Bajreshwari (Vajreshwari) Devi Temple, Kangra

01Devi of the thunderbolt

Vajra is the thunderbolt, and Vajreshwari is the Devi who wields it; the hill people say Bajreshwari, and pilgrims simply call her Kangre wali Mata. When Bhagwan Vishnu’s Sudarshana divided the body of Mata Sati, the Devi Bhagavata and the Shakti Peetha lists tell, her limbs fell across Bharat, and Nagarkot holds that the left breast fell here. She is worshipped as a pindi in the sanctum, with Bhairav keeping watch in his own shrine. On Makar Sankranti the pindi is covered in butter, and the fair runs for seven days. Kangra’s account of the custom is that after slaying Mahishasura the Devi came to Nagarkot and dressed her wounds with butter. Navratri, in Chaitra and Ashvin, fills the lanes below the fort.

02Plunder, earthquake, rebuilding

The temple was among the richest in the hills, and that brought raiders. In 1009 Mahmud of Ghazni, after defeating Anandapala, marched on Nagarkot; his secretary Al-Utbi writes of gold, silver and jewels carried away from the fort and its shrine. Firuz Shah Tughlaq besieged Nagarkot in the 1360s. Each time the Devi’s worship was taken up again. Then, early on the morning of 4 April 1905, the Kangra earthquake brought the old temple down with much of the town and fort. It was rebuilt over the following years, by about 1920, with gifts from devotees across Punjab and the hills. The present temple stands in old Kangra behind a gateway with a nagarkhana, the drum house, and is crowned with domes rather than a tall shikhara.

The life of this place