Sunday, July 19, 2009

Sharda Temple - Shardadesh. Present day PoK



Sharada Peeth was the famous temple of goddess Sharada (Saraswati) in Kashmir - also called Kashyappur named after Rishi Kashyap - on the banks of NeelumKishenganga river (known as Kishenganga in India). Its ruins are now in the Neelum District of Azad Kashmir, Pakistan near the Line of Control(LOC). Kashmir was sometimes called Sharada Desh because of this temple.


It was a centre of Hinduism and eminent Sanskrit scholars of India. It is at this temple that Sri Sankaracharya received Sarvanjyapeetham chair. It was once a celebrated center of learning. It was a centre of great Sanskrit scholars and was a famous centre of Hinduism.

Sharda, Takri (from which gurmukhi is derived) and kharoshthi scripts are said to have originated at Sharda.

The great Jain scholar Hemachandra requested grammar texts preserved here so that he could compile his Siddhahemacandra grammar.

The great Vaishnava saint Swami Ramanuja traveled all the way from Srirangam to refer to Bodhayana's vritti on Brahma Sutras preserved here, before commencing work on writing his commentary on the Brahma sutras, the Sri Bhasya. Gotheng Brahmins are the traditional priests of Sharda Peeth.

Kalhana mentions that in Lalitaditya's reign (8th century AD), some followers of a king of Gauda (Bengal), come to Kashmir under the pretence of visiting the shrine of Sarada.

The temple was last repaired by Maharaja Gulab Singh of Kashmir.

The Sharada idol at Shringeri Sharadamba temple was once said to have been made of sandalwood, which is supposed to have been taken by the Sankaracharya from here.

NOW THESE HOLY TEMPLES ARE BEING USED AS TOILETS AND BUNKERS BY THE PAKISTAN ARMY.

The pic was taken down originally from this link.
http://www.pbase.com/hgharib/shardatemple

3 comments:

  1. This sort of desecration is the fallout of the uncalled for Partition of India - Jawaharlal Nehru and Jinnah are forever damned for this!!

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  2. We shld. regain PoK by killing those army men. JaiHind!

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  3. Where is the evidence of it being used as a toilet? And honestly, any attempt to regain this by force will result in its destruction. The best that we can wish for is that Pakistanis allow Indians across the border to visit visa-free, in exchange for them being able to visit some shrine next to the border with India under the same arrangement (theres a famous shrine in Jammu right on the LOC)> Cant link this to Ajmer, because Pakistanis granted access to the Sikh Panja Sahib in Hasan Abdal in exchange for that one. It has to be done on a one-to-one swap. Shrine for shrine.

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