हिंदीOn this day
Standing

Surkanda Devi Temple

Above the road from Mussoorie to Chamba, on a peak that looks out on the whole Garhwal snow range, Garhwal remembers the place where Sati’s head fell. It is one of the three Devi shrines of Tehri that pilgrims visit together.

Built: Summit shrine at about 2,750 m above Kaddukhal; rebuilt in modern timesWhere: Uttarakhand (Tehri Garhwal district)Deity: Surkanda Devi, a form of Durga30.41° N, 78.29° E
Photo: infosahil · CC BY-SA 3.0

01Where the head fell

When Bhagwan Shiva wandered with the body of Sati after Daksha’s yajna, Bhagwan Vishnu’s chakra divided it and the pieces fell across Bharat. Garhwal’s tradition says her head, sir, fell here, and that the name Surkanda grew from Sirkanda. The Kedarkhand of the Skanda Purana is cited by the temple for the katha. Surkanda, Kunjapuri and Chandrabadni form a triangle of Devi seats in Tehri, and many pilgrims make all three in a single yatra. The longer Pithanirnaya list of 51 does not name them; Garhwal counts them as siddha peethas.

02Ganga Dussehra and the leaves

The great fair is on Ganga Dussehra in Jyeshtha, when the villages of the area climb up together. The prasad here is unusual: leaves of the raunsli tree that grows on the hill, which devotees take home and keep. From Kaddukhal the climb is about 2 km of steep path; a ropeway has been built for those who cannot walk it. On a clear day the line of peaks from Bandarpunch to Chaukhamba stands across the north.

Visiting

Kaddukhal is about 35 km from Mussoorie on the Chamba road. Go early in the day; clouds close the view by afternoon.

Nearby

Kunjapuri Devi TempleStanding
Vedic Rishis and the Itihasa

Kunjapuri Devi Temple

The nearest of the Tehri Devi shrines to Rishikesh, on a hill where Garhwal holds that the upper body of Sati fell. People climb it before dawn to see the sun rise over the Himalaya.

Chandrabadni Devi TempleStanding
Vedic Rishis and the Itihasa

Chandrabadni Devi Temple

On Chandrakoot hill between Devprayag and Tehri, the Devi has no image at all: a Shri Yantra on a stone is worshipped under a cloth, and the priest himself covers his eyes when he changes it.

Neelkanth Mahadev Temple, near RishikeshStanding
Vedic Rishis and the Itihasa

Neelkanth Mahadev Temple, near Rishikesh

The forest shrine where, the temple’s tradition says, Mahadev sat in meditation after drinking the halahala poison of the Samudra Manthan. It stands where the Pankaja and Madhumati streams meet, in the hills across the Ganga from Rishikesh.

Lakhamandal Shiva TempleStanding
The Age of Great Kingdoms

Lakhamandal Shiva Temple

A Shiva temple on the Yamuna in Jaunsar-Bawar, where a Sanskrit inscription of a princess of the Singhapura house records the building of a temple for her husband’s merit. The ASI has found hundreds of lingas and sculptures around it.