VAISHNO DEVI GUFA, Katra
33.033300,74.966700
Description
The indisputably most popular cave of India (note 1) is the small and short, squalid and hopelessly overused but much cherished temple cave (note 2) sacred to (Bhagwati) Vaishno Devi, a goddess who once started her career as a demon-slaughtering hero but ended up as a picture-book house-wife tamed by marriage. CULTURAL HISTORY: The sacred cave of Mata Vaishno Devi (also: Bhagwati Vaishno Devi, Vaishnodevi, Trikuta Devi, Waishno Debi) is of great spiritual importance and successfully marketed in Bollywood style, featuring Raja Bhairon Bali in the role of the wicked loser and Vaishno Devi or Mata Vaishnovi as the good and beautiful winner. Worshipped is the essence of power (shakti), embodied as a calcite mass with three stalagmites representing the three-fold mother goddess as Saraswati (Sarasvati), Lakshmi and Kali or variants. The scaring cave becomes entertaining by negotiating (GANHAR 1973, ill. 6) the grade 2 crawl (dwar) to the intra-montaneous womb (garbha griha) which allows the visitor to experience sort of a rebirth: »The devotee who enters a sacred cave and the sadhu living in a cave, experience an inner rebirth from the depth of the earth. The “return to the mother’s womb” is often indicated by the narrow entrance to some sacred caves… [e.g.] Vaishno Devi near Jammu« (BÄUMER 1988: 69, 78 note 19). DUCLUZAUX (1993d: 7) cares not only to avoid achnowledging his source of fabulous information but also to explain why he simply believes that the »grotte de Vaishnu Devi [sic!] au Cachemire [sic!] y est mentionée« in the Mahabharata. SURROGATE: For everybody fond of transcendent reality and really fake experiences, there has been completed in 1994 (LONELY PLANET, India 1997: 393) at the town of Haridwar (Uttar Pradesh) the »Disneyesque« (LONELY PLANET, India 2005: 413) Lal Mata Temple, which is a true replika of Vaishno Devi Temple, right down to the artificial hill on which the surrogate is situated. Also visible is here a perpetually frozen ice lingam, a replica of that in the Amarnath Cave in Kashmir (LONELY PLANET, India 1997: 393-394; LONELY PLANET, North India 2001: 489). HUMAN USE: The pilgrimage (yatra) to the holy shrine takes place during the autumn Navratras (the first nine days of the bright half (before the full moon) of the month Assuj (in Hindi: Asvina, September - October). During this time it might take days to catch a glimpse of the cave entrance but the route resounds with slogans shouted by the crowds, e.g. Jai Mata di (victory to the divine mother), Sheran waliye teri sada hi jai (victory to the mother goddess who has the lion as her mount), Bol sanchay darbar ki ji (victory to the true shrine). GANHAR (s.a., circa 1973: 2) assures »Every one who visits the shrine returns greatly reinvigorated in peace and repose of mind« while SECURITY BEEFED UP (2006.01.17) notifies »A multi-tier security blanket has been thrown in and around Katra town and Vaishnodevi cave shrine due to intelligence reports of the movement of militants in Trikuta hills in Udhampur district of Jammu and Kashmir.« The religious show cave attracts more than half a million (>500,000) pious tourists (pilgrims) per year: »From a cave shrine tucked away deep in the the Trikuta Mountains of Kashmir to a bustling religuous centre, the call of Mata Vaishno Devi has drawn and converted many a non-believer. Those who come as tourists leave as staunch followers singing her praises. This is the ultimate refuge of the helpless. The one place that answers your prayers. Where all dilemas are resolved. So come with faith - that's all that is asked of you« (travel.indiamart.com/Jammu&Kashmir/pilgrimage/vais…). VISITORS, pilgrims, etc.: 4,000,000 LONELY PLANET, India (2001: 