Religious Tours - Himachal Pradesh

Baijnath Temple

In the town of Baijnath, Dussehra festival in which traditionally the effigy of the Ravana is consigned to flames is not celebrated as a mark of respect to the devotion of Ravana towards Lord Shiva. Another interesting thing about the town of Baijnath is that there is no shop of goldsmiths.

The story behind is like when Ravana was descending from the Himalayas after years of worship of Lord Shiva. Lord Shiva had presented him a Shiva idol in form of a Shivling, which was supposed to be established at Lanka, now Sri Lanka, which would have blessed him (Ravana) with undefeatable powers even to the Gods. It was advised to Ravana that he can not place the Shivling anywhere during the course of travel, even during resting.

Ravana was tricked by one of the Devas (Gods), who posed as a beggar and wanted help from Ravana and promised to hold the Shivling for him while he (Ravana) fetched food for the beggar. The Deva posing as beggar placed the Shivling on ground, in absence of Ravana. The Shiva idol or the Shivling at Baijnath temple is the same Shivling which was placed by the Deva after tricking Ravana.

Jwalamukhi Temple (Jwalaji)

The Jwalamukhi Temple in Kangra District of Himachal is considered extremely sacred for the Hindus. It is located around 35 km south of the Kangra valley in the lap of Shivalik range and is dedicated to Goddess Jwalamukhi, the deity of Flaming Mouth. The legend of the Jwalamukhi Temple relates to Sati. Jwalamukhi temple is the place where the tongue of Sati fell. Here the goddess is manifested as tiny flames that burn through the fissures in the age old rock. The temple of Jwalamukhi is not an architectural delight. Moreover, there is no idol to worship too. Unlike any other temple, this one doesn't have a statue or an image, but a constantly burning blue flame that seems to come from the rocks. Jwalamukhi Temple is a temple of the Goddess of Light. Jwalamukhi is also known as the Flaming Goddess or She of the Flaming Mouth. The building has a gilt dome and a silver plated folding doors. Inside, there is a 3 feet square pit with pathway all around. In the centre, there is a hollowed rock over a primary fissure of flame. This one is regarded as the mouth of the Mahakali. Flames emit out from several other point in the pit. They are nine in total and represent the different form of the goddess - Saraswati, Annapurna, Chandi, Hing Laj, Vindhya Vasini, Mahalakshmi, Mahakali, Ambika and Anjana.

First built by the Sikh Raja Kharak Singh, the temple is ornate and heavily embellished with a gilt dome, lots of gold and decorated pinnacles. The doors to the temple are of pure silver and of such beauty that Lord Harding is said to have had a copy made for himself. A canal channels the spring waters which come from a different source around the back of the temple and another local story states that the Emperor Akbar built this canal in an attempt to put out the flames in the temple. When it didn't work, he became an ardent devotee himself. In fact one of the local women's songs has lyrics that describe how Akbar came to the temple and placed his gold crown near the flames. The Goddess turned the gold to copper.