Panchtarni
Annual pilgrimage to the holy cave shrine of Shri Amarnath Ji in South Kashmir Himalayas will culminate tomorrow as the Charri Mubarak, the holy mace of Lord Shiva, reached Panchtarni for a night halt.
Amidst chants of 'Bum Bum Bole' and 'Har Har Mahadev', the Charri Mubarak was taken from Sheshnag to Panchtarni by Mahant Deependra Giri, the custodian of the holy mace, and a group of devotees and Sadhus this evening.
The holy mace will be rested at Panchtarni taking the Charri Mubarak on its onward journey to the cave tomorrow. A pujan will be performed at the cave, which will mark the end of this year's annual yatra on the occasion of Raksha Bandhan and Shrawan Purnima.
The return journey of the holy mace will begin tomorrow and it will reach Panchtarni for night halt. It will be taken to Pahalgam base camp on Pratipada the next day for Pujan before visarjan will be performed on August 7 on the banks of Lidder stream.
The holy mace had reached Pahalgam on July 31 and stayed there for two nights during which the custodian of the Charri Mubarak performed necessary rituals including a Pujan at the Ganesh temple on the banks of Lidder stream.
On way to Pahalgam, Pujan was also performed at Sureshwar temple at Sonawar, Shiv temple at Pampore, Shiv temple at Bijbehara and Martand Tirth at temple town of Mattan.
Although the yatra commenced a week later than schedule to unseasonal snowfall around the cave shrine and along the Baltal and Pahalgam routes, more than 3.75 lakh pilgrims have so far paid obeisance to Lord Shiva inside the 3880-metre high cave.
The yatra began on June 16 from the shorter Baltal route and nearly three lakh pilgrims used this route to have darshan of the naturally-formed ice-lingam. The traditional Pahalgam track was opened on June 25, as the track was covered by several feet of snow, and so far more than 75,000 pilgrims used this route.
There was no major untoward incident during the yatra period. However, two porters were killed by a landslide on the very first day from Baltal route. So far, 42 yatris have died because of natural causes of medical ailments this year.
Meanwhile, the yatra to the holy cave shrine continued from both Baltal and Pahalgam. Another batch of nearly 700 pilgrims paid obeisance to Lord Shiva till reports last came in.
A spokesman of Shri Amarnath Shrine Board (SASB) said 2376 yatris performed darshan on Monday.
He said 759 pilgrims left from the Baltal base camp and 111 from Nunwan this morning, on their journey to the holy cave shrine.
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Photo:
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