हिंदीOn this day
Standing

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.

Built: c. 9th–13th century, under the Katyuri and later the Chand kings of KumaonWhere: Uttarakhand (Almora)Deity: Bhagwan Shiva as Jageshwar (Yogeshwar) and Mahamrityunjaya29.64° N, 79.85° E
  1. c. 9th–13th century
Photo: Itsmalay~commonswiki · CC BY-SA 4.0

01A valley of spires

Along the Jataganga stream, under deodars some say were planted by the Pandavas, stand around 125 temples in the curved Nagara style of the hills, from shrines a man can barely enter to the tall Mahamrityunjaya temple, the largest of the group. The Archaeological Survey of India dates them between roughly the 9th and 13th centuries, built under the Katyuri kings and endowed by the Chand rulers who came after. Their copper-plate grants and gifts of lamps are recorded in the temple. Three kilometres away, the Dandeshwar group continues the line, and Vriddha Jageshwar stands on the ridge above.

02Shravan in the deodars

The Jageshwar Monsoon Festival in Shravan and the Mahashivaratri fair bring Kumaon to the valley. Families perform Mahamrityunjaya jap and rudrabhishek here for the sick. The ASI keeps a site museum with the best of the sculptures moved from the temples for safety, among them life-size bronze and stone figures of the Chand kings. Almora, the old Chand capital, is about an hour away, and many families come for the day with a Brahmin of their own village to conduct the puja.

The life of this place

  1. c. 9th–13th centuryThe temple group is built under the Katyuri and Chand kings.
Visiting

About 36 km from Almora by road. Stay a night at Jageshwar to see the dawn puja at the Jageshwar shrine.

Nearby

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.

Haat Kalika Temple, GangolihatStanding
Vedic Rishis and the Itihasa

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.

Kasar Devi Temple, AlmoraStanding
Vedic Rishis and the Itihasa

Kasar Devi Temple, Almora

A small Devi shrine on a ridge north of Almora, where Swami Vivekananda sat in meditation in 1890. On the full moon of Kartik a fair fills the hill.

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.