found in
this river. On its banks is a stone temple called Sarada, dedicated to Durga and
regarded with great veneration. On every eighth tithi of the bright half
of the month, it begins to shake and produces the most extraordinary
effect."
The notice of gold being found in the river
clearly applies to the Kishenganga, which drains a mountain region known as
auriferous to the present day.
The number of pilgrims was ever increasing while
Kashmir was under the rule of Hindu kings. They maintained the temple complex in
a spick-and-span condition. With the advent of Islam (First quarter of the 14th
century) it lost the royal patronage. But the flow of pilgrims was quite
sizeable even during the Sultan, Chak and Mughal rules. Fortunately the
destructive hands of Sikandar Butshikan did not reach the shrine and its temple,
because of its location at an isolated spot where perhaps his writ did not run.
But it was the politically disturbed condition
of the Upper Kishenganga Valley during the later Mughal and Pathan rule that has
had much to do with the neglect into which the shrine of Sarada has fallen.
Karnah and Drava were then in the hands of the
government of the Kashmir Valley. Unable themselves to maintain order among the
warlike and turbulent hillmen of their territory, they allowed them to make
frequent raids into the Kashmir Valley.
Conditions improved but little during the Sikh
rule, and even as late as 1846 Kashmir was raided as far as Srinagar by bands of
restless Bombas. It is evident that during this long period of anarchy the
pilgrimage to the distant shrine on the Kishenganga could have no attractions
for peaceful Brahmins of Kashmir.
Under one of the Karnah chiefs the temple is
said to have been used for the storage of gunpowder, the explosion of which blew
off the original roof.
The temple was subsequently repaired by Maharaja
Gulab Singh under whose orders Col. Gundu, the Ziladar of Muzaffarabad erected a
shingle roof over the temple for its protection. The Maharaja also settled a
small bounty of seven rupees `chilki' per mensem on the family of Gotheng
Brahmins who claim the hereditary guardianship of the temple.
According to the traditions of the Gotheng
Brahmins it was only since the establishment of the Dogra rule and the peaceful
settlement of the Upper Kishenganga Valley that the temple of Sarada became once
more open for regular pilgrim visits.
Reproduced from :
Kashmir
News Network (KNN)
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