Har Ki Pauri, Jammu and Kashmir

Jammu, the capital city of Jammu and Kashmir, is known for its many temples and is often called the City of Temples. Har Ki Pauri is the name of the famous bathing ghat in Haridwar, one of the sacred cities of the Hindus. Interestingly, Jammu too has a temple named Har Ki Pauri, inspired by the famous ghat.

The Har Ki Pauri Temple of Jammu is a modern temple built on the banks of the Tawi River. Today, it attracts a large number of devotees because of its impressive icons and the presence of almost all major Gods and Goddesses of Hinduism within one complex.

The temple is broadly divided into three sections. The riverbank here is called Ganga Ghat, although the river flowing beside it is the Tawi. The first section of the temple has a magnificent icon of Ganesha on the roof, visible even from a long distance. This section has a shrine for Chamunda Devi, shown seated on a lion. On either side of this main shrine, one can find the icons and shrines of Surya, Dharma, Yama, Chitragupta, Santoshi Mata, Saraswati, Lakshmi, Ganesha, and Shiva as Bhikshatanamurti receiving alms from Annapurna. There is also a separate shrine where Chamunda Devi is seen in a reclining posture. Icons of Vishnu and Naga are found near this shrine.

The second section of the temple has a large icon of Hanuman on the roof, again visible from outside the temple. This section is known as Rameswar. It has a large Shiva Linga surrounded by ten smaller Shiva Lingas. Behind these eleven Lingas are the icons of Rama, Lakshmana and Hanuman performing worship to Shiva. The shrines and icons of Vaishno Devi, Bhadra Kali, Ganga and Tawi are also found in this section.

The third section of the temple is known as Char Dham. The main shrine here has a large icon of Vasudeva. This section also has several other shrines and icons, including Mansa Devi with Ganesha, Krishna-Baldev-Subhadra in the Puri style, Tirupati Balaji, Badrinarayan with Nara-Narayana, Garuda, Lakshmi and Narada, Kedarnath Linga with Parvati, Radha-Krishna, infant Krishna, a large Shiva Linga named Pasupatinath, Shiva-Parvati-Ganesha, Vittal with Rukmini, Shravan Kumar with his parents, and Dwarakadheesh.

At the entrance of the main temple, there is a shrine for Shaneeswara. Akhanda deepams, the ever-burning lamps, are found in many places across the temple complex.

Har Ki Pauri Temple in Jammu may be modern, but it is striking because of the sheer range of divine forms gathered in one space. On the banks of the Tawi, it stands as a busy and colourful place of worship for devotees and visitors alike.

Happy travelling.