Sunday, 29 January 2023 | PNS | PAURI
The idol of goddess Dhari Devi was installed in its permanent spot and ceremonial prayers were ritually offered to the goddess in the famous shrine at Kalyasaur in Pauri district on Saturday. The idol of the goddess was shifted to its permanent position in the shrine after a wait of about nine years, during which the goddess was being worshipped at a temporary site in the shrine. The place where the idol has now been placed is above the original position of the idol in the temple from where it had been removed in 2013 before waters of the Alaknanda rose as a result of the construction of the Srinagar hydro power project.
It is pertinent to mention here that Dhari Devi is considered to be the deity who protects the Char Dham Yatra. Her famous shrine is located at Kalyasaur about 15 kilometres from Srinagar in Pauri district. The black stone idol of the goddess is known to alter appearance from that of a girl in the morning to that of a woman during the daytime to that of an old woman in the evening. The original shrine of the goddess had come in the submergence zone due to construction of the Srinagar hydro power project. Due to this, the company undertaking construction of the project built a new shrine on pillars at the same spot. After the level of water in the Alaknanda rose alarmingly during the 2013 Kedarnath disaster, the idol of the goddess was shifted to a temporary location. Though the part of the shrine located above the original site was prepared years ago, the date for installing the idol of the goddess there could not be reached mutually by the company and the Dhari Pujari Trust committee. The committee secretary Jagdamba Prasad Pandey said that the idol of the goddess was ritually installed along with the idols of Bhairav and Nandi. Following ritual worship, the temple was opened to the devotees who had thronged in large numbers.
