Visit to Ancient Lord Shiva Temple on Shankaracharya Hill at Shrinagar in India

The State of Jammu and Kashmir is full of beautiful tourist spots in India. Its capital city is Shrinagar. All the tourists visiting Kashmir start their trip from this city of Shrinagar. There are many sites seeing places at and around Shrinagar. I have been able to visit Shrinagar three times in my life and even had managed to stay for more than two weeks on each occasion. This is the reason I was able to cover most of the places of the tourist's interest in great details. There are many popular and well known places to be visited here at Shrinagar. However, I am going to describe my visit to one less popular but ancient and historical place of Lord Shankaracharya hill, which is situated in the city of Shrinagar at the Shore of Dal Lake in this article.

Shrinagar is well connected by air from all the major cities of India like Mumbai, Delhi, and Bangalore. However, if you prefer to travel by train, you have to get down at Jammu railway station and then, travel to Shrinagar by luxury coaches, taxis, or even by air. The best way to reach Shrinagar is to travel by road from Jammu to Shrinagar in hired independent car. It may take around ten to twelve hours to travel from Jammu to Shrinagar. Most of the tourists start at around 7 am from Jammu and reach Shrinagar at around 6 pm in the evening. There are many types of hotels available at Shrinagar and one can make choice of his own. The Shankaracharya Hill is situated at around 3 miles from the city center. You can hire a car or taxi to reach to the base of this hill. This hill is around 1100 feet tall and is known as Takhte - Suleman among the local people. The Guru Shankaracharya spread the Hindu religion in this area by staying at this hill. There is an ancient Lord Shiva temple here at the top of the hill. This original temple is said to be built before around 2200 years by Jailok, the son of great King Ashoka. The temple was built entirely by stone. The original temple is most destroyed now and only plinth structure can be seen with some remains of the walls and the gates.

The present temple was built by an unknown devotee of Lord Shiva in the Sixteenth century during the rule of Mogul King Jahangir. The tourists have to climb up the hill through the rough stone steps. These steps are also quiet steep and do demand lot of physical fitness. There are around 700 steps in all and it may take around half an hour to climb up the hill. The Lord Shiva Lingam in the temple is around four feet high and appears to be of smooth black granite stone. Over and above the temple, the tourists can enjoy the most beautiful scenic view of the city of Shrinagar, Dal Lake and the snow cladded Mountains range of Pir Panjal. This view from the top of the hill on sunny and clear day is simply superb. The tourists really enjoy this view and thank them selves for deciding to visit this slightly less popular spot of Shrinagar. The ideal time to visit this hill is during the morning hours so that you can return back to your hotel by around lunch time. Make sure to carry the mineral drinking water bottles and some light snacks with you to consume on the top of the hill. The large fairs are held here at the top of this hill on all full moon days and a very special fair is held on the Mahashivratri day, which is the birthday of Lord Shiva. Lots of local people attend these fairs and the folk dances performed by them at such fairs are simply superb. The celebrations continue for the whole night in the fairs. The visit to this hill on such auspicious days is really worth to enjoy these fairs amongst the colorful crowd of local people.

If any of my AC readers have plans to visit Shrinagar in India, they must visit this Lord Shankaracharya hill during their visit without fail. This ancient temple and the most beautiful scenic view from top of this hill shall not disappoint them.