Amarnath Yatra

Amarnath is a shrine to the Hindu deity Shiva, located in a cave in the Indian state of Kashmir on the side of a mountain roughly 7,500 feet in elevation.
The remote site is some 80 miles from Shrinagar, the Kashmir capital, and takes some effort to visit, but within the cave is a Shiva lingum-shaped piece of ice-covered snow that is visible at the far end of the cave. This structure is considered a “self-generated” Shiva Lingum, created by nature rather than human hands. By its side are two additional ice lingams, that of Parvati and of their son Ganesh.

According to stories told of the cave, it is here that Shiva revealed the secret of immortality to his spouse Parvati. She had been persistent in her demands to know it, and Shiva chose the remote cave to ensure that no human heard it. As he traveled to the cave, he abandoned Nandi (the bull upon which he rode) at Pahalgam, left Ganesh at what is now Mahaganesh Hill, and deposited the five elements at Panjtarni. Once in the cave, he ordered Rudra to spread fire that would eliminate every living thing in and around the cave. All life was destroyed except a pigeon egg. During his narration of the secret, the pigeon egg, which had remained safe from the fire because it was beneath the deerskin on which Shiva sat, heard Shiva’s talk to Parvati. The two pigeons born from this egg became immortal, and pilgrims to the cave often spot the immortal pigeons incubated by the Lord Shiva himself.

It is said that at a later date, a Muslim shepherd named Buta Malik received a sack of coal from a holy man at this site. When he arrived home, he discovered that the coal was now gold. Simultaneously, the icy Shiva Linga appeared in the famous cave.

The principal pilgrimage to this shrine is in the full moon of Shravana (July– August). The full pilgrimage, a widely observed custom since 1850 CE, takes a total of 40 days from the lowlands upward and back. Many local residents had operated informally to assist pilgrims when, in 1996, a number of pilgrims died in an accident during their trek. This incident led to the formation of what is now the Bhole Bhandari Charitable Trust, a nonprofit trust that works with the local government in setting the most auspicious date for the annual pilgrimage and assisting those who make it for the first time.

References
Hassnain, F. M., Yoshiaki Miura, and Vijay Pandita. Sri Amarnatha Cave, the Abode of Shiva. New Delhi: Nirmal Publishers & Distributors, 1987. Singh, Karan. The Glory of Amarnath. Bombay: Shanti Svarup Nishat, 1954. “Sri Amarnath Ji Yatra.” Bhole Bhandari Charitable Trust. Posted at http:// www.amarnathyatra.org. Accessed June 15, 2010.

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