Dhari Devi (Char Dham)
YEAR-WISE DEVELOPMENTS
2023
Graphic courtesy: [ The Times of India]
Dhari Devi Mandir, c. 1985 Shivani.Azad/ Decade on, guardian deity of Char Dham reinstated/ Sunday The Times of India/ 29 Jan. 23
Dehradun : After seven days of continuous prayers commencing January 22, 2023 the idol of Dhari Devi, regarded as the protector deity of Uttarakhand and guardian of the Char Dham shrines of Gangotri, Yamunotri, Kedarnath and Badrinath, was reinstalled at its original location at a temple in the midst of the Alaknanda river near Rudraprayag in Pauri Garhwal on Saturday morning.
The original rock on which the temple existed had submerged during the construction of the Alaknanda Hydro Electric Power Plant in June 2013. Subsequently, the idol was moved to a nearby temple on June 16, 2013, and later that day, the Kedarnath deluge happened which killed thousands. This, locals attributed to the ‘wrath of the goddess for having been disturbed from her original place’.
However, it took almost a decade for the company executing the hydel project — GVK Power & InfrastructureLtd — to get ready the temple where the deity was finally reinstated in 2023 Jan.
