हिंदीOn this day
Standing

Ram Tirath (Bhagwan Valmiki Tirath), Amritsar

The place west of Amritsar where the people of Punjab hold that Maharshi Valmiki had his ashram, where Mata Sita lived after leaving Ayodhya and where Lava and Kusha were born. Its Kartik Purnima fair is one of the oldest in Punjab.

Built: Ancient ashram site; tank and temples rebuilt over the centuries; new complex inaugurated 2016Where: Punjab (Amritsar district)Deity: Maharshi Valmiki, Mata Sita, Lava and Kusha31.68° N, 74.75° E
  1. 1 December 2016
Photo: Mohalimunda · CC BY-SA 4.0

01Valmiki’s ashram

In the Uttara Kanda, Lakshmana leaves Sita near the ashram of Valmiki on the bank of the Ganga, and her sons are born there and learn the Ramayana from the rishi’s own lips. Several places in Bharat keep the memory of that ashram; in Punjab it is Ram Tirath. Pilgrims are shown the hut where Sita lived, the spot where she cooked, and the great tank, whose parikrama of about a kilometre is walked by lamplight on Kartik Purnima. The Valmiki community honours the site as the seat of their Guru.

02The new tirath

The Punjab government rebuilt the complex as the Bhagwan Valmiki Tirath Sthal, with a domed hall over a gold-plated murti of Maharshi Valmiki eight feet tall, opened on 1 December 2016. The four-day fair at Kartik Purnima still draws villagers from across Majha with cattle, bangles, sweets and folk singers.

The life of this place

  1. 1 December 2016The rebuilt Bhagwan Valmiki Tirath Sthal opens with its gold-plated murti of Valmiki.
Visiting

About 11 km west of Amritsar on the Chogawan road; busiest at the Kartik Purnima fair in November.

Nearby

Mata Lal Devi Temple, AmritsarStanding
Independent Bharat

Mata Lal Devi Temple, Amritsar

A temple built around the memory of a woman devotee of Amritsar, Lal Devi, whose followers made it a small Vaishno Devi in the plains: low passages, ankle-deep water, and the Devi’s three pindis at the end.

Durgiana Temple, AmritsarRebuilt
Renaissance and the struggle for Swaraj

Durgiana Temple, Amritsar

The chief Hindu temple of Amritsar, standing in the middle of a sarovar and reached by a causeway, built in the same form as the Harmandir Sahib. Beside it the Bada Hanuman temple holds the famous Langur Mela of Navratri.

AmritsarRebuilt
The Mughal era and the resistance

Amritsar

The city of the pool of nectar, founded by the fourth Sikh Guru around the tank in which the Harmandir Sahib stands. Twice blown up by Ahmad Shah Abdali and twice rebuilt, it is the heart of the Sikh faith, the Dharmic sibling of the Hindus.

Partition Museum, AmritsarStanding
Independent Bharat

Partition Museum, Amritsar

A museum in Amritsar’s old Town Hall, a short walk from the Golden Temple, given wholly to the Partition of 1947: the trains, the camps, the lost homes, told mostly in the voices of those who lived through it.