Jageshwar Dham

Jageshwar, Almora district, Uttarakhand

Famous temples

Traditions differ: Some devotees and local tradition, reading 'Darukavan' as a deodar forest, regard Jageshwar as the Nagesh Jyotirlinga. Most traditional lists place the Nageshwar Jyotirlinga near Dwarka in Gujarat, and Aundha Nagnath in Maharashtra also holds this claim. Devotees honour all three places.

About

Jageshwar Dham is a valley of ancient stone temples about 35 km from Almora, set in a tall deodar forest beside the Jataganga stream. About 124 big and small temples stand here, most of them for Shiv ji, and some for Vishnu ji, the Devi and Surya dev. They were built in the north Indian Nagara style between about the 7th and 14th centuries, and they are protected by the Archaeological Survey of India. The largest is the Mahamrityunjaya temple, and the main shrine is the Jageshwar temple. Devotees come for abhishek and rudrabhishek, especially in Shravan. For centuries the valley has been held sacred as a 'Kashi of the north'.

The story

Old texts praise the deodar forest on the northern side of the Himalaya as a holy place of Shankar ji, and local belief holds that Shiv ji did tapasya in this very forest. For this reason, many devotees worship Jageshwar as the Nagesh Jyotirlinga of the line 'नागेशं दारुकावने' in the Dwadash Jyotirlinga Stotram. Historians say the oldest temples here date from about the 7th century, and that the valley was once a centre of Lakulish Pashupata Shaiva sadhus. Some small temples may have been built in memory of sadhus. Local tradition links the temples with the Katyuri and Chand kings of Kumaon, though historians say there is no firm proof of this. The Mahamrityunjaya temple honours Shiv ji as the one who conquered death; its walls carry short inscriptions from about the 8th to 10th centuries. Devotees chant the Mahamrityunjaya mantra here.

Visiting

March to June and September to November are good months; winters are very cold, but the deodar forest is lovely in every season. Do visit the ASI museum near the temples, which keeps old stone murtis. Nearby are the Dandeshwar group of temples, Almora town, and, further on, the Patal Bhuvaneshwar caves.