MantraOnNet.com: Naina Devi
Sati fell here when Lord Vishnu shot arrows to. cut
the body of Sati into pieces, to delude Shiva’s at-
tachment. The holy shrine is situated on the top of
Sivalik hills near “Anand pur Sahib’? a famous Railway.
station on Bhakhra-Nangal Railway line, in the
state of Punjab. The Naina devi temple is visible
from Anandpur Sahib towards north. Situated in
H.P. the temple of Naina Devi is quite near the border of Punjab State.
Daily bus-services ply from Mangal to Naina
Devi. The hours for last bus may please be con-
firmed at the Nangal bus stand itself. A three
hours run by bus leads the travellers to Naina devi
bus-stand, through a circular zig-zag road. From
here one has to climb a hill before reaching the
temple. It takes about half an hour for a person of
average health to ascend 2 kms. journey on foot.
Cemented stairs have also been constructed for
the facility of pilgrims. One can find small shops,
selling the articles of Bhents?offering to the
deity? at the bus stand itself and on the sides of
stairs ascending to the temple.
Accomodation : Pilgrims stay mostly at the
houses of Pandas, who help them in worshipping
and having darshan during the busy days. Rooms
are available in the temple premises and dharamshalas. Tourist Bungalow, near bus-stand, provides furnished rooms at nominal charges.
In the temple, the deity is manifested as
Pindi? a consecrated piece of stone worshipped
as goddess. Although the shrine can be visited
any time throughout the year, but on the festive
periods of ‘Ashtami’ in August and ‘Navratras’ in
October, it draws a large number of devotees
shouting sloagans hailing the victory of Goddess.
The brief history of the temple:
(The tale of Naina?a milkman)
Long-ago, the hill side is said to have been inhabited by some milkmen. One of those named Naina used to bring his cattle here, at the hill top,
where plenty of grass was available. Under a
peepal-tree, which still exists, one of his cows used
to stop daily and he (milkman) saw the same scene on many days and used to think about it as
to why the cow stops at this particular place to
drop her milk in a strange manner?
At last, he began to displace the heap of dry
leaves under that Pipal tree, where his cow used
to stop. As he was doing so, he found the ‘Pindi’,
an idol of the goddess under those leaves. He
thought of the place to be having some divine
powers; so he worshipped the goddess and
placed the idol as before, beneath leaves. As
described by the old priests of Naina Devi shrine,
the milkman got the sight of the goddess in his
dreams, the same night. The goddess told him
that she was abiding there at the hill top in the
shape of a Pindi. Now, with her own will, she
wanted to manifest herself for the benefit of all.
The goddess told him to build a temple at that
very place where he saw her idol beneath a Peepal-tree and that she would be famous by his Name?Naina. Naina was a faithful devotee. So, the next
day, he started grounding the temple of the goddess. The place became popular among the devotees, within a short interval, more and more
so when their desires were fulfilled due to its
greatness. After some days, so many devotees
began to visit the temple from the far-distant
places also. They donated generously to build a
beautiful and magnificent temple of the great goddess. Hence the pilgrimage started here and the
place became popular as Naina Devi, after his
name attached to the deity.
There is a small cave near the temple, known as
the cave of Naina-devi. Pilgrims go through this
cave also, while they visit the shrine.