Kumaon Part 2 - Jageshwar Dham - Apr 2023

April 29, 2023

This is in continuation of the Kumaon experience. See other parts of this journey - part 1.

After spending some time in the Dol Ashram, we started towards Jageshwar. The road from Dol ashram to Jageshwar via Chalnichina and Dhaspar was quite winding. 

A village on the way to Jageshwar

We were able to get some fresh Kaphal being sold by small local girls. Kaphal is the local berry found in Uttarakhand and some other hilly regions of Nepal, Bhutan and east India. It is good for the digestive system and improves appetite. My mom told me a childhood story of my innocence connected to Kaphal - as a kid once I was told that eating this berry will 'clean' the stomach (digestive system). The child in me was constantly raising my frock and looking at my tummy to see if my tummy skin looked any brighter than it was, taking the words of my mom quite literally. 

Kaphal

Jageshwar Dham

We reached Jageshwar dham at around 1pm. The weather was nice and cold and a jacket/shawl was comfortable. Jageshwar dham has one of the 12 Jyotirlingas (there is some debate around it) with a collection of 125 temples small and big built between 9th and 13th century. It is nestled in the deodar forests alongside the Jataganga river. The verse describing the 12 Jyotirlingas - 

सौराष्ट्रे सोमनाथं च श्रीशैले मल्लिकार्जुनम् । उज्जयिन्यां महाकालमोकांरममलेश्वरम् ।

परल्यां वैद्यनाथं च डाकिन्यां भीमशंकरम् । सेतुबंधे तु रामेशं नागेशं दारूकावने ।।

वाराणस्यां तु विश्वेशं त्रयंम्बकं गौतमीतटे । हिमालये तु केदारं घुश्मेशं च शिवालये ।

ऐतानि ज्योतिर्लिंगानि सायं प्रातः पठेन्नरः । सप्तजन्मकृतं पापं स्मरणेन विनश्यति ।।

There is a museum under the control of archeological survey of India (ASI) that houses a number of sculptures from these temples - Uma-Maheshwar, Lakshmi-Narayana, Surya etc. 

Among the main temples, we visited the main Jyotirlinga, Mrityunjaya temple, Pushti Mata mandir, Kuber mandir along with the Brahma Kunda. One can easily sit anywhere in the temple vicinity amongst the deodars to meditate. Such is the peace at this place.

Kuber temple

Shiva-Parvati tree

There is deodar tree with one trunk at the bottom splitting into 2 above a certain height to give a sense of 2 trees at the top. It is known as shiva-parvati tree by people given its resemblance with shiva-shakti. 

Shiva-parvati tree

Rain and the Sudden Hail storm
After the temple darshanam, we stopped by a nearby restaurant to eat lunch. There are many home stays and small restaurants serving traditional simple food. Maggie can be found everywhere and is much in demand. Just when we finished the lunch and had a cup of tea, it started raining along with a hail storm. Perfectly planned for us to enjoy the rain and hail surrounded by the deodars. It was amazing experience even though it started getting slightly cold. I was well prepared with my shawl.

Hail storm!

 

From there we started for the Chitai Golu temple. Follow the rest of the journey in other part.