Kinnaur, the Realm of Celestial Beings - Part -1
It is the month of May in Delhi and all my friends are heading for the hills, but work keeps me tied here this summer. So the way I travel these days is by leafing through travel guides and surfing to the cooler climes on the net. But the best is definitely by being there and Kinnaur haunts me like never before.
We set off from Delhi to Shimla by the overnight train and reached Shimla after 8 hours. Sarahan is at a height of 200 mts and 184-km from Shimla. But that was just our starting point for the onward journey. Here we met Ramesh our cabbie for the next seven days in the hills of Kinnaur. Off we went to through a grueling drive of seven hours. By the time we reached our destination it was eight in the evening, so it was almost 20 hrs of non stop traveling, which led us to the celestial Sarahan.
The Bhim Kali temple in the evening light resembled a spaceship out of time, sitting pretty in the verdant hills of Kinnaur Kailash. In my childhood I had read about this land of celestial beings and the wooden temple in a magazine called "Desh", which is an absolute must for every Bangla speaking family. But the most endearing bit I had read on a website, it goes, "The legend says, there was a time when demons lorded over the Himalayas and harassed the Gods and the Rishis (saints). After a long sequence, led by Lord Vishnu, the Gods breathed fire and poured their strength to a focus. A huge flame rose and as the clouds of smoke dispersed, they saw that a young girl had taken birth. She was the first Shakti - “Adhishakti”.
Hemkunt gave her a white tiger to ride on, Kuber gave her a crown, Varun gave her clothes and water. The other Gods gave her the Lotus, Garlands, a Conch, the Chakra and other powerful Devi, was to repeatedly take birth and destroy the demons. As Bhimakali, she appeared at Sarahan - the place is one of the major Shaktipeeths or Shaktipeethas or ‘Places of Strength’, where the Devi or Goddess appeared. While it was the local Pundits who spent hours with us narrating the legends, many are recorded in the ancient texts of the “Markandey Purana” and the “Durgaq Shaptshatti”. The first glimpse of the temple gave my heart a flutter. I got these two shots through the drizzle next day.
We made a friend here in the lazy dog who ate two packs of biscuits without batting an eyelash. I call him lazy bones and hope when we go back in the future Mr. Lazy Bones still retains lethargic look about him, would not trade it for any other.
We set off from Delhi to Shimla by the overnight train and reached Shimla after 8 hours. Sarahan is at a height of 200 mts and 184-km from Shimla. But that was just our starting point for the onward journey. Here we met Ramesh our cabbie for the next seven days in the hills of Kinnaur. Off we went to through a grueling drive of seven hours. By the time we reached our destination it was eight in the evening, so it was almost 20 hrs of non stop traveling, which led us to the celestial Sarahan.
The Bhim Kali temple in the evening light resembled a spaceship out of time, sitting pretty in the verdant hills of Kinnaur Kailash. In my childhood I had read about this land of celestial beings and the wooden temple in a magazine called "Desh", which is an absolute must for every Bangla speaking family. But the most endearing bit I had read on a website, it goes, "The legend says, there was a time when demons lorded over the Himalayas and harassed the Gods and the Rishis (saints). After a long sequence, led by Lord Vishnu, the Gods breathed fire and poured their strength to a focus. A huge flame rose and as the clouds of smoke dispersed, they saw that a young girl had taken birth. She was the first Shakti - “Adhishakti”.
Hemkunt gave her a white tiger to ride on, Kuber gave her a crown, Varun gave her clothes and water. The other Gods gave her the Lotus, Garlands, a Conch, the Chakra and other powerful Devi, was to repeatedly take birth and destroy the demons. As Bhimakali, she appeared at Sarahan - the place is one of the major Shaktipeeths or Shaktipeethas or ‘Places of Strength’, where the Devi or Goddess appeared. While it was the local Pundits who spent hours with us narrating the legends, many are recorded in the ancient texts of the “Markandey Purana” and the “Durgaq Shaptshatti”. The first glimpse of the temple gave my heart a flutter. I got these two shots through the drizzle next day.
We made a friend here in the lazy dog who ate two packs of biscuits without batting an eyelash. I call him lazy bones and hope when we go back in the future Mr. Lazy Bones still retains lethargic look about him, would not trade it for any other.
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