Lord Shiva was on His way to Manimahesh Kailash (His abode) when He halted at Bharmour to spend the night. He was with His 84 Siddhas (those who have achieved enlightenment.). As the Siddhas lit fires, Goddess Brahmani became angry and ordered all of them to leave.

Lord Shiva then requested Goddess Brahmani, humbly but persistently, to let them stay. She came around post which He granted her a boon – that whoever came for pilgrimage to Manimahesh must compulsorily first have a dip in the holy pool at the Brahmani Temple.

Thus, not surprisingly, the entire vicinity of Bharmour is also called Shivbhumi as it is considered to belong to Lord Shiva. The locals are also known as Kailash Vasio – those who live at Kailash. We found them to really courteous and welcoming.

In recorded history, Bharmour was settled by Meru, belonging to the ruling family of Ayodhya, in the sixth century AD. It remained the capital of the region for ~400 years before King Sahil Varman transferred the capital to Chamba.

A picturesque drive

We started from Chamba after lunch. Saying that the route to Bharmour was picturesque would be an understatement. The landscape was dotted with sturdy iron bridges built by the Indian Army. We crossed the upper reaches of the Chamera Dam where we could see two streams of water intermingling to form a single one.

A little before Bharmour, a signboard stopped us in our tracks. It read ‘Pratham Kailash Darshan’ (first glimpse of Manimahesh Kailash).

Sure enough, right in front of us loomed the peak of Manimahesh Kailash! The 18,556ft. peak was both divine and handsome.

Every year, thousands of devotees trek to Manimahesh to pay their respects to Lord Shiva. The trek route itself is stunning – landscapes, mountains, alpine meadows, rocky terrain, natural springs and streams, and diverse flora and fauna!

It took us two hours to reach Bharmour due to the mountainous terrain. We stayed at HPTDC The Gaurikund which threw up a pleasant surprise for us – it was located on the helipad from where the Manimahesh Yatra helicopters take off! That was a FIRST for us – staying at a helipad!!

The snowcapped Himalayas surrounded us on all sides. We just had to draw the curtains to sigh at the snow giants in front of us. It was a view to die for! The mountains were so close; it seemed we could just stretch our arms and touch them.

Let me write about a couple of noteworthy aspects of our Bharmour sojourn –

Chaurasi Temple

Bharmour is an extremely religious town. Its very genesis is rooted in the Hindu religion. One of the two most important temples here is the Chaurasi Mandir (lit. 84 temples). This temple complex, actually having 84 temples within it, were built 1,400 years ago.

It is uncommon to find level grounds in the mighty Himalayas. But on one such flat piece of land, the Chaurasi Temple was constructed. In this temple complex, 84 big and small temples reside, most of them being shivlings.

Pilgrims on the Manimahesh Yatra must mandatorily come to the Chaurasi Temple too.

The largest of the 84 temples, and also the most important, is the Manimahesh Temple. It stands in the centre of the complex and is made in the traditional shikhar architectural style. It enshrines a huge Shivling. The carvings on its outer walls are worth looking at!

Snowcapped mountains cradle the Chaurasi Temple complex. This galaxy of temples could not have found a grander setting. While the evening aarti was splendid, the darshan in the morning filled us with awe, curiosity and devotion.

Hadsar

One of the highlights of this road trip was driving past multiple waterfalls in the higher reaches that tumbled down to merge with the River Ravi. Their numbers and glory were at their peak at Hadsar, a village 12 kilometres ahead of Bharmour.

Hadsar is where the Manimahesh Yatra begins. It has abundant high pastures. But its beauty lies in its waterfalls. They were as gorgeous as the snowcapped peaks around us. The water dropped down the mountains and was absolutely chilled to the touch!

It was nature at its bewitching best. We believe Hadsar can easily be called the Village of Waterfalls!

From Hadsar, we made our way to the Brahmani Temple. It is located on a hill above the town. Most of the path is a 'kuchha raasta'. Our hired taxi attempted to ascend on the fallen pine needles, but the overnight rain and dew only made it skid.

We got off the car too to let the driver try again with reduced load. But we were not in luck. The driver gave up soon after. We made our way back hoping Goddess Brahmani would bless us anyway.