Balancing heritage and development: Saving the temple town of Bageshwar

Recent weeks have seen tragedy strike multiple Himalayan villages. On August 5, Dharali in Uttarakhand was hit by a cloudburst. On the 14th, it was Chasoti in Jammu & Kashmir’s Kishtwar that was struck. In both places, people, houses, commercial establishments, temples and orchards vanished within minutes.

With an economy heavily dependent on pilgrim and tourist traffic, Uttarakhand has long witnessed a debate between development and environment preservation. Large scale construction activity in the sensitive Himalayan state is causing land subsidence. Towns such as Jyotirmath (formerly Joshimath) have become almost uninhabitable. And the same fear now looms over the temple town of Bageshwar. Here, unregulated mining – involving unsafe excavation practices and dumping of debris into drainage channels – has made the place vulnerable to rockfalls and landslides. In a zone that is among the country’s most prone to earthquakes, this is a disaster in the making.

Bageshwar is not just another Himalayan town. Lying at the confluence of the Gomti and Saryu Rivers, it is home to the ancient Baghnath Temple, dedicated to Shiva. Legend has it that Rishi Markandeya did penance to Shiva at this spot, and the Lord appeared to him in the form of a tiger, giving the Baghnath shrine its name. The temple’s name passed on to the town.

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Inscriptions found at the site attributed the current temple structure to the Chand dynasty ruler Laxmi Chand, who built it in 1450 CE, though earlier shrines are believed to have existed here since the Katyuri period (8th–12th century). The Gurkhas were the next to arrive, their invasion in 1791 seeing them take control. But that proved short-lived and the British took charge. The region we now know as ‘Kumaon’ began to take administrative shape. Development was slow – a dispensary came up in 1906, a post office in 1909 and a public school in 1926. Bageshwar gradually became a major hub for trade between India and Tibet, but the 1962 war with China brought that to an end. In 1997, it became an independent district.

The Baghnath Temple complex is today the focal point of Bageshwar town. As in most parts of India, the town has witnessed unplanned growth and buildings seem to dot the valley and are mushrooming on the hills around. The temple is accessed via lanes that seem increasingly narrow. The complex in which the Baghnath shrine lies is itself tranquil, a sanctuary of peace amidst the rush of vehicles on the approach roads and the unceasing construction activity.

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The temple is made of locally sourced stone and dominates the complex by its size. There are several smaller shrines around, additions over the centuries by rulers eager to cement their own credibility. These include shrines to Bhairava, Dattatreya, Ganga and more. Both within the main temple and spread around the complex are various free-standing icons of deities, most of which have become shrines, despite being in the open. Some of these have been dated to the Katyuri period, making them older than the main temple. Among these are icons of Ganesha, the Trimurti and Vishnu.

Two Ganeshas flank the entrance to the main Baghnath shrine, one of them curiously defaced. Facing the shrine’s entrance are two Nandis, one each in black and white stone. The Baghnath Temple is typical of Kumaon’s shrines, lofty and somewhat plain in terms of embellishment. While the inner sanctum holds a Shiva linga, several other icons are also placed in the mandapa. The number of somewhat random icons found in the complex indicates that some of these may have been brought here from other shrines that were perhaps destroyed or damaged by the elements.

Baghnath witnesses a surge of the faithful on festive occasions, such as Diwali and Maha Shivaratri. On the latter occasion, there is an all-night Puja. And like most temples in areas dominated by an agricultural community, Makar Sankranti is even more special. At this time, Bageshwar hosts an annual Uttarayani Mela on the riverbanks close to the temple. Devotees bathe in the icy cold river water at dawn, and then enter the temple to offer water to the Shiva Linga. Many observe this ritual for three consecutive days—a practice called ‘Trimaghi’. As one moves away from Baghnath to visit other shrines in the vicinity, one is reminded that this place finds mention in the Skanda Purana, as one of the ultimate places that liberate a soul from the cycle of birth and death. Perhaps the Trimaghi is a step towards that liberation. Baghnath’s spirituality has also found space in socio-religious-political events of the region.

To understand the extent of this, one needs to go back to 1913, when the British made the practice of ‘Coolie Begar’ mandatory in the Kumaon. Essentially, this involved the locals giving free coolie service to transport the baggage of British officials travelling to and from the hilly region. Collusion between landlords, village heads and patwaris made it an exploitative practice. Locals forced to serve the British often had to perform the most menial tasks. Resentment grew.

On January 14th, 1921 – during the Uttarayani Mela - Hargovind Pant, Lala Chiranjilal and Badri Datt Pandey, defied an order by the District Magistrate and led a huge crowd of forty thousand in a non-violent protest against the practice of Coolie Begar. The ceremonial beginning of this movement was by offering prayer at the Baghnath Temple. Next up came an oath-taking on the waters of the Saryu, where everyone present pledged to never be part of this practice again.

Finally, a group of village heads brought a set of their own record registers where details of various people used as coolies were kept and threw these into the confluence of the rivers. The importance of Baghnath and Bageshwar is thus of a conscience keeper of the hills. One hopes that the ‘development’ of the town does not lead to the destruction of this sanctuary in the hills.

The author is a heritage explorer with a penchant for seeking obscure sites. A brand consultant by profession, he tweets @HiddenHeritage. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect Firstpost’s views.