While roaming in the #Himalayas for many days, I saw the fresh #snow of winter falling and felt the bone-chilling cold. Although my content of snowy mountains is not over yet today I am going to write about a slightly different place where there is no snow but there is cold. Now if you roam in the Himalayas, there will be cold. Today we will read about the Dhari Devi temple where I was on 24 December 2024. Let's go on a journey to this unique temple which is built in the middle of the Alaknanda river coming from Badrinath.
We two friends leave from Dehradun on a scooter with our 4 bags. I keep 2 bags in the boot of the scooter, one in front of the driver's seat and my friend hangs the fourth one on her shoulder. In the hurry to leave early in the morning, it becomes afternoon and we leave Dehradun at around 1 pm. Our first target is Rishikesh which is 40 km from Dehradun, it takes us a full hour to cover this distance.
There is a little traffic jam in Rishikesh where we waste about 15 minutes. On the moving #scooter, we plan ahead and decide that we will stop at Teen Dhara where we will eat something. The weather is not good, we get light rain by the time we reach Tapovan which continues with us for about 15 km. Teen Dhara is 59 km from Rishikesh, it takes us one and a half hours to reach there, here the time took a little more because the uphill and hilly path starts from Rishikesh.
We stop at Teen Dhara and have lunch and after about 30 minutes we get back on the scooter. Now we have to reach Devprayag from where we will reach Srinagar and then our destination Dhari Devi. It takes us one and a half hour to cover this 60 km, so we drive the scooter for 166 km from #home to here and it takes 4 hours to cover this distance. So far 75% of the road is good and 25% is broken and jammed.
After crossing Srinagar, the sun has come out and we can see the Alaknanda river flowing below which will meet the Mandakini river at Devprayag. My friend clicks some photos of me keeping the temple in the background while I am in a hurry to quickly enter the Dhari Devi temple. I have come to this temple many times before and every time this temple fills me with new energy and peace. After reaching the gate of the temple, I park my scooter in front of a shop.
After buying prasad from the gate, we enter the gate of the temple and ring the bell hanging from the roof there. The gate of the temple is designed in South Indian style on which deities are installed so that peace and wisdom can be showered on every creature entering the temple. A line is written on the gate of the temple “Whoever comes with faith, takes the blessing”. I like this #colorful gate very much.
Stairs have been built from here which will take us to the temple premises. We have to get down from the road and on the way we see monkeys and langurs at many places which trouble the devotees coming and going. I save the camera and go beyond the monkey zone. After covering a distance of about 50 meters, there is a temple of Bhairav Baba, here the Aghor form is worshipped. We move ahead with folded hands in front of the temple. After having darshan from here, we have to move further.
After descending the stairs, we enter the temple premises in the next 15 minutes. The temple is built in the middle of the Alaknanda river and this temple has the title of being a historical temple. It is said about the idol of Dhari Devi installed in this temple that this idol changes its form three times a day, these forms are as follows; girl, woman and old woman. According to the legend, this idol which came floating in Dhara village started crying, hearing which when people reached the river, the idol told that you have to establish my temple here, after which this temple was established.
Every year when Navratri arrives, a big puja of Kalsaur is organized, devotees from all over the country come to participate in this huge puja. It is believed that every wish made here is fulfilled, after the wish is fulfilled, that person has to come to this temple again and have darshan of the goddess. I have not had to ask anything from God till date, but I like to visit many temples again and again.
The Kedarnath disaster is also associated with this goddess, in 2013 a very big disaster occurred in Kedarnath in which thousands of devotees lost their lives. So at that time the idol of Dhari Devi was installed in this newly built temple after which the deluge started and it rained every day, as a result of which 6054 people lost their lives in the whole of Uttarakhand. By the way, I do not believe in this legend at all.
Photography is prohibited inside the temple, so after offering prasad, we meditate for 15 minutes in the sanctum sanctorum of the temple and roam around the temple premises. Below us we can see the Alaknanda river flowing, there is a steel bridge on our right on which people are standing and getting their photos clicked. Below us, some boats are standing on the banks of Alaknanda which are giving the tourists the pleasure of boating. Red colored dupattas are tied on the way which indicates that people have asked for something from the goddess.
The brass bells tied here signify that those whose wishes are fulfilled tie the bells in the temple premises. Since it is winter, there are not many people here, so we get a very good darshan of the goddess. Well, that's all for today. I will meet you tomorrow with another Himalayan place. Take care of yourself in winter and go out of the house only wearing warm clothes.
The #winterchallenge organized by 
The screenshot of Google map has been attached in the post so that you can get an idea of the location of this temple. You can see in the map that this unique temple is situated right in the middle of the Alaknanda river and stands in the same way as the salon without any earthquake or disaster.
Talking about #winterchallenge, I am at 6th position in the leaderboard and my only aim is to remain in the top 10 in the last 3 days. 
Disclaimer: This post is originally written in Hindi and I have used Google Translator to translate the Hindi text in English. All the photos have been clicked by me from sony a7iii, POCO F1, One Plus smartphone and edited in lightroom, post thumbnail created in adobe photoshop.
[//]:# (!worldmappin 30.25782 lat 78.87745 long Mother Dhari Devi is the protector of Uttarakhand, she changes her form 3 times a day (India) d3scr)
