We had no idea about this temple until we reached there. When we were at Dhanaulti Eco Park in Uttarakhand, India, one of my friends suggested visiting the Surkanda Devi temple. It was around 6kms from Dhanaulti. So we decided to go to this temple. When we reached a place called 'Kaddukhal' ,we were able to see the temple on a hill at a height of 9042ft. To reach the temple , we had to trek for 3kms.
After completing Kedarkantha trek (on the previous day), we all were exhausted and were not ready to trek again.
We all started thinking about whether we have to trek or not . Since some of my group members started , I followed them. We had no idea how the temple looks.
Once we reached the top , believe me , the view was amazing! This made our trek worth it. Temple architecture was very different from all the temples I have seen so far. We were able to see so many snow capped mountains from the top.
Here is the history of the temple :
Sati was the wife of lord Shiva and daughter of King Daksha. King Daksha did not invite the couple when he performed a grand vedic sacrifice for all the deities as he was not happy with his daughter's choice of husband. Sati threw herself into the fire to make this Sacrifice impure. Sati left her body to reborn as goddess Parvati. Shiva in grief had put Sati's body over his shoulder and began his tandava throughout the heavens, and vowed not to stop until the body was completely rotted away. Wherever Shiva wandered dancing, Vishnu followed him and sent his Sudarshana to destroy the corpse of Sati.
When Lord Shiva was carrying goddess Sati's body on his way back to Kailash, her head fell at this spot where the temple is now. Hence this temple got its name 'Sirkhanda' which is now called as Surkanda.
According to various myths and traditions, there are 51 pieces of Sati's body scattered across the Indian subcontinent. These places are called shakti peethas and are dedicated to various powerful goddesses.
Sometimes going to a place about which we have no idea will surprise us with its own beauty. Hence it is not always necessary to google the place before we visit it.
If you are planning to travel to Mussorie or Dhanaulti, do not miss this temple.
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