Jwalamukhi Temple in Kangra District of Himachal Pradesh is one of the highly revered Hindu temples and counts as one of the 51 Shakti Peeth temples in India. Jwalamukhi temple is the place where the tongue of Sati fell. Jwalamukhi Temple is a temple of the Goddess of Light. Devi is seen in the form of an eternally burning flame emanating from a hollow rock in the sanctum. It is located around 30 km south of the Kangra valley in the lap of Shivalik range. The temple is about 56 km from Dharamshala. Millions of devotees visit Jwalamukhi or Jwalaji temple every year to seek blessings from Goddess Durga.
Jwalamukhi Temple Legends
As per the legends Sati, the consort of Shiva was the daughter of Daksha Prajaapati, a descendant of Bhrama. Sati had married Shiva against the wishes of her father. Once Daksh Prajapati organized a grand havan and invited all the deities except his son-in-law Lord Shiva. Against Shiva's wishes, Sati attended this sacrifice and was insulted by her father. Sati was unable to bear her father's insults toward her husband and immolated herself by jumping into the havan. When Lord Shiva heard of his wife's death he was furious. Holding Sati's body he began to pace the three worlds and danced the dance of destruction throughout the Universe. Due to this the balance of the universe was in trouble. Then Lord Vishnu – preserver of the universe with his Sudarshana Chakra cut the charred body of Sati into pieces and relieved Lord Shiva from pain and agony and saved the earth from Shiva’s anger. The parts of Sati body fell at many places and later was known as Shakti Peetha. Sati's tongue fell at Jwalaji. The tongue of Sati is represented by Jwala (Holy Flame) that is perpetually burning through fissures in the age-old rock.
It is said that centuries ago, a shepherd saw the flames for the first time and informed the king Raja Bhumi Chandra, the ruler of the area of the flame that was burning continuously. The emperor visited the place and constructed a temple in the midst of forests. It is said that the Pandavas have visited this sacred place.
It is said that Mughal Emperor Akbar once tried to extinguish the flames by covering them with an iron disk and even channelizing water to them. In spite of all this the flames continued to burn which turned Akbar into an ardent devotee of the goddess. Akbar placed a 'Chhatra' or gold parasol as a tribute to Goddess in Jwalaji temple. The famous Maharaja Ranjit Singh of Punjab gilded the Jwalaji temple dome with pure gold.
The temple built in the Indo-Sikh style is ornate and heavily adorned with a gilt dome, gold and decorated pinnacles. It also possesses a beautiful folding door of silver plates, presented by the Sikh Raja Kharak Singh.
Inside the temple there is a 3 feet square pit with pathway all around. In the centre, there is a hollowed rock over a primary fissure of flame. There is no idol or image in the temple but an eternally burning and shining blue flame emanating from a rock sanctum is only worshipped here as a manifestation of the goddess. Flames emit out from nine other point in the pit and represent different form of the goddess - Saraswati, Annapurna, Chandi, Hing Laj, Vindhya Vasini, Mahalakshmi, Mahakali, Ambika and Anjana.
How to Reach Jwalamukhi Temple
The nearest airport is at Gaggal which is 46 km from Jwalamukhi. The closest broad gauge railhead is at Pathankot which is 123 km away. The nearest narrow-gauge railhead is Jwalaji road Ranital at a distance of 20 km from the shrine. The temple is connected by good motorable roads from Delhi, Chandigarh & Dharamshala. Frequent state transport bus service is available from all important cities of Punjab, Haryana, New Delhi and Jammu & Kashmir.