Sarada Temple in Kashmir
by P.N.K. Bamzai
That
Kashmir has been a part and parcel of Bharatvarsha from time immemorial
has been testified to 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)
which 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 Snadalya, 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 proeeed to Syamala
(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 Hayahom 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 samgama 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 from 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 in.
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
in 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 of 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 Siddhahemacandra.
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 pilgims
was quite sizeable even during the Sultan, Chak and Mughal rule. Fortunately
the destructive hands of Simandar Butshikan did not reach the shrine and
its temple, because of its location at an isolated sport 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 hillmend 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.
Source: Koshur Samachar
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