Rajinder Chand Anthal
The historic Naina Devi temple is situated on a hill top in the upper reaches of Mantalai in the long serene grassland amid dense deodar forests. This area is called ‘BANDHAR’ which is also known for special species of deodar trees which were used for the construction of Singh Garh palace of Chenani. The scenic beauty of this place is worth seeing.
Naina Devi temple can be reached from three sides viz Kossar (ChokaNallah), Mantalai and Sarar easily. From Mantalai, it is just three kilometers on-foot journey on Bridal path constructed by Raja Chenani. This temple has been built by very early kings of Chenani State in about 9th century. Raja Gambhir Chand of famous Chandel dynasty defeated the stronghold of Rana and Thakkar chiefs in this area on the request of Megh Raja of Mantalai. He laid the foundation of Chenani State with capital at Mantalai. He was son of famous Raja Harihar Chand of Chanderi (Bundelkhand), Madhya Pradesh and with the blessing of JawalaMukhiMata he and his two brothers established three separate kingdoms at Chenani, Bilaspur and Kumaon. The inheritance of common heritage of Chandel kings led to the construction of Naina Devi Temples in their local areas.
Legends say that Sudhmahadev and Mantalai were known for the pilgrimage of Holy Devika and Shiv temples much before the arrival of Raja Gambhir Chand and the place where the temple of Naina Devi has been constructed was known by this name from earlier times.
The story of this temple as per legends is that King Daksha had a daughter named Sati. From early childhood, she worshipped Lord Shiva to get married with him. When her father came to know about the wish of his daughter, he became furious and cleverly decided to arrange SWAYAMVARA for the marriage of Sati with some suitable king. Daksha invited all the Gods except Shiva on this occasion. In order to insult Shiva, he installed an idol of Shiva at the main gate of his palace. In this ceremony, Goddess Sati put the garland of flowers on the idol of Lord Shiva. King Daksha felt ashamed on this. Sati prayed Lord Shiva and immediately Lord Shiva appeared and married Sati and went to Kailash with her.
King Daksha could not digest his defeat and insult. This time he organized a YAGNA (sacred pooja), and invited all the gods there except Sati and Lord Shiva. Sati took it as great insult and requested Shiva to accompany her to the YAGANA but Shiva told her not to go there without invitation. Sati decided to go there. Lord Shiva sent SHIV GANAS for her security. On reaching the place, her father misbehaved with her before all the participants. Sati could not control her emotions and jumped into the sacred fire and burnt herself alive. Upon this, the SHIV GANAS attacked King Daksha and killed him. At the same time Lord Shiva appeared there, untied his hair with speed of a storm, picked up the corpse of Sati on his shoulders and fled towards the sky. Shiva started TANDAVA in the sky sending waves of destruction in all directions. The gods sitting in the heaven felt insecure and prayed Lord Vishnu to save them. Lord Vishnu unleashed his SUDARSHANA CHAKRA towards the corpse of Sati. The Chakra cut the body into fifty one pieces and all the pieces fell down on the earth to become fifty one Shakti Peeths. It is believed that the Naina Devi Temple was built where the eyes of Goddess Sati fell down. As per religious faith, Sati got rebirth as PARVATI and was born in the same area Mantalai as daughter of Raja Himachal, ruler of Mantalai in SATYUGA period. The descendants of Raja Gambhir Chand came to know about this place and installed the idol of Naina Devi in a small temple there and worshipped it as Kul Devi with their family.
From time immemorial, this temple has remained a centre of faith and worship for the inhabitants of Mantalai and nearby areas. A Mela is held at this place in the month of June every year. It is sorry state of affairs for the drum beaters of tourism that such a place with high religious esteem and immense potential of tourism does not have road connectivity and people travel on the Mule road constructed during the time of Chenani kings.
Swami Dhirendra Brahamchari once heard the religious importance and tourism potential of this place and did air survey of this place personally. He later visited this place on his horse along with reputed Architects of New Delhi and got prepared a master plan for the development of this place. He purchased hundreds Kanal land in nearby Gali area for the construction of helipad, tourist huts and a five star hotel. He linked this place with Kachha Motorable road and tourists started visiting this place in large numbers. He had donated sixty five kilogram Brass bell to this temple. These developments started by Swami halted after his untimely death in plane crash. Thereafter, nobody from Government side took care of the development projects initiated by Swami Dhirendra Brahmachari. The road constructed by him got washed away without repair. It is pertinent to mention that our neighbouring state of Himachal Pradesh has promoted every single far off religious place for tourism purpose which attracts thousands of visitors daily. The tourism development plans of Mantalai prepared by Swami DhirendraBrahmacharishould be executed and a separate religious pilgrimage development authority be sanctioned for development of numerous religious places of Sudhmahadev – Mantalai circuit with special focus on rejuvenation of river Devika originating from Dhar Shiv GarhSudhmahadev.
(The author is former Zonal Education Officer)
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