Early modern · Hindu · India

Jwalamukhi Devi Temple

Jwalamukhi, Kangra, Himachal Pradesh · 31.8753°, 76.3175°

Jwala Devi (flame goddess)KatochNagara (gilded dome)Shakti Peetha

Sacred since

500 BCE

Eternal-flame shrine of great antiquity

Standing structure

rebuilt 17th–19th c. (dome gilded by Ranjit Singh)

Katoch

History & significance

The goddess with no idol: nine natural gas flames burning from rock fissures are worshipped as nine Devis — Sati's tongue in the Shakti Peetha geography. The Katoch kings of Kangra were hereditary custodians; Ranjit Singh gilded the dome in 1815.

Sthala katha — the legend

Akbar, the story goes, tried to drown and smother the flames and failed; humbled, he offered a gold chhatra — which turned to base metal as he presented it, a rebuke preserved in the temple to this day. Gorakhnath's disciples still tend the 'Gorakh Dibbi' of cold flame.

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