Over 2000 Km by road, in around 10 days. Stunning landscapes, wonderful people. That sums up our Ladakh trip. But how did it actually work? How did we make it happen? Read on to find out! Leh, the capital of Ladakh , is accessible by air and road. Flying into Leh is the easiest, and time-saving option, while the road is the time consuming one, but with the added advantage of driving past some of the most beautiful landscapes in our country. Each option has much to recommend it, and we chose the road for just one reason – altitude sickness. Altitude sickness was one of my biggest concerns, since I suffer from motion-sickness. Yes, I do travel a lot, but that is despite my condition, and, over the years, have learnt how to handle it. I struggled with it when we visited Nathu-La in Sikkim, and wondered if I would be able to manage a week at the even higher altitudes that we would encounter in Ladakh. This was the reason we stuck to a basic plan, of only 9 days in Ladakh, though we
This group
of seven figures caught my eye as I wandered around the ruins of the rock cut
temples at Masroor. “Sapta Matrika!” I exclaimed, surprised to see them here.
Then, after
a closer look, I wondered – “Are they Sapta Matrikas, or simply seven figures?
I can hardly make out if they are women. Besides, they are seated on lotuses.”
They were certainly important figures, going by the detailed carvings above and
below them, though the figures themselves are too ruined to identify.
We moved
on, and stopped once more, at the sight of this panel…
Another
group of delicate, standing figures, certainly feminine this time. The first
was almost certainly Indrani – going by her vehicle, the elephant; and the
third must be Maheshwari, mounted on her bull. So, are they Sapta Matrikas too?
Well, there were more than seven figures here, so they couldn’t be. Could they
be Ashta Matrikas? No, there were more. Nava Durgas? By now, we were confused.
This group, once again seated on lotuses, was the last panel we saw. At first, we thought
they were just three. Then, we noticed the almost completely ruined figures on
the left and right. So, five goddesses… who could they be?
The central
one was surely Gajalakshmi – see the elephants by her side? Could this have
been part of an Ashta Lakshmi panel? The gods only know. The archaeologists
certainly don’t seem to, there is so little information on these temples
available!
There were
other panels, with other groups of deities, but they were certainly male. I was
more fascinated by these panels, depicting the goddesses.However, I shouldn’t
have been so surprised. The Kangra Valley is associated with a number of
temples dedicated to the Goddess, prominently among them, Jwalaji, Chitpurni,
Bagalamukhi, Vajreshwari, and Chamunda. Many of these shrines are considered
the most sacred to the goddess, and counted among the Shakti Peethas. No wonder
so many of her forms are depicted at the Masroor Temple, which is also in the
Kangra valley.
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