Summer Vacation Excursion- Part V

Summer Vacation Excursion- Part V

Author : Dr. K.S.Kang

This year during summer vacations I and my wife decided to visit another part of beautiful state of Himachal Pradesh. We started our journey from Chandigarh by a hired cab courtesy due to my niece and her family who are settled at Chandigarh. Interestingly driver of our cab was a Bengali gentleman which is a rarity to be found in Chandigarh but we had no communication well as both of us knew Hindi well, though he could understand Punjabi a bit but could not speak it. From Chandigarh we started in the early morning at about 7 o’clock in the morning so that we could reach our destination by evening. We had planned to visit two places during this journey and those two places were Manikaran which was a holy place for both Hindus and Sikhs and known for its hot water springs whose element of sulphur had curative properties in skin related maladies and the beautiful hill station of not only the State of Himachal Pradesh but of entire country- Manali.

            First of all we stopped at Anandpur Sahib for half an hour that enabled us to pay our respects at the historic Gurudwara: which is one of the five Takhts of Sikh religion. Then our driver took us on the route to Naina Devi but we did not visit the temple so as to save the time and so that we can reach our destination before the darkness of the evening sets in. We passed through the towns of Bilaspur, Mandi, Sundernagar and finally Kullu before reaching the place of our destination: Manikaran which was situated in the famous Parvati valley of the state and it owes its name to Goddess Parvati whose earring was lost and swallowed by Kaaliya Nag or serpent living in the river. By the evening we reached this place and made our staying arrangements in the Gurudwara itself. Gurudwara is situated on the banks of River Beas whose waer was flowing with a great force even in the drier months of May. As told earlier this place is famous for its hot water springs whose water has curative property. Inside the Gurudwara there is a room where the rock is also hot due to the warmth of hot water springs underneath and people sit on these rocks to get relief from the pain of the joints and muscles. This Gurudwara; which is managed by the daughter and Son-in-law of the founder of this Gurudwara. No offerings are allowed in this place instead whoever visits it the free packet of Prasad consisting of Sugar granules (Mishri) is given free of cost. Nor there is any cost of staying in the rooms provided by the Gurudwara and the meals in the Langar of course are free. We visited the neighbouring Shiv-Parvati temple which had a large pond of boiling water and large earthen pots of rice and lentils were kept in that boiling pond to be cooked. The langar that was served in the Gurudwara was also cooked in these ponds of hot water springs. Outside the temple shopkeepers were selling small cotton bags with few grams of rice and devotees cooked it by immersing it in the pond of boiling for a few minutes. I and my wife also bought a bag each and put it in the pool. To our surprise and wonder rice was well cooked within five minutes. We ate it with sugar granules(mishri) that we got from the Gurudwara as Prasad. In the evening we attended Gurudwara service after taking dinner in Gurudwara Hall which continued nearly till midnight in which the Son-in-law of the founder of Gurudwara came himself and addressed the audience apprising them about the history of that great place and also teaching them the methods of meditation. This place is associated with Sikhism as its founder Guru Nanak Dev ji visited this place. His disciple Mardana felt hungry and asked Guruji how can he cook food without lighting the fire in this weird place. Guruji removed a stone and came out the steam of water boiling underneath in which Mardana cooked rice. This place is also associated with Hindu mythology as its name suggest that Goddess Parvati lost her earring in the water of the river, which was swallowed by a serpent and thus she requested Lord Shiva to get back her diamond studded ring and the snake returned a number of precious stones along with her earring. So this place has also some of the ancient temples whose intricate wooden carving and stone architecture is simply wonderful. There is also a large Chariot made of wood that has been exhibited before the famous Ram Temple in which idols of Deities are taken around the town in a procession on special days. Just a few metres above his place is a village where the engagement of Lord Shiva and Parvai was solemnized.

Naina Devi Temple, Manikaran

            Next day in the morning we started again early from Manikaran so that we can reach Manali in time though the distance was only 70 kms. We stayed for half an hour on the way at an Emporium at Kullu where we bought a few Pashmina shawls and scarves. We reached Mannali after crossing a tunnel at bout mid day and checked into the hotel room that was booked on line in advance. After resting for an hour we again set out to see Manali- whose road condition and traffic condition was simply horrible. Due to construction work of four lane road there were frequent diversions and there was a lot of dust and of course due to heat wave in the rest of the country people were heading towards the cooler Hill Stations to get some relief from the scorching heat of the plains so the narrow streets and roads were simply unable to cope up with the volume of the traffic resulting in frequent traffic jams. However first of all we went to see the temple of Hidimba who was an Asur by birth but as she had married Bhim- one of the five Pandavas and she had sacrificed her son Ghatothkach and grandson in the famous battle of Mahabharat for the noble cause of defeating Kauravas so as to secure the victory of Dharma or Righteousness so Lord Krishna himself accorded the status of a deity or Goddess to Hidimba. This temple is just a structure over a rock temple surrounded by tall trees. Just adjoining the temple is a sacred place dedicated to Hidimba’s son Ghatothkach which is simply an old tree under which the idols have been placed and people hang the horns of Yaks on its branches.

Ram Temple Vashisht ( Manali)

Gurudwara Manikaran Sahib

Author listening to a folk artist

Hot Water Springs 

 

Raghunath Temple Manikaran

Parvati Valley, Manikaran

 as offering for ensuring peace and prosperity in their life. At this place I saw Yak for the first time in my life. Just outside the Hidimba temple I met a folk artist from Jodhpur ( Rajasthan) playing a famous number of his single stringed instrument. After the temple we went to visit Vashisht Temple which is dedicated to great sage Vashishtha who was teacher of Lord Rama. This temple was still under construction with artists carving intricately on wooden and stone pillars. Just adjoining it was a Ram Temple whose architecture of wood and stone was still amazing with the deft and skillful and intricate carving on the wooden pillars of the temple. After that as the darkness of the evening descended our cab driver took us to the main marketing place of the town known as The Mall where we spent a couple of hours buying some things and roaming around having ice cream cones. After resting for the night we started back to Chandigarh next morning but before that we visited Hidimba temple once more as due to rush we could not get the full glimpse of the deity earlier. On our way back as our cab driver Mr. Tarun had promised he took us to historic Gurudwara at Mandi where we took lunch in the langar and visited its museum that had several artifacts belonging to Guru Gobind Singh ji including a long muzzle rifle with as cone of metal used to fill gunpowder into it.