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Vaishno Devi Temple

Hindu temple in Jammu and Kashmir, India

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Captured while trekking to Bhawan.
Yatin. 123 · CC BY-SA 4.0

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It is one of the most popular Hindu pilgrimage sites in India, with millions of devotees visiting the temple annually. In 2023 the board reported 9.52 million pilgrims.

History

Early origins and cultural synthesis

The shrine originally began as a sacred site for local tribes who worshipped the region's natural geography. The mountain's three prominent peaks were revered as the goddess "Trikuta Devi", a name that was used for centuries. Following migrations into the Jammu region around the 12th century (after the 1192 Battle of Tarain), a cultural synthesis took place. During this period, the local deity Trikuta Devi gradually became identified with the goddess Vaishno Devi. However, the original name remained in common use for a long time; 19th-century European travelers, including G.T. Vigne in 1842 and Sir Richard Temple in 1859, still referred to the deity as "Trikuta Devi" or "Trikuta Mai".

Medieval period and royal patronage

For much of its early history, the pilgrimage to the shrine was largely limited to ascetics and local residents due to the dense forests and difficult terrain. However, historical records indicate that regional rulers occasionally made the journey. According to the 1847 royal chronicle Rajdarshani by Ganeshdas Badehra, Raja Jas Dev of Jammu visited the shrine in 996 CE. Traditions also state that the tenth Sikh Guru, Guru Gobind Singh, visited the site in 1672.

In the 18th century, Maharaja Ranjit Dev of Jammu visited the shrine to seek blessings prior to a political trip to Lahore. Following his visit, he established the first formal facilities for pilgrims, including water stations and temporary shelters.

Modern history

Although the Vaishno Devi temple is now the most popular Devi shrine in the region, its popularity is relatively recent. In 1971, when Inderjit Bhardwaj did a study of Devi shrines in the Siwalik mountains, he did not mention the Vaishno Devi temple as particularly important.. Its popularity increased rapidly after an expansion was done in 1976 so that it could accommodate up to 5,000 visitors per day. By 1981, annual visitors to the shrine were about 900,000; by the early 1990s, the number had increased to over 3 million, and the Vaishno Devi temple had become by far the most popular Devi temple in the region. By 2007, the annual number of pilgrims was about 7.5 million. In June 2007, in order to reduce congestion and improve security, the Shrine Board reduced the limit on the number of visitors allowed per month.

The Vaishno Devi temple was in existence by 1846, when Maharaja Gulab Singh established the Dharmarth Trust to manage several temples in his territory; the Vaishno Devi temple was part of this trust. The trust remained in the hands of Gulab Singh's descendants after independence, and his descendant Karan Singh was responsible for administering the temple as the hereditary trustee until 1986, when Jagmohan, then governor of Jammu and Kashmir, passed legislation transferring control of the Vaishno Devi temple from the Dharmarth Trust and the hereditary priests to a separate Shrine Board.

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