Jwala Devi
ज्वाला देवी
Kuldevi, family goddess
Worshipped as a form of Devi (Durga); a Shakti Peetha where Sati's tongue is said to have fallen
At a glance
- Main shrine
- Jwalamukhi Temple (Jawala Ji), Jawalamukhi, Kangra district, Himachal Pradesh
- Worshipped in
- Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Kashmir Valley
- Kept by
- Kashmiri Pandit
About
Jwala Devi, also called Jwalamukhi, is the goddess worshipped as natural flames at Jawalamukhi in Kangra district, Himachal Pradesh. Tradition counts the shrine among the Shakti Peethas, the place where Sati's tongue fell. Families from Punjab and the hills come on pilgrimage. As a family deity she is tied by Lawrence (1895) to Kashmiri Pandit households, some of whom worshipped Jwala at Khrew rather than Ragnya or Sharika.
Legend and Origin
The 1883-84 Kangra District Gazetteer gives two accounts for the shrine. The priests' legend says that about seven hundred years before, the goddess appeared to a Brahman devotee living in the south and told him to look for burning jets of gas in a forested part of the Kangra hills; he found them and built a temple. The gazetteer adds an older legend that links the flames to the mouth of the demon king Jalandhara, buried under mountains by Shiva. Some modern accounts credit Raja Bhumi Chand of Kangra (Katoch line) with founding the temple, but the gazetteer does not name him. In the Shakti Peetha tradition, as Rose records it for the Punjab, Sati's tongue fell at Jawalamukhi; the gazetteer adds that the flaming fissure is held to be the goddess's mouth and her body is said to be at the Bhawan (Vajreshwari) temple in Kangra. The earliest surviving text that names the place is placed in the fourteenth century (the chronicle of Firuz Shah Tughlaq's Kangra campaign), according to a modern summary. The present building is plain outside with a gilt dome; the gazetteer says Ranjit Singh gave a gilt roof in 1815 and Kharak Singh the folding silver doors.
How the Deity Is Shown
There is no idol. In the sanctum a square pit with a path around it surrounds the main crack in the rock, and flames burn from it and from smaller cracks in the walls. The gazetteer says the gas collects slowly and the priests feed the flames with ghee when many pilgrims are present. The Himachal government's account says nine flames are lit, standing for nine goddesses, including Mahakali, Annapurna, Chandi, Hinglaj, Mahalakshmi, Saraswati and Ambika.
How Families Keep the Worship
At Jawalamukhi the goddess is approached as the flame itself. Offerings are made to the flames and the temple is served by the Bhojki community of priests, according to the 1883-84 gazetteer. Lawrence (1895) records that in Kashmir there are Pandit households that worship Jwala or Sharika and may eat meat, while those who worship Ragnya (Kheer Bhawani) abstain from meat during the Chaitra Navratri days, and that at Khrew and at Sharika's shrine on Hari Parbat the liver and heart of sheep were offered. For Jawalamukhi the Kangra gazetteer says sheep and goats were supposed to be offered in large numbers in the 1880s. Which families keep her as kuldevi is not recorded in the sources found for this page beyond the Kashmiri Pandit households Lawrence names, so the rites a family keeps are for that family to give.
Shrines
Jwalamukhi Temple (Jawala Ji)
Jawalamukhi, Kangra district, Himachal Pradesh
The main shrine. No image: the goddess is the flames that burn from cracks in the rock inside the temple. About 30 km from Kangra by road.
Jwala Ji Temple (Jawala Bhagwati)
Khrew (Krihu), Pulwama district, Jammu and Kashmir
The Kashmiri shrine, on a small hill with a spring at its foot. Lawrence (1895) named it Jowala Mukhi at Krihu near Pampur.
Festivals
Ashvin Navratri fair
Ashvin, September and October
The 1883-84 gazetteer calls this the principal festival at Jawalamukhi and says as many as 50,000 pilgrims were said to gather.
Chaitra Navratri fair
Chaitra, March and April
The gazetteer notes a second fair of nearly equal importance in March.
Har Chaturdashi at Khrew
Fourteenth day of the bright half of Har (Ashadha), around July
Lawrence gives this as the special day of Jowala Mukhi at Krihu. A modern account places the Khrew fair in July.
Stories and Legends
Two accounts of the flames
The priests' account in the 1883-84 gazetteer says a Brahman devotee was told in a vision to find burning gas in the Kangra hills, and built the first temple where he found it. The same gazetteer notes an older legend that the flames are the breath of the demon Jalandhara, buried under mountains by Shiva. The book treats the first as the later telling; the two sit together at the shrine.
Akbar and the flame
A well-known folk story has Akbar visit Jawalamukhi, test the flames, and offer a golden umbrella that the goddess turned to base metal. One site guide says there is no mention of the umbrella in the Akbarnama or Mughal records, and that a metal umbrella at the temple is brass or copper of unknown origin. The official Kangra page tells it as Akbar failing to put the flames out and then making offerings. Treat it as legend.