My trip to Srinagar – Day 5 – 25th September 2023:

Chapter 5

Today’s trip was a crammed one as we would be traveling to picturesque Pahalgam. Security along the route to Anantnag was beefed up due to militant activities during the previous fortnight. Wire fencing with sharp projectiles was strewn on the roads and vehicles were stopped very frequently so that enough vehicles could group up and vehicles thus stopped, were sent in a convoy of 10-12 numbers for safety reasons.

En route, we entered a huge shop offering various local farm items like Saffron, dry fruits, etc. I bought a few items for giveaways as did the others in the group too bought some of the local stuff, the quality of which appeared to be excellent. We were served with refreshing Khawa while treating ourselves to ample samples of dry fruits, nuts, etc and I was joking that our breakfast was done with!

Nevertheless, we still had breakfast at Anantnag, simple Chole Batura, etc. While a couple of us ordered what was local, others tried South Indian breakfast. Washed this with excellent Masala tea and off we went to our next destination.

On the way, we could see plenty of apple orchards with plants adorned with ripe fruits. We thought we could make a stopover at one of these, on our return from Pahalgam.

A couple of hours' drive brought us to our destination, Betaab Valley, one of the most visited venues in Pahalgam. Due to support for local taxis, we were forced by the system to park our vehicle and ply by a local vehicle to the much-talked-about valley.

Indeed, this was really worth the visit and we could indulge ourselves in wading our feet in the cool stream by the pathway. We were joined by a young doctor couple from neighbouring Himachal Pradesh (originally from Karnataka and Maharashtra respectively) and we were happy to converse in Kannada with them. Surrounding mountains with lush green and tall pine trees was a sight to behold. A few pics were snapped at various interesting spots here.

This done, we drove back to our vehicle parked in the city center. From here, we visited the Gaurishankar temple, a short distance on the way to Betaab Valley.

It is believed that Shiva, on his way to Amarnath with Parvathi, left Nandi at this point as he had to travel with Parvathi alone, to impart her with the knowledge of immortality. Similarly, it is believed that he left the serpent circling his neck, at Sheshnag and the moon adorning his Shikha, at Chandanwadi.

On having the darshan of the Lord here, we quickly crossed the Lidder River towards the Mamaleshwar temple dedicated to Lord Shiva. This temple is over 1200 years old and also housed a twin-headed Nandi. A drink of Kolahoi glacier water that keeps running here, is a must. Thirst quenching cool and pure water also fills the pond in front of the sanctum sanctorum.

On our return journey to the base camp, we halted at an apple orchard and had a taste of refreshing freshly squeezed apple juice. The quality, though good, we felt it was a bit pricey compared to what we could get in Srinagar. Elsewhere, these are basically to satiate the tourist crowd as the locals have their way of buying these fruits economically.

Thereafter, we arrived at Mattan where we visited the temple dedicated to Sun and a few other deities as well. It is believed that Goddess Parvathi lives here in the form of fish and so a lot of people were feeding fish. The legend goes that you get rid of your bad karmas by feeding fish here and performing pitru karmas here would ensure the release of your ancestors of their karmas and attain salvation.

The ancient Martanda temple is close by and we were in awe at the enormous structure, though in ruins. Built circa 730 CE, one can imagine the grandeur of this extravagant structure during its heydays. A local guide gave us a tour of this huge ruins of a place. Many idols have been desecrated and as is evident in many of our Hindu temples, the disfiguring of idols by Muslim invaders need no special mention. The guide said that the invaders lit up the place which had huge wooden doors and windows and it took months for the wood to turn ash. Despite this, the roof was intact, as it is even now. The West facing sanctum sanctorum gets special treatment from the sunlight as the day progresses and the effect of this, when photographed from the inside, is magical. There are pedestals in the middle of all 4 quarters outside the main temple, believed to have been used as courts during the erstwhile rule of the Kings here.

This site, like many others, is maintained by the Archaeological Society of India.

Our next stop was Raghunath Ram Mandir at Anantnag. We reached this obscured place in the evening and as was with most of the temples, this place too was protected by CRPF personnel. Legend has it that Indra, the King of Gods, was cursed by Sage Gowthama for masquerading as the Sage and having a relationship with his wife Ahalya. His curse of being a leper was cured by Sri Ram when he was asked to take a dip in Sita Kund, a pool behind the temple. Also, this place was the maternal place for Kaikeyi, Bharata’s mother and Dasharatha’s wife. Kashmir is the place of Sage Kashyapa, father of Gods and Daityas. Behind Sita Kund, one can see idols, depicting all of Vishnu’s avatars.

The Ram temple also houses Hanuman’s idol, the uniqueness of which is, that this is in a sitting position. There is a temple dedicated to Goddess Durga in different avatars and names.

We couldn’t visit Awanti Swami temple on this stretch. We were told that this temple too was in ruins, located in Awantipora, at a distance of 30 km from Srinagar.

By the time we arrived at our base camp, it was almost dinner time and we planted ourselves in our regular 'ADDA', Annapoorna Hotel, for our usual fix of stuffed parathas. Though dog tired, we had no option but to complete the packing of our stuff as we had to leave for local temple hopping early next day and then, leave for the airport by 11:30 am.

The group of 7 split into two groups of 3 (Parameshwaran, Radhe Shyam, Sridhar) and 4 (Suma Aunty, Veena, Vijay, Yours truly) the first group left for New Delhi early on the 26^th morning. 

More of this in the next chapter...