5 thousand years old Shaktipeeth in PoK: After 73 years in Navratri, the architect of Chittorgarh got the worship done, the temple came into limelight from ‘Kashmir Files’

‘Where Shiva, Saraswati, Rishi Kashyap happened, that Kashmir is ours.
Where Panchatantra was written, that Kashmir is ours.

This one dialogue from the recently released film ‘The Kashmir Files’ revived the 73-year-old tradition. To understand this tradition, one has to first understand the Sharda Peeth. Actually, there are 51 major Shakti Peeths in the world. One of these is the Sharda Peeth, which is in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK). This back is closed for 73 years i.e. about 1948-49, but this time on Navratri, Mata was worshiped, chanted, flowers were offered. The special thing is that three Kashmiri Muslim youths also cooperated in the worship.

This initiative was taken by Chandrashekhar Changeria, an architect businessman of Chittorgarh who settled 900 km away from Sharda Peeth. Chandrashekhar was watching the movie Kashmir Files a few days back. Anupam Kher, playing the role of Pushkar Nath Pandit in the film, had the dialogue ‘Where Shiva, Saraswati, Rishi Kashyap happened, that Kashmir is ours, where Panchatantra was written, that Kashmir is ours’. After watching the film, Chandrashekhar gathered information and came to know about Sharda Peeth. Chandrashekhar decided to get worship done here in Chaitra Navratri.

In this way, the worship material delivered to Sharda Peeth
When he searched the internet, it was found that Sharda Peeth is in Sharda village of Neelam Ghati district of PoK. Chandrashekhar contacted Ravindra Pandit, who was fighting for the rights of Kashmiri Pandits and associated with Sharda Bachao Committee. He also gave some information.

After this, Chandrashekhar collected the phone numbers of some shopkeepers of Sharda village through the Internet itself. Talking to a Muslim youth living in the village, he agreed to deliver the worship material to Sharda Peeth. This young man was also supported by his two local friends.

Chandrashekhar performed online puja on the first day of Chaitra Navratri by offering flowers-fruits, incense sticks and note book-pens through video call at the ruined Sharda Peeth. Chandrashekhar told that during the online worship, his friends Bharat Soni, Ekta Sharma, Prakash Kumawat, Dilip Lodha, Harshit Jeenagar, Rajesh Sahu, Sonu Vaishnav, Hitesh Nahar and Rishi Kumawat from Mandalgarh visited Sharda Peeth.

Reached temple in third attempt
For worship at Shardapeeth temple, Changeria and his helpers tried several times to reach the temple. Being an army area, reaching there was not possible. After this, all three reached the temple on Saturday and offered prayers.

Many pages of history are associated with this Shaktipeeth. It is also mentioned in Hindu texts.

Sharda Peeth is 5000 years old
About 5000 years old Sharda Peeth is a major religious place for all Hindus including Kashmiri Pandits. Now this back has become a ruin. Worship was also closed here for 73 years. The Sharda Peeth, established in the empire of Ashoka before 237 AD, was also an ancient center of study.

This temple was also known as Kashyappur after the name of Rishi Kashyap. Sharda Peeth was one of the best universities in the Indian subcontinent. Shankaracharya, who is said to be the father of Shaivism, and Ramanujacharya, the originator of Vaishnava sect, both came here and made important achievements. The temple of Sharada Devi is mentioned in the Sanskrit text Raj Tarangini written in the 11th century.

Credits – Rakesh Parashar