RAJ KUMAR
Ranchi, Dec. 12: As many as 34 Hindus from Jharkhand will go to Pakistan for pilgrimage this year.
The place where they will go is Sri Katas Raj, a place in Lahore.
It will be a five- day trip starting from December 20. The team will enter through Bagha border and return through the same way.
One of the pilgrims Pramod Kumar Rai informed this to Lagatar 24.com.
“The Pakistan government has provided the visa under cultural exchange programme to as many as 96 Indians this year. Out of 96, 34 are from Ranchi while the remaining others are from different parts of India. I am one among 34 Ranchites,” he said.
Rai, who has visited Kailash Mansarovar in China three times, also shared the list of pilgrims, said reaching the place is tough as terrorists in Pakistan often attempt to disturb it and government of the country has to give proper security.
Rai said puja is performed at Kataksh Raj in March and December every year when Hindu devotees go there with the permission of the Pakistan government.
The Shri Katas Raj Temples are also known as Qila Katas . It is a complex of several Hindu temples connected to one another by walkways. The temple complex surrounds a pond named Katas which is regarded as sacred by Hindus.
The complex is located in the Potohar Plateau region of Pakistan’s Punjab province. The temples are located near the town of Choa Saidanshah and are near the M2 Motorway.
Talking about the importance of the place, Rai said the temples’ pond is said in the puranas to have been created from the teardrops of Shiva, after he wandered the Earth inconsolable after the death of his wife Sati.
The pond occupies an area of two kanals and 15 marlas, with a maximum depth of 20 feet.
The temples play a role in the Hindu epic poem, the Mahabharata, where the temples are traditionally believed to have been the site where the Pandava brothers spent a significant portion of their exile.
It is also traditionally believed by Hindus to be the site where the brothers engaged in a riddle contest with the Yakshas, as described in the yaksha prashna.
Another tradition states that the Hindu deity Krishna laid the foundation of the temple, and established a hand-made shivling in it.
The temples had been visited by India’s former deputy prime minister Lal Krishna Advani in 2005. In 2006, the Pakistani government began restoration works at the temples, with further improvements announced in 2017.
