Diversions of a Busy Lawyer continues....


We camped by the side of the Liddar river. Here we bathed every morning in its sparkling chilly water and spent the rest of the day in pleasant walks. In one of our ramblings, we went to a village to buy some butter. We paid a rupee for two seers (4 lbs.) of butter. Poultry could be had for four annas a fowl, peas at 2 annas a seer. Everything was cheap. We spent about a month of our vacation here.

Then we started on the pilgrimage to the shrine of Amar Nath situated at a height of about 13,000 ft. above sea level. There were some three thousand pilgrims in all, a good number of them Sadhus. Our first halt was at Chandan Bari on a small glacier. The next day we halted at Sheshnag, one of the most beautiful spots in these hills. There is a huge lake here surrounded on all sides by glaciers. Its water looks blue like the Mediterranean. We bathed in it. No fuel was available here except some green shrubs which caught fire easily. From Sheshnag, we moved on to Panch Tarni, one of the coldest places on the pilgrim’s route. We camped here for the night beside a hill stream. We left Panch Tarni, walking up a steep hill to reach Amar Ganga. A walk on the glacier brought us to the cave of Amarnath. Inside this huge gypsum cave is a big slab of ice formed of a frozen spring. Water trickles down from the cave. As the water freezes, it is said by the devotees, it takes the shape of a linga. But we saw no linga, though the slab of ice was clearly visible. Probably we lacked the discerning eyes of the faithful! What we saw however, was a large number of pigeons and some kites coming out of the cave.

to be continued...