Dhari Devi (Char Dham)
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A backgrounder
The temple
The revered temple dedicated to Dhari Devi is located between Srinagar and Rudraprayag on the banks of River Alaknanda and can be reached by a one-km cement pathway.
The deity
Graphic courtesy: [ The Times of India]
Dhari Devi is a form of Goddess Kali) and is considered to be the guardian deity of Uttarakhand and is worshipped as the protector of the Char Dhams.
According to mythology, a severe flood once washed away a temple and the idol of Dhari Devi was trapped against a rock near the Dharo village. The local residents claim to have heard wails and a divine voice directed them to install the idol there.
Local lore also has it that the idol of the deity changes appearance throughout the day – a girl child in the morning, a young woman in the afternoon and an old woman in the evening.
It is said that Goddess Dhari Devi has two parts. Her body’s upper half appeared at the Dhari Devi temple while her lower half appeared at the Kalimath temple, where she is worshipped as Maa Kali. According to the legend, Dhari Devi’s idol can’t be kept under a roof. So, that portion [of the temple] is always kept open towards the sky.
Best time to visit The temple can be visited all year round but decks up in all things festive during Durga Puja and Navratri.
YEAR-WISE DEVELOPMENTS
2013: The wrath of the deity
Dehradun: The temple of , considered
the guardian goddess of Uttarakhand and
protector of all four shrines, was
submerged during construction of Alaknanda
Hydro Eletric Power Plant (AHEPP) in 2013.
Subsequently, workers of the hydel project hastily moved the idol to a makeshift temple nearby, say area residents. Later that day, the Kedarnath deluge happened, killing thousands. (See Kedarnath for details)
Locals believe that it was Dhari Devi’s wrath at the idol being removed from its original position that caused the destruction.
Ever since the tragedy, they have been trying to take the goddess back to the original temple that was submerged. A letter was also sent to Prime Minister in this regard but nothing much happened.
Jagdamba Prasad Pandey, secretary, Dhari Devi Temple Association, told TOI, “The idol was not shifted as per proper rituals earlier, which is probably what caused the tragedy. This time, we will start prayers from the onset of Navratri on April 2 and then on April 6, move the deity back with proper rituals." Residents of the area say that the re-installation of the Dhara Devi idol took so much time due to “dilly-dallying by the company executing the project.”
2023
Dhari Devi Mandir, c. 1985 Shivani.Azad/ Decade on, guardian deity of Char Dham reinstated/ Sunday The Times of India/ 29 Jan. 23
Dehradun : After seven days of continuous prayers commencing January 22, 2023 the idol of Dhari Devi, regarded as the protector deity of Uttarakhand and guardian of the Char Dham shrines of Gangotri, Yamunotri, Kedarnath and Badrinath, was reinstalled at its original location at a temple in the midst of the Alaknanda river near Rudraprayag in Pauri Garhwal on Saturday morning.
The original rock on which the temple existed had submerged during the construction of the Alaknanda Hydro Electric Power Plant in June 2013. Subsequently, the idol was moved to a nearby temple on June 16, 2013, and later that day, the Kedarnath deluge happened which killed thousands. This, locals attributed to the ‘wrath of the goddess for having been disturbed from her original place’.
However, it took almost a decade for the company executing the hydel project — GVK Power & InfrastructureLtd — to get ready the temple where the deity was finally reinstated in 2023 Jan.
See also
Dhari Devi (Char Dham)
Uttarakhand: environment, ecology
