Place · flame-goddess shrine · India
Jvālāmukhī, Kangra
Also known as Jwalamukhi, Kangra, Jwalamukhi, Kangra
The Shakta Pitha at Jwalaji in Kangra Valley, Himachal Pradesh, where natural flames emerge from fissures in the rock and are worshipped as the goddess's tongue — one of the 51 Shakta Pithas on the Sati body-map. The temple holds no image, only perpetual flames in nine small pits each named for a goddess. Akbar visited in 1555 and tried to extinguish the flames by piping water from a canal; the flames reignited. He donated a gold parasol which the legend says turned to a baser metal, read as the goddess rejecting imperial patronage. Maharaja Ranjit Singh gold-plated the temple spire in 1815.
- Periods
- Classical and Puranic Age, Regional Flourishing, Islamic Age and Bhakti Traditions, Republic and Living Practice
- Function
- Sacred site & pilgrimage
- Tradition
- Regional/pitha tradition
- Confidence
- Established / referenced
- Location
- 31.879, 76.320
Worth knowing
There is no conventional flame-producing lamp in the sanctum of Jwalamukhi Shakti Pitha. Instead, several natural flames emerge through fissures in the rock, fed by underground hydrocarbons. The phenomenon has fascinated visitors for centuries and gives Jwalamukhi one of the most visually distinctive forms of Goddess worship in India.
Connections (5)
- PatronageAkbar
Akbar is said to have come to Jvālāmukhī, tried to have the flames put out by cutting a channel of water over them, failed, and sent a gold umbrella in acknowledgement — which tradition says turned to base metal when he offered it. The story is told at the shrine as an account of the flames, not of Akbar.
- PilgrimageChamunda Nandikeshwar, Palampur
Chāmundā Nandikeshwar and Jvālāmukhī are the two Kangra-valley halts of the circuit, fifty kilometres apart under the Dhauladhar. Chāmundā's seat was moved to its present site above the Baner in 1762 after a dream, so one of the circuit's fixed points is younger than the road that joins them. The temple also keeps an ardha-Chāmundā chamber the public is not admitted to, which is unusual in a shrine that otherwise handles very large pilgrim numbers.
- PilgrimageChintpurni Devi, Una
Chintpurni and Jvālāmukhī are an hour apart across the Una–Kangra border and are always done together. Between them they hold the circuit's two most unusual objects of worship — a stone under a tree and a row of natural gas flames — and neither has ever had an image installed in the sanctum.
- PilgrimageKangra
Jvālāmukhī and Bajreshwarī are thirty kilometres apart in the Kangra valley and are the two pīṭhas of the circuit's middle. One has no image and a history of being tested by emperors; the other had an image and a history of being stripped of its gold, by Mahmūd of Ghazni in 1009 and by others after him.
- Site withinKangra
The Jvalamukhi Shakta Pitha sits within the Kangra valley district of Himachal Pradesh, 30 kilometres south of Dharamshala. The 'tongue of flame' goddess temple is one of the 51 Shakti Pithas, with its natural methane flames burning in nine small pits at the sanctum. Together with the Kangra Fort, the Baijnath Vaidyanath temple and the Chamunda Nandikeshwar shrine, Jvalamukhi anchors the Kangra valley's dense Shakta pilgrimage geography.
On these journeys
Sources
Hindu pilgrimage sites in India — Wikipedia
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