30,000 Kashmiri Hindus assemble at historic temple

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30,000 Kashmiri Pandits assemble at historic temple

 

IANS

 

ANANTNAG: Over 30,000 Kashmiri Hindus converged at a historic temple

near here Sunday to join the 'Vijay Saptami' festival that was

celebrated at this holy site in Jammu and Kashmir after a gap of 13

years.

 

It was an occasion that had more to do with roots than religion, with

some of the Hindus, or Pandits as they are known in Kashmir, coming

from as far as New Delhi, Hyderabad and Pune where they had fled

after a separatist drive erupted in the Kashmir Valley in 1989.

 

The Pandits gathered at Martand temple near south Kashmir's Anantnag

township for a spiritual bath and prayers for the solace of dead

relatives. But many also came simply to re-assert their Kashmiri

origin.

 

The presence of such a large number of Pandits at this year's

festival was possible because local Muslims encouraged their old

neighbours to attend the event.

 

The Muslims took care of most of the arrangements for the mammoth

celebrations, including food for thousands of devotees, floral

offerings and earthen lamps that were lit in honour of the dead.

 

"My old neighbours came all the way from Mattan (near Anantnag) to

Delhi and persuaded my family to join the festival," said Maharaj

Krishen who had come with his wife and children.

 

Krishen is living with his former Muslim neighbour, Abdul Rashid, the

chairman of the Muslim Auqaf committee that looks after the Sufi

shrine at Aishmuqam, located 10 km from the Hindu temple.

 

Traditionally, Pandits pay homage to their dead relatives through a

special ritual called the 'Pind-Daan', which involves feeding loaves

of flour with sugar inside to fish living in the spring of the

temple.

 

These loaves are called 'Pinds', and the fish in the spring are

believed to represent the souls of the dead awaiting salvation.

Kashmiri Brahmins have believed for centuries the ritual will result

in salvation for the dead.

 

"I have come to offer 'Pinds' for my dead parents so that their souls

are blessed by the gods," said Radhakrishen Bhat, 48, who left the

Kashmir Valley in the early 1990s.

 

"But my prayer also included a wish to be allowed to return and live

in the land of my ancestors," he said.

 

The Pandits offered the 'Pinds' at the confluence of the Chakanadi

and the Lidder river, which meets the Chakandi after flowing through

the picturesque Pahalgam health resort. The confluence of the rivers

is barely 200 m from the Martand temple.

 

Chakanadi takes it name from the historical fact that thousands of

flour-mills existed on its banks in ancient times, using the river's

waters to drive their mills.

 

Significantly, none of the Pandits attending Sunday's festival was

among the pilgrims scheduled to visit the holy Amarnath cave shrine

this year.

 

"We came to attend the 'Vijay Saptami' festival so that our dead

relatives can rest in peace since we were unable able to perform the

rituals during the last 13 years because of obvious reasons," said

Chuni Lal Bhat, 59, a retired government employee currently living in

Udhampur district of the Jammu region.