हिंदीOn this day
Standing

Tanot Mata Temple

A Devi temple a few kilometres from the Pakistan border, where in 1965 the shells that fell around the shrine did not go off. The Border Security Force has served the temple ever since.

Built: Shrine of the Bhati country of Tanot; temple maintained by the Border Security Force since 1965Where: Rajasthan (Jaisalmer district)Deity: Tanot Mata (Avad Mata), held to be a form of Hinglaj Mata27.80° N, 70.35° E
  1. 1965
  2. December 1971
Photo: Lakshmikanta Manna · CC0

01Avad of the Charans

Tanot Mata is Avad Mata, the daughter of Mamadiya Charan, who, the Charan tradition says, walked seven times to Hinglaj to pray for a child and was blessed that the Devi herself would be born in his house. The Charans count her among the line of goddesses born in their community that ends with Karni Mata of Deshnoke, and hold her to be Hinglaj come again. Tanot was an old seat of the Bhati Rajputs of Jaisalmer, and the Bhati rulers honoured her as their own.

021965 and Longewala

In the war of 1965 Pakistani artillery shelled the Tanot area heavily. Soldiers and villagers saw shells land in and around the temple and fail to burst; several are kept in the temple museum. After the war the Border Security Force took over the temple’s care, and its jawans perform the aarti to this day. In December 1971 the battle of Longewala was fought not far away, and a victory pillar was raised in the temple compound. Every soldier posted on this stretch of the border comes here.

The life of this place

  1. 1965Shells fired at Tanot fall around the temple without exploding; the BSF takes charge of the temple.
  2. December 1971The battle of Longewala is fought nearby; a victory pillar is raised at the temple.
Visiting

Tanot is about 120 km north-west of Jaisalmer by a good road; carry identity papers, as this is a border area.

Nearby

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