Confluence of Jadh Ganga and Bhagirathi: Where has the temple visited by James Baillie Fraser, Prince Waldemar vanished?

 Opinion 

Besides James Fraser, many foreign travellers have mentioned about the Bhyram temple in their writings. Even the famous British photographer Samuel Bourne took a photograph near the confluence and made a striking note about the temple in his 1870 published article

Raju Gusain | May 28, 2023 11:06:28 IST

Sketch of Bhairam Ghati, 1815.

Famous Scottish explorer, painter and writer James Baillie Fraser was stunned when he visited the confluence of Jadh Ganga and Bhagirathi in the Indian Himalayas in1815. The beauty of the place and perpendicularity of rock slides took Frazer under its spell. The Bhyram (also mentioned Bhairam) temple, above the confluence of Jadh Ganga and Bhagirathi rivers in district Uttarkashi (Uttarakhand), where the writer and explorer had performed prayer has disappeared. A visit to the site, where the Hindu shrine had existed, hints that the shrine was possibly hit by some natural calamity and is under heavy boulders. The Bhyram temple has faded away from the memory of the local people and many claim the foreign writers and travellers have wrongly pronounced the Bhairo temple as Bhyram temple.  

Besides James Fraser, many foreign travellers have mentioned about the Bhyram temple in their writings. Dr. A Hoffmeister, who accompanied Price Waldemar of Prussia in his 1845 tour to the Indian Himalayas, describes Bhyram as god of the rivers. Even famous British photographer Samuel Bourne took a photograph near the Jadh Ganga and Bhagirathi confluence and made a striking note about the temple in his 1870 published article.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1870 archival photograph of Bhairam Ghati from the confluence of Jadh Ganga and Bhagirathi (Photo by: Samuel Bourne)

Where was the Bhyram Temple?

Details published in different books published in the 1800s prove that the temple was located near the confluence of Jadh Ganga and Bhagirathi river. Pilgrims used to halt at Bhyram temple, take holy dip in the confluence, offer prayer and eat food in the temple complex before proceeding for Gangotri.  

The Jadh Ganga and Bhagirathi confluence is 1.5 km away from the current Lanka bridge, located on Uttarkashi-Gangotri highway, in district Uttarkashi. A Sangha (wood bridge), erected about sixty feet above the Jadh Ganga river, with steps hewn in it was used for crossing the river in old times. A steep climb among boulders used to take the pilgrims to the Bhyram temple. Creating location through details provided in different books. The temple was located under an overhanging rock and a thick grove of fir trees existed there.

James Baillie Fraser writes in his 1820 published book Journal of a tour through part of the Snowy range of the Himala Mountains, and to the sources of the rivers Jumna and Ganges, “A small shrine or temple is erected at this place, dedicated to Bhyram Jee, and called Bhyram Ghati, and here we found a Brahmin ringing a bell; we paused to recover our breath, and to survey the prospect, which was inexpressibly grand.”

Providing more details about the location, Fraser adds, “Just at the end of the bridge there is an overhanging rock, under which worship is performed to Bhyram, and a black stone partly painted red is the image of the god; and here prayers and worship alone were not performed, but everyone was obliged to bathe and eat bread baked by the Brahmins, as preparatory to the great and effectual ablutions at the holier Gungotree.” James Baillie Fraser visited the Indian Himalayas in 1815 as part of an expedition to find the sources of Ganga and Jamuna.

Is Bhyram temple and Bhairo temple same?

The Modern Traveller, A popular description (Volume III) published in 1828 mentions both ‘Bhaior-ghati’ and ‘Bhyram Ghautee’ names to describe the valley. It even describes Bhyram/Bhairo Lal as an esteemed janitor of Gangotri.

Even if it is assumed that Bhayram and Bhaironghati are the same, confusion prevails about the shrine situated at the confluence. As no record of the Bhyram (Bhairo) temple getting shifted from the confluence of Jadh Ganga and Bhagirathi to the current location, which is about 1.5 kms uphill from the river bank, is available.  Bhairo devta is worshipped as janitor of Gangotri. Even the Bhyram devta has been described as Janitor of Gangotri by many foreign explorers and writers. The area is also known as Bhairo Ghati and not Bhyram Ghautee in the present time.

