A Quick Trip to Lakhamandal
The
conversation about Lakhamandal was started by Manu, my son-in-law long back. He
had visited it about twenty years back when he was a student of IIT Roorkee. He
had mentioned that it was a remote village in Garhwal with amazing historical and
mythological value, also that it was remote and there were no places to stay
the night, but a pristine and beautiful village.
Lakhamandal,
as mythology would have it, was the place where Pandavas were sent by
Dhritarashtra with the intention of burning them, and a Lakhsha Grih, house of
lac was built by Purochana, his evil aide and architect. Vidhur has foreseen
this murderous attempt and deputed a miner to dig a tunnel. Pandavas had
escaped through this tunnel but had sacrificed a Nishada women with five sons. To
atone for this sin of causing the death of the Nishada woman and her five sons, Yuddhisthir had vowed to build Shiva Lingas. Interestingly, Lakhamandal is on the banks of Yamuna, and some versions of Mahabharata place it near the banks of Ganga!
I
had an abiding interest in Mahabharata since I was 15 years old, and the
Lakhamandal trip was there in the back of my mind. Come December of 2019 and the fact that I had one casual leave
in balance before the year came to a close, a hasty trip was planned for
December 14 and 15, 2019. The better half declined, given the fact that snow
fall was predicted for Uttarakhand and there were no decent places to stay at
Lakhamandal. My colleague at IMS Unison and Dean School of Hospitality
Management, Prof Vinay Rana came to my rescue. He tapped in to his Garhwali
network and I was assured a room in a guest house run by the Pradhan of Lakhamandal
village.
A
quick reference to Google maps indicated a 110km journey of 3 hours plus by
car. Off we went on the late morning of December 14, 2019 with my camera and a
sleeping bag, just in case. We skirted Mussoorie, went past Kempty Falls and the
route 507/709B followed the Yamuna. The river was always on the left and we had
lunch at a small town called Nainbagh. After another small village called
Barnigarh, we crossed the Yamuna and after a short if bumpy ride of 5 km we
were in Lakahamandal.
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Lakhamandal
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The village is perched above the Yamuna and
has about a hundred odd households, sadly but unexpectedly all built in
concrete with either concrete or corrugated steel roofs. The guesthouse of the
Pradhan of Lakhandal, Mr Suresh Sharma was quite spacious and seemed to be
designed for visitors and had ample parking space. As a special gesture, he
offered me a ‘special’ room which was in another building but just above the
Main Road. The room had reasonably clean bed, a TV and a clean bathroom with an
immersion heater, and a covered balcony overlooking the street clinched
the deal.
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| Yaksha Dwarpal 2 |
The younger brother of the Pradhan volunteered to show me the famous Shiva Temple. The entrance to main Shiva Temple is guarded by two beautiful and aesthetically proportioned Yaksha statues, almost reminiscent of Roman statues in their anatomical proportions and attention to details. He called the two statues Jai-Vijai.
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| Yaksha Dwarpal 1 |
The artefacts in the Archaeological Survey of India storage area included many large lotus pieces carved from stone. Interestingly, some of the shivalingas had a square shaped yonis ! May be the local stones, probably sedimentary rocks, were not amenable to round shapes?
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| Shivalinga with square yoni |
A little away from the main temple, there was a granite shivalinga, again in a square yoni . This linga presented almost a mirror surface when water was poured on it and I could see reflection of the sky and surrounding trees.
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| Granite Shivalinga |
On my way from the temple, I saw the oldest house in Lakhamandal, completely built with wood with beautiful carvings on the pillars and the balconies. The building had two floors almost entirely constructed of cheerh wood. The carved motifs were simple but exquisite. I wonder if this craft of such carving on functional elements as beams and columns still remained. I could not find another house constructed of wood and with carvings.
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| Balcony with carvings |
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| Cave temple of Shakti |
From the village we took a short trip and a steep climb along a goat track that brought us to a cave shrine. The entire Lakhamandal village and the adjacent valley could be seen from this place. The younger Sharma assured me that the villagers regularly visited the shrine. The shrine had an idol of Shakti, and the cave temple had a solar panel for light and a small water tank. The pujari of the temple lived alone in the cave. He told me in a very matter of fact manner that leopards sometimes were spotted around in the area, but had never come near the temple.Simple statistics, power of the Goddess Shakti and simple faith, whatever it is, the fortitude is admirable.
Evening came rather early, a stiff and chill wind was blowing. I had an early dinner, aided by some whisky on the balcony. The moonlight shone on distant peaks with snow shining near the top. It had snowed couple of days back, even at Mussoorie, and the cold was biting.
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| Cave of Pandavas |
Next morning, on our way back we saw the entrance to the fabled cave where the Pandavas were supposed have taken shelter, but the heavy rain, the possibility of walking around in the dark cave barefoot somehow dampened my ardour. So I gave it a miss and headed home.
