हिंदीOn this day
Ruined

Katas Raj Temples

A ring of stone temples around a green spring-fed pond in the Salt Range. The pond is held to have formed from Shiva’s tears for Sati, and the Pandavas are said to have spent part of their exile here.

Built: Sacred pond of great antiquity; stone temples from c. 7th century CE onwardWhere: Chakwal District, Punjab, PakistanDeity: Bhagwan Shiva32.72° N, 72.95° E
  1. 1947
  2. 2005
  3. 2017
Photo: Shahzaib Damn Cruze · CC BY-SA 4.0

01Shiva’s tear

When Sati gave up her body in Daksha’s yajna, Shiva wept, and the tradition of Katas says two tears fell to earth: one made the Pushkar lake in Rajasthan, the other this pond. The name is taken from Kataksha, the tear-filled eye. Another local katha places the Yaksha’s questions to Yudhishthira at this pond, from the Vana Parva of the Mahabharata. Pilgrims bathed here on Maha Shivaratri for centuries, coming from all over Punjab and Sindh.

02The temples

The oldest standing temples, the group called Satgraha, are in the Kashmiri-influenced style of the Salt Range, with fluted pillars and trefoil arches, and are usually dated from the seventh century onward; some are attributed to the Hindu Shahi period. Later shrines, a haveli and a Ram temple were added through the medieval and Sikh periods. Xuanzang, passing through in the seventh century, noted a stupa nearby, a reminder that Buddhists also came to these waters.

03After 1947

At Partition in 1947 the Hindus of the area left for India, and the temples stood empty for decades. In 2005 L. K. Advani visited and the Punjab government began restoration. Cement factories nearby drew so much groundwater that the pond began to dry; in 2017 the Supreme Court of Pakistan took up the matter on its own notice and ordered the water restored. Groups of pilgrims from India now come under a bilateral protocol, chiefly for Maha Shivaratri.

The life of this place

  1. 1947Partition: the local Hindu community left and worship lapsed.
  2. 2005L. K. Advani’s visit; Punjab government restoration began.
  3. 2017Supreme Court of Pakistan took suo motu notice of the drying pond.
Visiting

Indian pilgrims go in groups arranged through the Evacuee Trust Property Board, usually for Maha Shivaratri. The site is about 25 km from Chakwal.

Nearby

Nandana FortRuined
The long resistance: Sindh to Tarain

Nandana Fort

A fort on a spur of the Salt Range guarding the pass to the Jhelum plain, the last strong place of the Hindu Shahis. Mahmud of Ghazni took it in 1014, and a few years later al-Biruni used its hill to measure the size of the earth.

Amb Temples, Salt RangeRuined
The long resistance: Sindh to Tarain

Amb Temples, Salt Range

Brick and stone temples on a hill in the Sakesar valley of the Salt Range, among the finest left from the Hindu Shahi age. The main shrine still rises three storeys, though no worship has been offered there for centuries.

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Takshashila (Taxila)

The great city of learning of Gandhara, where Chanakya taught, Jivaka studied medicine and, says the Mahabharata, Vaishampayana first recited the Bharata to Janamejaya. Its three excavated cities, Bhir Mound, Sirkap and Sirsukh, lie outside Rawalpindi.

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Gujranwala

The town north of Lahore where the Sukerchakia chiefs built their fort, where Maharaja Ranjit Singh was born on 13 November 1780 and Hari Singh Nalwa in 1791. Its Hindu and Sikh people left at Partition in 1947.