Suresh Semwal, general secretary of Gangotri temple committee, says, “The western writers must have misspelled Bhairo temple as Bhyram temple. The shrine has existed at the present location since ancient times. It was never shifted from anyplace to the current location.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bhairo Devta temple at Bhairoghat

The current Bhairo temple is a modern double story construction. The existing temple is far away, about 1.5 km, from the confluence of Jadh Ganga and Bhagirathi rivers. The Jadh Ganga flows through the rock cliff and there is no chance of it changing its confluence.  Local historian Uma Raman Semwal states, “Never heard about Bhyram temple. The new Bhairo temple was constructed in 2000, before that a small cemented temple existed there. We have heard from elderly people that earlier a wood temple existed at Bhairo Ghati.”

Role played by bridges

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

An old iron pedestrian bridge near confluence

In the 1800s the wood bridge (Sangha) was located near the Jadh Ganga and Bhagirith river confluence. Later a suspension bridge was shifted 1.5 kms up and created near the existing Lanka bridge.  The suspension bridge created by O’ Callaghan of the Bhagirathi Forest in 1874 was considered a fine example of amateur engineering. The mentioned bridge was about 400 metres above the river and 330 metres in length and the tourists were scared of it and they used to cross it with much difficulty and great fear. The suspension bridge was discontinued after some years and again an iron pedestrian bridge was created downhill near the Jadh Ganga and Bhagirathi confluence. In 1985 the Lanka motorable bridge was thrown open to the public. The shifting of the bridge also played some role in Bhyram temple losing its popularity and importance.

Exploring the Bhyram temple site

Creating location through details provided in different books. To reach the Bhyram temple one had to cross a temporary wood bridge, which was about 60 feet high from the Jadh Ganga river and near its confluence with Bhagirathi. Large beams of wood were driven into the fissures, on which other beams and large stones were placed; thus forming a hanging flight of steps to reach the shrine. The temple was located under an overhanging rock and a thick grove of fir trees existed.

To reach the Bhyram temple site, mentioned by different travellers, one has to presently take a 1.5 km trek from Lanka bridge. The old pilgrimage route to the Jadh Ganga and Bhaginathi river confluence is still intact and presently Gangotri National Park uses it for patrolling. The pedestrian iron bridge on Jadh Ganga river is in a dilapidated condition and in a bad shape.

After crossing the iron bridge one reaches the spot where the Bhyram temple existed (possibly). One can locate an overhanging rock and can spot the small grove of fir trees. But below the rock and its surrounding areas lay heavy boulders. Which indicates that the temple was possibly hit by some landslide and scientific exploration could help in tracing damaged or surviving parts of the shrine? No documents are available in Uttarkashi and with the Gangotri temple committee about the Bhyram temple and its references are only found in books written by foreign travelers.

The temple was built by Gorkha military general Ummur Singh Thappa (Amar Singh Thapa). The Gorkha General also provided financial support for building the road and also for the construction of Gangotri temple.

Famous British photographer Samuel Bourne took a photo of the majestically flowing Jadh Ganga from its confluence in 1866 and wrote, “This was at a place called Bhairamghati, though there was no village or sign of a house-in fact, there is no room for any. The river here poured through a valley so narrow that it might almost be called a gorge, the sides formed by step mountains, which towards to an enormous height, so high that their summits could not be seen from below.”

The Jadh Ganga-Bhagirathi confluence still bears the old primitive look. Leaving the iron bridge over Jadh Ganga no man made structure exists there. The million dollar question!  Where has the temple visited by James Baillie Fraser disappeared?

 Source: https://www.firstpost.com/opinion/confluence-of-jadh-ganga-and-bhagirathi-where-has-the-temple-visited-by-james-baillie-fraser-prince-waldemar-vanished-12656532.html

View From Abroad | Did Western civilisation begin in India?

 opinion

When it comes to establishing the primacy of ancient India over the West, we have to rely on common sense as much as on historical documentation

Salvatore Babones | May 31, 2023 18:06:28 IST

 

Pillars of Ashoka

Like most people around the world, Indians tend to be proud of the ancient roots of their own civilisation. Sometimes they can take it a little too far, but always with a healthy spirit, and usually in good cheer.

