Airwan Temple: The pride of Kathua
Dr. Narinder Paul
As per the
available legends, Airwan is the place when Airawat
was reborn. One legend says that famous king elephant Airawat was revived from one of the superb springs at this place. The
legend says that: while the river Ganga was
being brought from the heaven to the earth, its flow was obstructed from a big
stony mountain in her way. Every effort was made to remove that obstruction but
all in vein. It then came to be known that the obstruction could be removed only
by Lord Indra’s King elephant Airawat.
Accordingly, prayer was made to Lord Indra to send his elephant to do this job
for the welfare of the living beings on earth. He agreed and the Airawat removed that obstruction. After
doing the job, Airawat became
prideful of his might and said that the flow of Ganga
had been with its blessings. Reacting to it Maa Ganga Ji decided to teach him a
lesson that he is not as mighty as he is prideful of. The flow of Ganga Ji
increased and it washed away the proudy elephant with its streams. It carried
away the elephant by its mighty flow to the underground of earth called “Pataal Lok.” The stream of Ganga ji
flown to the Patal Lok was named as Patal Ganga or Gupt Ganga as it flew secretly under the earth.
After hearing
that his loving elephant has been washed away by the strong springs of Ganga , Lord Indra was much bothered. Immediately he
reached the earth along with other Devtas of Dev Lok and became anxious of
getting his beloved elephant back. He was then told by Narad Muni to meditate
hard for Lord Shiva who could bless him with his elephant. Acting on the advice,
Lord Indra meditated hard upon Lord Shiva. After being happy over the
meditation, Lord Shiva appeared there and blessed him that he will get his
elephant back from Gupt Ganga. Cosequently, Airawaat came out of the Patal Lok via a spring on the earth. The
place where Lord Shiva appeared was left with small natural lingum of Shiva
which later came to be known as “Aap Shambhu”. Ashok Jerath writes in his famous
book “Dogra legends of art and culture” that at Airwan, where Lord Indra had meditated,
a temple in commemoration was erected by a king named Govind Chand. However, available
historical literature reveal that the temple of Lord Shiva
The temple is a
place of attraction for the devotees of Lord Shiva all over the J&K,
addjoing Paunjab, Himachal, Haryana and other states. Annual fairs are held at
the temple during Maha Shivratri and Baisakhi festivals. People throng the
temple to take holy dip on ‘‘Chaitra
Chaturaash’ (in March) every year and pay obeisance to the sacred shrine of
lord Shiva. The sacred stream of Gupt Ganga through which Airawat was regained by Lord Indra is
considered as pious as Ganga . There are bowlies
near the temple where pilgrims take bath before worship. During aikadshi people
take holy dip in the stream as it is believed that it enables them to get rid
of their sins. Moreover, people who cannot afford to flow the mortal remains of
their dears at Haridwar immerse them in the stream and hence it is considered
as sacred to the mortal beings even after their death.
The temple can be reached from the National Highway
1-A from three different routes. Firstly from Kathua town, secondly from Palli
Morh and thirdly from Saktechack Morh. It lies at about 15-20 Km from the
district headquarters from these different routes. Different sources of
transportation i.e. buses, metadoors etc. are available to reach there and one
more prominent features is that the traditional horse driven carts are still major
source of transportation on this road particularly from Nagri to Airwan temple
and vice versa. Villages which surround the Airwan temple are Barmora, Nangal,
Pandori, Padyal, Sadyal, Jamraal, Sumwan, Jagaien etc. All the villages
surrounding the temple possess well irrigated land and have very excellent
agriculture potential.
(The Author is
Agriculture Extension Officer)