288)TOURIST SEASON: The shrine is visited throughout the year, but during winter the path is difficult when the route is occasionally blocked by snow-fall. »The pilgrimage commences with the Sharad Navratras in late September or beginning of October every year. It continues to draw the devotees of the goddess in large numbers from far and wide up to the end of December. The peak time is around Divali. The path becomes hazardous due to snow in the winter months of January and February. And, towards the end of March again a stream of pilgrims start visiting the holy cave to the end of May. The months of June, July and August are lean due to the weather« (MALHOTRA 1999.10.09). CROWD MANAGEMENT: The Vaishno Devi Shrine Board (note 3), through a set of guidelines, regulates the pilgrimage to ensure that the more than 20,000 pilgrims who visit the shrine every day met with no accident. It issues yatra slips at Katra town (note 4) and these have to be produced at Bhavan in order to enter the shrine. The Board has limited the number of slips to 25,000 a day. Two hundred pilgrims are sent into the shrine at a time and they are not allowed to carry coconuts for reasons of security - explosives could be hidden in them (note 5). Coconuts are also not allowed to be broken near the holy cave. Pilgrims deposit the coconuts at a counter in the main waiting hall and are given a token. They can reclaim their coconut from a separate counter once they come out of the cave after worship. CAVE DESCRIPTION 1973: A narrow cave entrance leads to a constricted passage lined with man-polished rocks. One has to wade through the ankle-deep water of the Charan Ganga (lit.: feet-washing stream) and crawl over a fallen boulder to reach, some 30 m from the cave entrance, the sanctum sanctorum, where one can stand erect in a chamber to take 'darshan' (sight) of three speleothems (stalagmites regarded as images of three »dieties« (note 6) Mahakali, Mahalakshmi and Mahasaraswati, which for the sake of increasing buisness, are spoiled by metal canopies and half buried buried under coconuts, cash and other religious paraphernalia. The natural cave is left by a 42 m long man-made tunnel (ca. 1975-1983?) allowing for one-way through traffic (GANHAR s.a., circa 1973: 1-9, illustrations 1, 6). CAVE DESCRIPTION 1993: »The darbar area is a large complex of shops, restaurants, dormitories, and enclosed areas with piped-in water for bathing. Just outside the cave is square platform with seating room for about one hundred people. Waiting time for entering the cave is usually several hours, considerably more during the Navratas. Pilgrims enter the cave single file, stepping over the rock said to be Bhairo's body. They must slither through a dark, narrow passageway ankle deep in ice-cold water. At the end of the ninety-foot tunnel, three steps lead to a room barely arge enough to hold four or five crouching people. Here the pilgrims experience the fulfillment of their journey in the darshn of the three pindis. They make theor offerings and are quickly ushered outside« (ERNDL 1993: 64-65). CAVE DESCRIPTION 2004: »The 100 feet cave is very narrow with an average height of 5.5 feet [1.7 m] only and has ankle deep water. The pilgrims are allowed in batches through the cave. A newly constructed exit makes the process of going out of the shrine easier« (asia-planet.net/india/jammu-kashmir.htm accessed 25.05.2004). CAVE DESCRIPTION 2006: »The cave shrine is narrow and pilgrims have to walk through a running stream of cold water, the Charan Ganga, to get to the sanctum sanctorum. Within, three rocks cut idols of the goddesses Mahakali, Mahalakshmi and Mahasaraswati are venerated with canopies of silver and gold« (hillwaystravels.tripod.com accessed 2006.07.01). CAVE