A visit to ancient Jagdev temple in Mawakot, Kotdwar

Kotdwar, 16 April 2014: The temple was constructed in Mawakot around 70 years back by the then Deputy Commissioner and later the Mayor of Kotdwar Pratap Singh Chauhan. Bhabhar is around 7 kms from Kotdwar, Uttarakhand. Jagdev temple is one the most ancient temples of India with unique idols of Hindu god. Mawakot comes in the region south of the Lower Himalayas and the Siwalik Hills called Bhabhar.

Mawakot was the hometown village of Chauhan. There land was being dug for water during which buried god idols were found. The old-age idols were of Jagdev Baba (an eminent priest of that region), Hanuman and Ganesha. Therefore at that place in the direction of Chauhan, a temple was established. The temple later got expanded by the devotees with idols of God Shiva and Goddess Durga.

During our visit, we saw a mantra written at many places of the temple, “Om Shri Guru Dataatrey Vijaytetram, Om Namah Shivay”. Near the temple, the water keeps flowing out from the ground non-stop from the day it was unearthed. The water of the spring is believed to have some medicinal properties.

In the ancient times near the temple animal sacrifice (bali pratha) was also practised which later stopped. The temple has lots of ancient idols of god some of which was recognized and some are still worshipped without identification. Temple is also surrounded with around 30 sandalwood trees, ayurvedic medicinal plants and dense forest. Even today elephant, lion, wild boar, deer, gray langur come near to the temple to drink the water.

If you are fond of ancient temples and you keep visiting Kotdwar, Lansdowne, Pauri Garhwal, Haridwar, Dehradun, Nainital then this temple you shouldn’t miss.