Vidya Bhushan Rawat
THE ASIAN INDEPENDENT UK – This is the third in the series of River Yamuna under the Himalaya ki Ganga series. We saw Yamuna in the lap of Himalayas and now in this episode, we bring you to Yamuna in the Rawai belt which is basically a fertile region between the Yamuna and river Tons.
Yamuna river in the Gangetic plains particularly in Vrindavan and Mathura region is known to be associated with Lord Krishna but in the Himalayan region the mythological narratives are different. Yamuna river is associated to Goddess Yamuna daughter of Lord Surya or Sun God while the valley of Yamuna and Ganga is actually known as Kedarkhand in the mythological texts.
After moving down from Janakichatti, Yamuna has its first confluence with Narad Ganga at a place known as Banas. This place also have the hot water spring. A few kilomter downward and we reach Hanuman Chatti which again see a beautiful confluence of Hanuman Ganga into Yamuna. Both rivers merge with each other with great energy. Another small river Paligad meet Yamuna at Yamunachatti and then river move towards Barkot. About Six kilometer crossing the river, we reach a beautiful and ancient place named as Lakhamandal where you can see a beautiful Shiva Temple built in the third fourth century on the Nagar architecture. During excavation of the area, the archeological survey of India found thousands of Shivalingas here reflecting that the area might have been that of devotees of Lord Shiva. There are idols of various gods and goddesses too.
Mythologically, Lakhamandal is associated with Mahabharat period. Lakhamandal falls under Uttarkashi district of Uttarakhand state. Yamuna looks beautiful from here.