DESCRIPTION 2009: At »… the cave abode of Vaishno Devi … Hindu pilgrims pay respect to the goddess' threeforms, creative Saraswati, persevering Lakshmi and destructive Kali. The final approach is through icy water …« (LONELY PLANET, India 2009: 287). SITUATION: The cave lies 13.5 km from Katra, itself 45 km generally north from Jammu town (N32°44': E074°52': 380 m asl). APPROACH: At a place called »Domel« (note 7) on kilometer 36 on the road from from Jammu to Srinagar, one has to turn either »right« (SHARMA 1994) or »left« (GANHAR 1973) to reach the town of Katra (note 8), where one can get small change (to be generous to beggars, gods, etc.), torches (flashlights) and old batteries, fake fur caps, walking sticks, ponies, porters and dandies (note 9). The cave is reached »after a 13.5 km mountain climb from Katra« (LONELY PLANET, India 2009: 287) or 5 hours on foot (DUCLUZAUX 1993d: 50-51) along a well trodden and tiled path (note 10) via Bal Ganga (0.6 to 1.5 km from Katra), ascent to Charan Padika / Paduka (1.5 km, 1030 m asl), Adhkawari / Ad-Kanwari / Adhkunwari (3 or 4.5 km, 1460 m, midway between Katra and Bhawan), Hathi Matha (1890 m), Sanji Chhet (9 km, 2200 m), and Bhairav Ghati (1874 m) to Vaishno Devi (1585 m). GEOLOGY: Vaishno Devi Gupha is developed in a Proterozoic (Upper Precambrian: Riphean) Limestone known by various names, such as Great Limestone (MEDLICOTT 1864; WYNNE 1872; LYDEKKER 1876; SIMPSON 1904), Sirban Limestone (WHRIGHT 1906; MIDDLEMISS 1924-1929), Waishno Debi Limestone (RAO, SAXENA & DHAR 1968), and Trikuta Limestone (CHADHA 1978, 1992).
NOTE 1: At a cave passage length of about 30 m and roughly 500'000 (±100'000) visitors per year, the annual visitors per cave-passage-metre ratio at 13'333 (±3'333) is obiously one of the world's largest. Considering that this religious show cave is neither beautiful nor grand, the remarkably large number of visitors can be interpreted to indicate that spiritual attractivity is not a function of quality but of public relations. Employees of the Dharamarth Trust (established in 1986) regulate the entry via a concrete platform in front of the cave since it has been learned, that a maximum of 12 simultaneous visitors reduces the frequency of panicking catastrophes. These have formerly resulted in deaths by suffocation (compare –>Guptadham, Orissa). year pilgrims source 1951 3000 GANHAR (s.a., circa 1973: 8) 1970 ? 40'000 GANHAR (s.a., circa 1973: 7) 1990 2'169'000 indiagov.org/indiain (accessed 2002.11.20) 1996 4'087'000 OVER 41 LAKH PILGRIMS (1998) 1997 4'170'000 OVER 41 LAKH PILGRIMS (1998) or 4,437,000 indiagov.org/indiain (accessed 2002.11.20) or an offhand created number of »one million visitors« (SHRIVASTAVA 1997: 32) 1998 433'000 OVER 433,000 PILGRIMS… (1998) 1999 4'375'000 VAISHNO DEVI PILGRIMS (2000) 2000 4'000'000 LONELY PLANET, North India (2001: 358) 2004 6'100'000 PURNACHANDRA KUMAR, C V K (2005) 2008 >500,000 LONELY PLANET, India (2009: 287). NOTE 2: STRASSER (1993: 353) confuses the term »Höhlentempel« (German, cave temple; a temple built like a cave) with temple cave (in German: Tempelhöhle; a cave used as a temple).NOTE 3: The nine-member Vaishno Devi Shrine Board was set up in 1986 with the Governor as the head. Among its other members are the State Chief Secretary and the Principal Secretary to the Governor. So far, the Board has invested over Rs.125 crores (IRs 125'000'000 IRs equalling about ¤ 25'000'000) to provide infrastructure and other facilities (PURNACHANDRA KUMAR 2005). NOTE 4: Visitors (yatris) are advised to obtain a yatra slip (free of cost) only from the Yatra Registration Counter at the Tourism Reception Centre, Katra Bus Stand and nowhere else. Without an authentic yatra slip, crossing of Banganga checkpost