Editing Dharmic Circuits: The Tale of Many Kailashas (section)

==== Temples of Himachal ====
Himachal Pradesh has a special place in the sacred landscape of Bharat. Though it has all kinds of temples, it is primarily a land of Shiva and Shakti. While it sports various Shakti Peethas strewn all across its hilly terrain, the very mountains are the abodes of Lord Shiva. (Nagar 1) The mountains, icy cold and forever laden with snow are the favourite haunts of Shiva.

It was on a temple trail through the mountains of Himachal that I found myself striking up a conversation about Mount Kailash with my driver. We were going from Chamba to Bharmaur, the ancient capital of the Chamba region. The Ravi River valley around Chamba is one of the most exquisite valleys of the Himalayas – so near to the Ganga Jamuna Doab and yet so secluded. The Shivalik hills completely sequestered it from the mainland Punjab. One has to climb through the tough mountains to climb down into the Chamba valley which is surrounded by the Shivaliks in the West, the Dhauladhars in the South, the Mani Mahesh range in the East and more mountain ranges in the North.

Its seclusion certainly makes it hard to visit, but it has also saved it from various medieval and modern ills. Due to its inaccessibility it remained relatively safe from Islamic invasions, as compared to Kangra, its cousin to the south of it. Even in modern times, the pollution from the plains of Punjab can’t reach the Chamba valley so easily, making for the bluer skies and cleaner air.

The road to Bharmaur is tough. We were on it for more than a couple of hours and the ancient city, lost as if in the middle ages was nearing mile by mile. We were negotiating one hairpin bend after another, clearing one cliff after other. It is a gut wrenching ride and your heart literally stops at the many turns, but as soon as you make the turn and the vista of snow laden mountains opens in front of you, you forget everything else.

Before one such turn, my usually reticent driver suddenly brightened up and said that after this turn, we will have the first darshana of Mount Kailash. Kailash? Really? I was taken aback a little. I knew we were far away from civilization, deep into the mountains, alongside the Valley of Ravi River, but had we come so deep into the mountains that the Mount Kailash was visible here, all the way from Tibet? I knew the thought was ridiculous, but I still asked, was this the original Kailash?

My driver looked at me with great puzzlement at the utterance of the word ‘original’ and not without a ‘sigh’ which common Hindus generally give while conversing with a university de-educated person. What do you mean original? What other kind of Kailash is there? Kailash is Kailash and it was the one that we were going to have darshan of just moments later. And we did. It was the most ethereal of moments. A snow laden peak with its entire range emerged from the heavens just after we took the turn.

It was the Mani Mahesh Kailash. Though the greatest of all Kailash mountains lies now in China occupied Tibet, there are many Kailashas in Bharat, and at least four in the hill states of Himachal and Uttarakhand: Mani Mahesh Kailash in Chamba district, Shrikhand Kailash in Kullu district, Kinnaur Kailash in Kinnaur district of Himachal Pradesh and Adi Kailash in the Pithoragarh district of Uttarakhand.

For the locals none of these is a lesser Kailash. Every single one of them is the Kailash. For a devotee the sacredness does not decrease but increases with the replication of this sacred geography, with the repetition of the same sacred mountain at different places. And the legends weave them all together. All of them are the original Kailashas in some time and place and thus equal importance is imparted to each and every one of them.

All of them are special, for the legend dictates that Lord Shiva resides in all of them. Every local legend describes its own Kailash, its own teertha, being at the centre of a great myth. The Adi Kailash of Uttarakhand is considered the most ancient one. The Mani Mahesh Kailash is considered by the locals to be the actual abode of Lord Shiva while the villagers of Saho village, living around the Chandrashekhar temple believe that it is from here that Shiva embarked upon his journey and finally settled down in Mani Mahesh Kailash.