हिंदीOn this day
Standing

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.

Built: Small hilltop shrine on Kashyap hill; Swami Vivekananda meditated nearby in 1890Where: Uttarakhand (Almora district)Deity: Kasar Devi, a form of Katyayani29.64° N, 79.66° E
  1. 1890
Photo: Nitin Maletha · CC BY-SA 4.0

01The Devi on Kashyap hill

The ridge is called Kashyap hill, and the Devi is worshipped as Katyayani, who took this form to destroy the asuras Shumbha and Nishumbha. The shrine is small and old, built into the rock among pines and deodars, with a Shiva shrine a little above it. The Kasar Devi fair on Kartik Purnima is the big day; families from Almora and the villages around climb up for the night.

02Vivekananda’s cave

Swami Vivekananda came to Almora in 1890, during his wanderings before he went to the West, and meditated in a cave on this ridge; a plaque marks it. He came back to Almora in 1897. In the 20th century the ridge drew many seekers from India and abroad, and it is still a place of retreats. The road up from Almora is about 8 km; from the shrine the snows of Nanda Devi and Trishul stand on the northern horizon.

The life of this place

  1. 1890Swami Vivekananda meditates in a cave on the ridge.
Visiting

About 8 km from Almora on the Binsar road, then a flight of steps. Kartik Purnima is the fair day.

Nearby

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The Age of Great Kingdoms

Katarmal Sun Temple

A Surya temple of the Katyuri kings on a ridge near Almora, with some forty-four smaller shrines grouped round the main one. It is the most important Sun temple of the Himalaya and a monument protected by the ASI.

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Golu Devta Temple, Chitai

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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.

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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.