Amarnath Yatra

About Amarnath Yatra

Dedicated to Lord Shiva, the Amarnath Cave, a popular Hindu shrine is located in Jammu & Kashmir, at an altitude of around 3,888 meters, 141 KM near the town of Srinagar, which is the capital of Jammu & Kashmir. Snowy mountains surround the shrine and the place is considered to be one of the most sacred pilgrim places in Hinduism.

The Amarnath Cave is open for tourists only for a short period of time as it is only then that the Cave is relatively rid of snow, as, for the rest of the year, most parts of the cave is covered in snow. Due to extreme weather conditions, it is mandatory for people to be fit enough to adapt to the atmosphere and also climb up to reach the cave.

Thousands of Hindu pilgrims from all over the world gather here during the brief period of tourist visits to witness the ice stalagmite inside the cave after battling to climb up the challenging steep mountains.

The three most important locations that you must visit on your journey to Amarnath are mentioned below—

• Amarnath Temple
• Sheshnag Lake
• Amarnath Cave

Why the Amarnath Yatra is so important

“India has so many interesting places to see! Why is the Amarnath Yatra so important?” Well, you asked a very good question. The answer is because of Amarnath Yatra’s history. It all begins with the famous book Rajatarangini. This much-fabled book mentions Amarnath. Another name mentioned for this temple is Krishnaanth.

In any case, the Amarnath Yatra is in existence because of the great Queen Suryamati. She lived around the year 1000 C.E. Suryamati must have been a great Lord Shiva follower because she made regular offerings of sacred items. Two of the most important ones were Trishul and banalingas.

There was another great Hindu sage named Prjayabhatta. He penned the Rajavallipataka. Though it was written centuries ago, it’s a fairly easy and interesting read. If you were to read it, you’d learn about the Amarnath Yatra down to the most intimate details.

How did he know so much about this famous and ancient temple? Well, he had visited it and worshipped there many times.

The legend of Amarnath Yatra

As is the case with many ancient buildings and temples, Amarnath’s early history is somewhat immersed in legend.

Legend has it that an important person named Bhrigu Muni is the first person in recorded history to have discovered the temple. Back then, the entire Kashmir valley was underwater.

Along came Kashyap Muni

If you were wondering why a lone person is important enough to mention in this article, it’s because of two main reasons. The first one is that he drained the water that submerged Kashmir valley.

The second (and most important) one though is that Bhrigu Muni found something very exciting and interesting after it was finally possible to walk on dry land in Kashmir valley – Lord Amarnath’s darshan.

Well, news quickly spread throughout India about this lingam. Since there were many Shiva followers even then, people from all over the nation flocked to see the lingam. But there was another reason for the yearly pilgrimages – people thought that the great god Lord Bholenath lived there.

Why you need to visit the Amarnath Yatra

No, one of the reasons why you need to visit the Amarnath Yatra is not because ‘it’s very old!’ It’s because it’s been (and still is) a place where people who are devout Lord Shiva followers come to worship this great god.

You’ll learn a lot about ancient India in the process because Lord Shiva is believed to have been instrumental in the formation of Vedic society!