Hundreds of Kashmiri Pandits throng Valley's Kheer Bhawani temple; water omen positive

Amid COVID-19 protocols, hundreds of Kashmiri Pandit devotees prayed at the famous Ragnya Devi temple in the Tulmula area of Ganderbal district on Friday as the Kheer Bhawani Mela was celebrated.

Chanting religious hymns, the devotees congregated at the temple and paid their obeisance, and the local Muslims were seen selling the materials for offerings that include earthenware lamps and flowers, outside the temple.

"There are fewer pilgrims this year and that is because of the COVID-19 pandemic," said Maharaj Krishan, a Kashmiri Pandit who had come from Jammu to pay his obeisance at Devi’s temple.

The UT administration had made elaborate security arrangements for the festival.

Devotees believe the color of the sacred spring water flowing under the temple hints at the situation in the Kashmir Valley. While most of the colors do not have any particular significance, the black or darkish colour of the water is believed to be an indicator of inauspicious times for Kashmir.

This year, the water in the spring was clean and pure, which the devotees believe is a good omen for the Kashmir Valley.

Pertinently, on January 25, 1998, when Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) terrorists killed 23 Pandits in nearby Wandhama village, the arrivals of devotees in the subsequent years decreased. However, after 2003, attendance at the festival started increasing with each year.

In recent years, thousands of Pandits, including women and children, would converge at the temple from various far-off places including Mumbai, Bangalore, Kerala, Delhi, and Jammu to offer special prayers on the occasion of the annual holy day ‘Zyeshth Ashtami.’

More than 55,000 Pandit families left their ancestral homes in 1990 and migrated to Jammu and other parts of the country when a bloody insurgency broke out in Kashmir in 1989.

Before their migration, Pandits used to visit the temple once a month for conducting ‘havan’ and ‘puja.’

However, now, it is held on Jyeshtha Ashtami (June) once a year.

Image Source- PTI