Belkharnath Dham Pratapgarh

Baba Belkharnath Temple (Dham) is situated on the banks of river Sai in Pratapgarh district of Uttar Pradesh. Baba Belkharnath Dham is situated on a mound about 90 meters high on Patti Road, 15 kilometers from Pratapgarh headquarters. This place is situated in village Ahiyapur. Once a year on the occasion of Mahashivaratri and every third year in the month of Malmas, a huge fair is held here for a month, in which Shiva devotees and saint Mahatmas from many districts come here and offer worship. Every Saturday, thousands of devotees come here to worship Lord Shiva.

History

Baba Belkharnath Temple was named after Bilkhariya Rajputs. Many decades ago, there was a shadow state of the Bilkhariya Rajputs of the Kashyap Gotra, the Dikkhit dynasty of the Suryavansh, on the fertile land on the banks of the Sai River. The original origin of Bilkhariya Rajputs is considered to be somewhere around Rajasthan or Bihar.  However, no concrete evidence has been available as to what purpose the Bilkhariya Rajputs had come from such a far distance to the Pargana belt. Some historians believe that due to severe drought in some province of Rajasthan, Bilkhariya Rajputs had to migrate from there.  After facing the tragedy of drought, he decided that now he would live only in a place where a river flows.  For some time he lived on the banks of river Ganga in some part of Allahabad, but due to floods in river Ganga during rainy season, he had to migrate again. Eventually he established his residence on a high mound on the banks of river Sai.  There was neither a possibility of drought nor flood here. Bilkhariya Rajputs built Belkharnath Kot. Whose ruins still exist today.

After the destruction of Bilkhariya kingdom, a forest was formed at the place of this fort and Shankar ji where people used to go to cut wood. One day when a man’s eyes fell on Lord Shiva, he started sharpening his ax on the Shivling thinking it to be a stone and hit the ax on the stone, the mark of which is still present. The man got an electric shock and became unconscious. The sound of a drum was heard in his ears and he became deaf and dumb. After this he took bath in Sai river and started worshiping at Shiva place. Before the temple was built, a broken part of Argha was present there. At the same time, the devotees built a roof over the Shivalinga, later on the inspiration of Lord Shiva, the roof was constructed there by King Dilippur. Later, King Dilippur tried to build the temple several times. A temple would be built during the day but the temple would disappear the next day.

People were surprised why this was happening. Meanwhile, Shiv Harakh Brahmachari, a resident of the village, tried to build a temple and after worshiping, he came to know that the temple would be built in three generations.

The book Vastu Gotra Chauhan Bansh, published in the year 1916, is a book written in verses. In which it is written that Maryada Purushottam Lord Shri Ram had worshiped Belkharnath Mahadev during the reign of Bel Nripati during his exile.