will not be allowed ( rajasthaninfoline.com/dest/vaishnodevi.html). NOTE 5: »At Vaishno Devi, which is located close to the militant-infested areas of Udhampur district, besides the Jammu and Kashmir Police, six companies of the Central Reserve Police Force provide security for pilgrims. The deployment of such a large number of personnel followed the July 21, 2003, killing of six persons, including an infant, in a grenade attack by Lashkar-e-Taiba militants. Now, at various points on the trekking route, pilgrims have to pass through X-ray machines that detect explosives« (PURNACHANDRA KUMAR 2005). NOTE 6: »In the cave there are images of three dieties [sic!] viz. the Mahakali, Mahalakshmi and Mahasaraswati« ( asia-planet.net/india/jammu-kashmir.htm accessed 25.05.2004). NOTE 7: »Domel« (GANHAR s.a., circa 1973) is not identified unless it corresponds to the "Dami" (N32°54': E074°59' nima.mil/geonames accessed 16.11.2003). NOTE 8: At the foot of Trikuta mountain (Trikuta Parvata), the town of Katra (N32°59': E074°57' nima.mil/geonames accessed 16.11.2003) lies at elevations ranging between 760 m asl (SHARMA 1994) and 890 m asl (GANHAR c. 1973) in Riasi (Reasi) district, Jammu & Kashmir State. NOTE 9: Dandy -- »A hill conveyance something similar to a hammock, suspended from a pole, with straps for the feet and back, and carried by two bearers« (KNIGHT 1863 Diary: note 3). NOTE 10: The new route has halved the time taken to trek between Adhkawari (midway between Katra and Bhavan) and Bhavan but it is prone to landslides. A constant reminder of this fact is the barren mountains along the route. The authorities have built temporary tin sheds, railings and also put up warning signs. Officials of the Vaishno Devi Shrine Board say they are carrying out massive afforestation to arrest the instability of the hills, but Sohan Singh, former Chief Conservator of Forest of Jammu and Kashmir and eminent environmentalist, says the damage is irreparable.
Documents
Bibliography 03/07/2016- Bäumer, Bettina 1986, 1988, 1991; Chadha, Satish Kumar 1992; Ducluzaux, Bruno 1993d; Eisner, Uwe 1983; Erndl, Kathleen M 1993; Ganhar, J N (s.a., circa 1973); Indien Handbuch 1984, 1994, 1998; Lonely Planet, India 1981, 1990, 1993, 1994, no more in the 1997 or 1999 editions, 2005, 2009; Lonely Planet, North India 2001; Malhotra, R K 1999.10.09; Over 21 Lakh pilgrims… 2002; Over 41 Lakh pilgrims… 1998; Over 433'000 pilgrims… 1998; Purnachandra Kumar, Ch. K V 2005; Schettler 1980: 105; Security Beefed Up … 2006.01.17; Sharma, Man Mohan 1994; Shrivastava, V K 1997; Strasser, Robert 1993; Vaishno Devi Pilgrims 2000.12.11.
History
EXPLORATION HISTORY: 1983 June: Kathleen M. ERNDL (1993: 78, 80) participated in a week-long group pilgrimage to several Goddess temples arrangrd by a Chandigarh religious leader known as Babaji assisted by one Bahjni (sister): »Babaji had gotten permission from the temple pujaris for me to photograph the pindis, something I have never attempted on my previous visits. When the crucial moment arrived, squatting in the dark, narrow cave with hundreds of people lined up behind me shin-deep in icy water, I was so nervous that I could not make my flsh go off. After darshan we went off in small groups to eat in various open-air restaurants near the shrine, and about midnight streched out blankets on the dharmsala floor and fell asleep.«
Caves nearby
| Distance (km) | Name | Length (m) | Depth (m) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0.0 | TRIKUTA DEVI TIRTHA | ||
| 0.0 | NEW CAVE, Katra | ||
| 0.0 | HOLY MOTHER TEMPLE & CAVE | ||
| 4.8 | KIRAMCHI SPRING | ||
| 8.3 | MUTTAL SPRING | ||
| 11.2 | ADI KUMARI GUFA | ||
| 11.3 | SAMAT KHAD SPRING | ||
| 13.6 | SERSANDHU SPRING | ||
| 13.6 | REASI SPRING, Riasi |