Ponies carry pilgrims at Maha Ganesh Top on their way to the holy cave shrine through Pahalgam route, during Amarnath Yatra 2023, in Amarnath.
Credit : PTI Photo
With longest duration Amarnath Yatra in history inching to a conclusion, the saffron-robed holy mace of Lord Shiva, popularly known as “Chhari Mubarak” is on way to holy cave shrine for ‘Pujan’ on ‘Shravan Purnima’ on August 31.
Prior to leaving for its final course of pilgrimage, Puja and other religious rituals were performed by Mahant Deependra Giri and sadhus at Dashnami Akhara here, on Saturday in a traditional way.
Amid chants of ‘Bum Bum Bhole’ by devotees and sadhus, the mace is on its way to holy shrine with the Puja scheduled at the Sun temple of Mattan and Ganeshbal in Pahalgam on Sunday.
The mace will leave for Chandanwari on August 28 and next day it will stay at Sheshnag while on August 30, it will be at Panchtarni. In the morning of August 31 (Shravan-Purnima), it will reach the cave shrine to pay obeisance there and perform Puja along with other rituals.
Mahant Deependra Giri, the custodian of the mace, carries the mace en-route to the holy cave shrine in the south Kashmir Himalayas.
The 62-day Yatra commenced simultaneously from both routes - the Pahalgam track in Anantnag and Baltal in Ganderbal districts on July 1 and is scheduled to culminate on August 31.
Officials said the last batch of pilgrims left for the holy cave on August 23 and since then, the pilgrimage has remained suspended. “No yatri is coming here now, so no convoy could leave Jammu for the last few days,” they said.
Over the last several years, the Yatra has been witnessing fewer footfalls. Compared to over six lakh pilgrims who visited the cave shrine in 2012, the number came down to over three lakh in 2022 and 4.4 lakh in 2023 despite it being the longest duration this year.
The majority of the pilgrims prefer the shorter 14-km Baltal route over the traditional 48-km Pahalgam track. Adequate security arrangements have been put in place to ensure smooth conduct of the Yatra.