Himachal in Winter 5/ At the doorsteps of Manimahesh

Braving the extreme cold weather, we are progressing towards the temple. I can spot a few slabs of snow on our way. As I looked at my mobile to know the current temperature, I was just amazed. It was 12 in the noon, and accuweather app in my mobile showing a temperature of 2 degrees. Not surprising though, when you consider the day we are here, 30^th December. In the past years, people couldn’t even think of coming here as the road would get closed due to snowfall. This year, since it snowed less, we had a better luck.

I think, in this point of time you will be eager to know which place I am talking about. It is Bharmour, which is located at an altitude of 7,000 feet above sea level.

Yesterday, well past afternoon, we reached Chamba seeing Jot Pass. Located on the banks of River Ravi at an altitude of just around 3,000 feet above sea level, it was the capital of local Rajput ruler Sahil Varma. He shifted his capital from Bharmour to Chamba in 920 AD. The name of the town Chamba, came from his daughter Champavati’s name. We can find a unique style of temple architecture in Chamba.

We are staying in Himachal Tourism run property Hotel Iravati. All the important destinations of Chamba are at a walk-able distance from our hotel. The giant chowgan can be seen from our room balcony.

Chowgan is the giant field which can be regarded as the breathing space of Chamba. Chowgan is Chamba’s USP. Like we in Kolkata have our maidan, it is the chowgan in Chamba. Whole Chamba comes in this chowgan from the month of April till Dushera. During that period people spend time here playing cricket, football and various other games, and also to just have a chat among themselves. Annual Minjar fair is also arranged in the Chowgan. But we can’t go in the Chowgan now. For maintenance the Chowgan remains closed from Dushera to April.

As it is a river valley, Chamba is good town for walking. We walked about hundred meters keeping the chowgan on our left, and then took a right turn. After climbing a few steps we reached the Champavati Temple. There is a story surrounding this shikhara-styled temple.

 As per the legend, the daughter of King Sahil Varman Champavati was a spiritual person and she always used to visit ashrams and temples. But the king was wary of the intentions of his daughter and so he followed her into the home of a sadhu with a dragger in his cloak. After reaching the ashram, he found no one was there. Both sadhu and his daughter disappeared. Then as he turned to return, he heard someone's voice saying that his daughter had been taken away from him just because of his suspicious feeling towards his religious daughter. Also, he was asked to construct a temple at that location so as to avoid any future disasters on his kingdom. Then Kind decided to build Champavati Temple that was built in the memory of his lost daughter. The main deity of this temple is Mahisasuramardini.

But what I found here is that, not many people in Chamba know about the Champavati Temple. Actually, the most prominent temple here is the Laxminarayan Group of Temples.

This is a group of 6 temples, which are considered as the oldest in Chamba. These shikhara-styled temples were built by Sahil Varma in sixth century AD. Three temples here have Lord Vishnu as deity and the other three have Lord Shiva.

After spending fifteen minutes or so in the temples, we came down to the Bhuri Singh Museum. This museum was built in 1908. The art, architecture and traditions of Chamba are exhibited in this museum.

Since Chamba is located at a much lower altitude, the weather was warmer than what we experienced in Naddi and Jot. Hence we didn’t bother to return hotel despite the fact that it was getting dark. We did some shopping activities and also had some roadside fast food.

As we were having some ‘tikia-chat’ near the Gandhi Gate area of Chamba, we noticed another temple. It’s also a shikhara-styled temple but relatively unknown to the tourists. There were a few locals here and there. This temple is known as the ‘hari-rai’ temple. As the name suggests, the main deities here are Radha and Krishna.

So in a brief, it would be no wrong if we say Chamba, a temple town. But in order to know more about the temple architecture, we had to go to Bharmour.

As our xylo turned right on the treacherous mountainous road, we could spot the giant Kailash peak. There are three Kailash peaks, the Mansorovar Kailash, the Kinnaur Kailash and the Manimahesh Kailash. What we are seeing here is the Manimahesh Kailash.

We started our Bharmour bound journey in the morning. The road through the banks of River Ravi provides awesome scenery but the condition was too pathetic. There were many landslide areas. One thing I understood that not because of rains, these landslides have occurred due to widening of roads.   

As we moved towards Bharmour, the Kailash Peak became even more prominent.

So, braving the cold conditions, we reached the Chaurasi temple complex, the main attraction in Bharmour. The life in Bharmour, previously known as Brahmapur revolves around this temple complex.  

These temples were built in the 7^th century AD by the same dynasty where Sahil Varma belonged to. As the name suggests there used to be 84 temples here in this complex. However braving various natural disasters which have rocked this region in the past, fifteen temples stand here.

The main temple here in this complex is the Manimahesh temple, where the main deity is Lord Shiva. Apart from it, there are Bhadrakali temple, Narsimha temple, Nandi temple, Dharmaraja temple, Ganesh temple etc. The Kailash peak can be seen from the temple complex. The sacred pond of Manimahesh is located there only.  

The trek of Manimahesh starts from Hadsar, which is another 16 kms from here. For a moment we thought to go to Hadsar, but the poor condition of the roads made us change our decision. It could have been possible had we stayed in Bharmour for a night. But now, we have to return Chamba.

read more:  Himachal in Winter 4/ The feel of heaven in Jot

With the wish of seeing the entry  point of Manimahesh remaining unfulfilled, we started our journey back towards Chamba.

How to reach

Chamba is located at a distance of 120 kms from its nearest railhead Pathankot. Regular busses are available from Pathankot to Chamba. Night bus service is also available from Delhi to Chamba. Bharmour from Chamba is 58 kms. Lots of busses ply in this road. But considering the condition of roads, hired car is better here.

Where to stay

Himchal Tourism has two properties here in Chamba-Iravati and Champak. They have a property in Bharmour as well- Gaurikund. All the three properties can be booked though the portal of Himachal Tourism (hptdc.in). Private hotels are also there is Chamba and  Bharmour in large numbers.