NB Twitter Scan | Thousands of Kashmiri Pandits throng the Kheer Bhawani temple to celebrate Mela Kheer Bhawani on Jeshtha Astami

Tulmulla, May 29: Thousands of Kashmiri Pandits on Sunday thronged the Kheer Bhawani temple here in Tulmulla area of central Kashmir’s Ganderbal district on the occasion of Mela Kheer Bhawani. The devotees had started arriving at the Kheer Bhawani temple since Saturday to celebrate the annual festival.

Over 20,000 Kashmiri Pandits visited the temple. Reports suggest that compared to previous years, the number of devotees this year was more.

To ensure a peaceful festival, the government, particularly the district administration, had made all the arrangements including accommodation, food, sanitation, and elaborate security arrangements.

 

Every year, on this auspicious day, Kheer Bhavani Mela is organized at Mata Kheer Bhawani Temple in Tulmulla, Ganderbal and devotees from different parts of Jammu and Kashmir visit the holy shrine here.

 

Kheer Bhawani is considered to be the deity of Kashmiri Pandits, who have a lot of recognition there. Over the years, the Kheer Bhawani Mela has become a symbol of communal harmony and brotherhood in Kashmir.

 

The religious sanctity of Mata Kheer Bhawani Temple built atop a holy spring, has a special spiritual significance among Kashmiri Pandit devotees across the world.

Though away from their homes and roots in Kashmir for the past three decades, the annual Kheer Bhawani Mela every year rekindles a new hope among the displaced Kashmiri Pandits of their return to their ancestral land.

 

Nestled in the shade of mammoth Chinar trees in Tulmulla village in Ganderbal district, the temple witnessed massive crowds of devotees, most of them displaced Kashmiri Pandits, who had come from various parts of Jammu and Kashmir and outside.

 

 

 

Singing hymns and chanting slogans, the devotees made it to the Kheer Bhawani temple.

The five shrines where Kheer Bhawani melas are held annually are Ragnya Bagwati shrine at Tulmulla in Ganderbal, Ragnya Bagwati shrine at Manzgam in Kulgam, Tripursundri shrine at Devsar in Kulgam, Ragnya Bagwati shrine at Logripora in Anantnag and Ragnya Bagwati temple complex at Tikkar in Kupwara.

 

 

 

The pilgrimage has been witnessing thin attendance due to the growing number of militant attacks on Kashmiri Pandits in the past two years. A number of Pandits were killed in targeted attacks by militants in Srinagar, Pulwama, Budgam, Kulgam and Shopian since the Centre ended J&K’s special status in 2019.  

 

However, there will be huge numbers of visitors to the temple, according to the J&K administration. 

 

 

The annual festival is held here on ‘Jeshtha Ashtami’ when yatris seek the blessings of the deity.

 

Kashmiri Pandits believe that the goddess changes the colour of spring's waters, which are ascribed to different manifestations of the goddess. The colour turning into shades of black is supposed to signal approaching disaster while as the milky colour of the spring indicates the peace and prosperity for the state.