हिंदीOn this day
Standing

Haat Kalika Temple, Gangolihat

In a deodar forest at Gangolihat, Kumaon worships Mahakali whom the Kumaon Regiment of the Indian Army calls its own. Soldiers going to war and coming back have climbed to her for generations.

Built: Shrine in a deodar grove; the temple says Adi Shankaracharya re-established the worshipWhere: Uttarakhand (Pithoragarh district)Deity: Mahakali as Haat Kalika29.66° N, 80.04° E
Photo: ArmouredCyborg · CC BY-SA 4.0

01Shankaracharya’s Kali

The temple’s account is that Adi Shankaracharya, on his way through Kumaon, found the Devi here in her fierce form and calmed and re-established her worship, and that a peetha was set up on the spot. The Devi is believed to rest in the shrine at night, and a bed is made for her each evening; in the morning the priests say it has been slept in. Bali was once offered here; today the offerings are coconuts, bells and red cloth.

02The regiment’s Devi

The Kumaon Regiment holds Haat Kalika as its presiding Devi, and its war cry is “Kalika Mata ki Jai”. Officers and men visit when the battalions are raised and when they return; plaques and bells in the courtyard carry the names of units. The temple is a short drive from Patal Bhuvaneshwar, and pilgrims in this corner of Kumaon usually see both on the same day.

Visiting

Gangolihat is about 77 km from Pithoragarh and 110 km from Almora. The temple is a short walk from the market.

Nearby

Patal Bhuvaneshwar Cave TempleStanding
Vedic Rishis and the Itihasa

Patal Bhuvaneshwar Cave Temple

You go down into the earth on chains, through a passage barely wide enough for a body, and come out into a hall where the rock has grown into the forms of Sheshnag, Ganesha’s head and the four doors of the yugas. The Skanda Purana says that whoever worships here worships at all the tirthas at once.

Jageshwar TemplesStanding
The Age of Great Kingdoms

Jageshwar Temples

More than a hundred stone temples of Shiva crowded in a deodar valley in Kumaon. Some Kumaoni traditions count Jageshwar as the Nageshwar Jyotirlinga of Darukavana.

Bagnath Temple, BageshwarStanding
Sultanates, Vijayanagara and the kingdoms that stood

Bagnath Temple, Bageshwar

The Shiva temple at the meeting of the Sarayu and Gomti that gives Bageshwar its name. Its Uttarayani mela at Makar Sankranti is the great fair of Kumaon, and in January 1921 it was the scene of the end of coolie begar.

Golu Devta Temple, ChitaiStanding
Shungas, Satavahanas, Kharavela and the Sangam Kingdoms

Golu Devta Temple, Chitai

Kumaon brings its lawsuits to Golu Devta. Devotees write their grievance on paper, often on stamp paper as if filing in a court, tie it up at Chitai, and hang a bell when the matter is settled.