Shri Naina Devi Temple, Bilaspur

01Naina the herdsboy

The temple’s katha begins with a Gujjar boy named Naina grazing his cattle on the hill. Day after day he saw a white cow let her milk flow on one stone. In a dream the Devi told him the stone was her pindi. He went to Raja Bir Chand of Kahlur, the raja saw the cow for himself, and he built a temple on the spot and named it after the boy. A second katha gives the name another way: the Devi slew Mahishasura here and tore out his eyes, and the devas cried Jai Naina. Inside, two pindis with large silver eyes sit side by side, with Ganesh and Hanuman at the door.

02Which lists count it

The Shakti Peetha lists of the north, and the Devi tradition of the Himachal hills, count Naina Devi as the place where Sati’s eyes fell; it is grouped with Jwalamukhi, Chintpurni, Chamunda and the Kangra Devi as one of the great Devi seats of the hills. The Peetha Nirnaya Tantra’s classical list of 51 does not name it, so traditions differ. Pilgrims come up from Punjab in thousands at Shravan Ashtami and the two Navratris, many carrying a flame from their home village. On 3 August 2008, during the Shravan fair, a rumour of a landslide set off a stampede on the path in which about 146 pilgrims died; the shrine’s crowd control was rebuilt after it.

The life of this place