Saraswati Devi Mandir Sharda Peeth

Suprabhatam

Saraswati Devi Mandir– Sharda Peeth

Sharada Peeth is an abandoned Hindu temple located in the village of Sharda, along the Neelam River in Pakistan Occupied Kashmir. It is situated about 150 km from Muzaffarabad, the capital of Azad Kashmir, nearly 6500 feet above sea level.

The temple is in Sharada Village which believed to be the residence of Shiva by the Kashmir Pandits and Har Mukthi Mountain Valley.

According to historians, the Sharda Peeth temple was a spiritual and religious centre and Goddess Sharda was the presiding deity of Kashmir Mandala in ancient times. It has great significance for Hindus

The Sharda temple on the banks of the Kishenganga (Neelam) at Sardi village in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir was one of the 18 Shakti Peeths across the Indian subcontinent and was associated with the goddess worship in Kashmir since ages.

Sharada Peeth is at the confluence of holy waters of Madhumathi, Krishna Ganga or Neelam River and Sandhili named with the name of sage Shandilya. In ancient Texts, it was described that the devotees taken bath in the confluence have darshan of Chakri, another name of Krishna and Durga Maa.

Legend

Shandilya prayed to the goddess Sharada with great devotion, and was rewarded when she appeared to him and promised to show him her real, divine form. She advised him to look for the Sharada forest, and his journey was filled with miraculous experiences. On his way, he had a vision of the god Ganesha on the eastern side of a hill. When he reached the Neelam river, he bathed in it and saw half his body turn golden. Eventually, the goddess revealed herself to him in her triple form of Sharada, Saraswati and Vagdevi, and invited him to her abode. As he was preparing for a ritual, he drew water from the Mahasindhu. Half of this water transformed into honey, and became a stream, now known as the Madhumati stream.

Historical records show Sharda Peeth was a pan Indian site of pilgrimage and learning from the 8th century CE. It is believed to be the place where Adi Shankaracharya was elevated to ‘Sarvajna Peetha’ (seat of omniscience) after exhaustive debates with Buddhist and Jain monks.
It is learnt that Sankaracharya shifted Sharada Devi to Sringeri from the temple.

Currently the temple is in ruins.