Western experts generally look askance at Indian claims to have been the first to use an alphabetic script, to have been the original source of ancient Near Eastern philosophy, or even to have invented zero.

But these Western suspicions are based more on an absence of evidence than on any evidence of absence. Ancient Indians tended to write on palm leaves, whereas Mesopotamians wrote on clay tablets—baked in the sun and stored in the desert. It’s no wonder that we have overflowing archives of original Sumerian texts going back more than 5,000 years, but nothing more than 2,000 years old from India.

Even the Pillars of Ashoka are only half the age of some surviving shopping lists from Iraq.

And so when it comes to establishing the primacy of ancient India over the West, we have to rely on common sense as much as on historical documentation.

For example, many people know the ancient Greek story of the Trojan horse. Hundreds of Greek soldiers supposedly hid inside the belly of a giant fake horse. The gullible Trojans reportedly pulled the horse into the ancient city of Troy, thinking that the Greeks had left it for them as a parting gift after 10 years of war.

That night, the Greeks poured out of the horse to take the city by treachery, giving rise to the ancient maxim “beware of Greeks bearing gifts.”

Of course, the whole story is ridiculous. The Indian original makes much more sense: in Bhasa’s Pratijnayaugandharayana, it’s a few soldiers hiding in the belly of a fake elephant placed deep in the jungle. Yet Western scholars claim that the Indian version is derived from the Greek, because the Greek version was attested several centuries earlier than the India. Written documents are so scarce for ancient India that no one even knows when Bhasa lived.

Based on linguistic evidence, the Pratijnayaugandharayana is conventionally dated to around the first century BC or AD. No one knows for sure. Was the “Trojan elephant” element of the story a retelling of an earlier tale? No one knows at all. Everyone knows that ancient India had theatrical plays, but no one knows what they were.

Along similar lines, consider the Odyssey, the ancient Greek travel epic attributed to Homer in which the hero must gain his wife by drawing a great bow; it is clearly a dimly remembered Ramayana. The hero, Odysseus, spent ten years in exile; Rama, fourteen. Both visited the underworld.

Or the Iliad, Homer’s great war epic, in which the great hero Achilles withdraws from battle after losing his promised consort. His charioteer seeks out the advice of the wisest of the Greeks, who advises him that a soldier’s duty is to fight. Achilles is ultimately persuaded to rejoin the battle, not by his charioteer, but by the death of his charioteer.

The Indian original is, of course, the Mahabharata. In the Bhagavad Gita, it is the charioteer himself, Krishna, who gives the advice to the hero Arjuna. But otherwise the story is remarkably parallel, considering the miles and millennia of separation. In an otherwise inexplicable coincidence, Achilles is only vulnerable in one place: he is eventually brought down by an arrow to the heel.

If the story elements aren’t enough to show a common origin, the sentiments tell the same story. The Bhagavad Gita might just as well have been composed in pre-classical Greece as in ancient India. For example, in Chapter 6, Lord Krishna explains to Arjuna how a yogi should meditate, but then goes on to explain that:

But for earthly needs

Religion is not his who too much fasts

Or too much feasts, nor his who sleeps away

An idle mind; nor his who wears to waste

His strength in vigils. Nay, Arjuna! call

That the true piety which most removes

Earth-aches and ills, where one is moderate

In eating and in resting, and in sport;

Measured in wish and act; sleeping betimes,

Waking betimes for duty.

(Edwin Arnold translation, 1900)

No text could more eloquently express the ancient Greek maxim of “moderation in all things”.

Every educated person knows that before Muslim and Christian colonialism, Indic culture was present throughout Asia, from the Buddhism of Mongolia to the Hindu temples of Bali. What fewer people realize is that classical Greek religion, which is the ultimate source of European literature and philosophy, also had its origins, if not necessarily in India, in a source that was much closer to the living civilisation of India today than to any other civilization in the world.

The author is an associate professor at the University of Sydney and the author of the new study ‘Unholy Alliance: Inside the Activist Campaign to Pry India from the West’. He earned his MS (mathematical sciences) and PhD (sociology) from Johns Hopkins University. Views expressed are personal.

Source: https://www.firstpost.com/opinion/view-from-abroad-did-western-civilisation-begin-in-india-12673422.html