While zeroing in on Manali and Naggar I had one very
specific target in mind. The lost city of Thava. I came across a reference to
this place in a book. Google didn’t help much. No article, no trip report did
mention a visit to this place. Even google map would return you with an empty,
grey spot where Thava should have been written. After a minute inspection of
the map hanging on the wall of Naggar Castle also we did not find Thava
anywhere.
Our booking included free breakfast and dinner buffet at
Castle restaurant. Last night we had missed this and had gone out to have local
food outside in a small roadside stall. Which was delicious. This morning,
however, we reached at the breakfast table right on time. Sipping hot, black
coffee on the balcony of castle we asked the manager about Thava. He told us it
was not far from the castle and also gave us the direction.
After filling our stomach we headed out of the castle. On our
way we stopped at the Vishnu temple and the Gauri Shankar temple nearby. Unlike
Tripura Sundari or Hadimba temple both the temple exhibit the shikhara style
made of stone, that is another signature Kullu architecture. Both the temples
were supposed to have been built around 1100-1200AD.
As per the direction given by the manager for Thava we had
to take the same route of our previous day’s evening trek. We parked the bike
on the roadside and started climbing up. After proceeding for about a few hundred
meters we spotted a very old man coming towards us from the opposite direction.
Upon asking him about the direction to the temple he explained the route to us
in smooth, American accent. We told each other in awe, see what kind of
lifestyle he is leading even at this age? People of this age in our country doze
off in the waiting room of the cardiology unit.
After walking for an hour we found ourselves standing at a
Y-shaped crossroad with a board announcing the ancient Krishna temple of Thava
was only meters away. We spotted few small wooden houses where the women of the
house were busy attending to their chores. Suddenly the narrow path had ended
and gave in to a small piece of open area. And there was our temple; its shikhara
was glistening under the clear blue sky of Naggar. And well, apparently the
temple had a d2h connection too.
The temple had a stone structure adorned with myriad
engravings and idols of weird looking deities whose name I was not aware of. An
idol of Lord Krishna was sitting on the main alter. The courtyard had an orange
and a tulsi tree in the middle. And a breathtaking view of the valley from it. The
priest and his family lives in a small quarter adjacent to the temple. He told
us that the temple was built by the Pandavas during their stay in the valley. Thava
was the capital of the valley then. Many many years later an earthquake came
and destroyed the whole village barring the temple. Since then Thava had become
an abandoned city. We were about to leave when the lady of the temple offered
us tea.
After leaving the temple behind we came back down at the
crossroad again. This time we read the board properly. It was saying two more
temples were there at about 2kms (?) distance. This time we had to take the left
arm of the Y. the road kept on turning worse and I started wondering if we made
a prudent choice here. After some time we deviated from the main road and took
the shortcut. A series of steep stairs wound up from the left and vanished into
the woods. We started climbing. The afternoon sun was no longer feeling mild on
our back. Sweat had started to trickle down. After a while I became pretty sure
that those stairs were magical. We would be climbing up for the rest of the
eternity but they would not end.
We suddenly stopped short on our way. Roadblock ahead – a huge tree was lying in
the middle of the path. We resumed walking again. I don’t remember for how long
we kept on walking, but when I had almost given up a very familiar sound
reached my ear, one of my most favourite sounds. Barking of dog, not one but
many. To our delight we discovered the steps had finally ended and we had
reached a village. Very soon we found the source of the noise – 3 furry people
of different shapes and sizes barking at us from the rooftop of a house. We walked
past the house hoping they wouldn’t jump off the roof. We had finally arrived
at our destination. Standing in front of us were two wooden temples, one of
Raja Bali and one of Rishi Jamadagni.
One of the astounding facts about Himachal is its gods and
goddesses. Most of them are not our mainstream deities, rather the lesser known
characters from Hindu Puranas. One needs to be well conversant with our ancient
stories in order to fully comprehend their significance or even barely recognize
who is who. If the eastern part of Indian Himalaya is reigned by Tantric
Buddhist deities then the western part is the mythical land of Puranas and the
forgotten indigenous gods.
Raja Bali was a great asura king of Satya Yug. He was the grandson
of Prahlad and great grandson of Hiranyakashipu. Soon he became very powerful
and started ruling all three worlds – the earth, heaven and the underworld. Now
the gods were never happy with the prosperity of the asuras let alone become homeless
by them. Now Vishnu was usually their go-to person in trouble, you know, like
the class prefect. Shiva was not so approachable and Brahma, well, he was
usually the one who had started the mayhem by giving out boons like illegal trade
practice license. So Vishnu was the only available big boss among the three. Vishnu
said, don’t worry I will take care of the man just like I took care of his
impertinent great grandpa. Cut to the earth. Raja Bali was holding a great
yajna celebrating his victory. He was famous for his benevolent charitable
nature so nobody would go empty handed from his door. The festivity had reached
its peak when a dwarf Brahman boy entered his court. He praised the king and
said that he heard so much about his hospitality. Our king was feeling too
magnanimous so he told the dwarf that he could take as much as land that he
could cover in three steps. The dwarf boy smiled. And then he started growing. The
king and his people watched in awe that the little dwarf took gigantic form. With
one step he took the heaven, the next step he took the earth and his last step
reached till the underworld. Needless to say the dwarf was none other than Lord
Vishnu himself. Bali was a good person so he submitted himself to the Lord with
utmost humility. Upon seeing his devotion although Vishnu sent him to live in
the underworld he allowed Bali to come back on earth to look after his subjects
once in a year. And that day is celebrated as Onam. Yes, Bali originally hailed
from the state of Kerala.
The story of Rishi Jamadagni is another interesting one. Jamadagni
means the one who consumes fire. Even though he was a Brahman born to Sage
Richika his disposition was of a Kshatriya. This happened due to a mix up
before his birth. Jamadagni’s mother Satyavati was the sister of great king
Gaadhi. A sage had asked Satyavati and the queen mother to worship two
different trees before conceiving. The trees got interchanged and Jamadagni with
Kshatriya nature was born to Satyavati and Vishwamitra with Brahman nature was
born to the queen. Jamadagni’s wife Renuka was famous for her devotion to her
husband. She was so devoted that she could carry water in unbaked earthen pot. It
was only the power of her devotion that could hold the pot together. Once on
the way to fetch water Renuka saw the Gandharvas and felt desire for a moment. The
pot immediately got dissolved in the water. Jamadagni was a great sage so he
came to know about the incident through his yogic power. He got furious. He had
four sons. He called his eldest and ordered him to bring him his mother’s head.
Well, you see, he had Kshatriya rage. The eldest son flatly refused. Then one
by one he called his other sons. They all refused save the last one. He obeyed
his father’s order and decapitated his mother. Later when Jamadagni asked him
for boons he prayed for the life of his mother and brothers. This eldest son
was our very own Parashurama.
The cult of Rishi Jamadagni or Jamlu Devta is very popular
across Himachal Pradesh. Even later that day we would come across another
temple dedicated to the same Rishi. But how a mythological character of Kerala
got a temple to his name in the Himalayas is a riddle I am yet to solve.
To be continued
Comments
Post a comment