Haridwar - Shrines

If there is anything confusing about Haridwar, it is locating the authentic shrine of Gangamma and the shrine that houses the foot step of Hari (Vishnu) who is set to have stepped here on his way to Vaikuntam and hence the name Hari-ki-Pauri. Every temple has the words "Ancient Ganga Temple" scrawled across the wall and had me flummoxed. I visited the first one that I encountered (See picture). The shrine had two priests one at the main diety Gangamma's Sanctum Sanctorium and the other at Lord Narasimha's shrine which is located on the wall adjoining the entrance. I offered my prayers to Gangamma, the priest muttered some sanskrit verses and we repeated them verbatim, deposited Rs. 50 in the preist's plate and while circumambulating was dragged by the second priest who rather forced us to visit the other shrines. Ofcourse we had to follow the ritual of muttering some more sanskrit verses and part with about Rs. 40 for the services!. I retrieved my footwear and wanted to stroll around a bit to see the other sights when Iwas stopped by a official saying that footwear was not allowed beyond this point, Its only then I realised that I might have visited the many storefront temples that throng every religious place. This insipte of the research before the trip. I still wanted to visit the other shrines but the constant pull of my colleagues accompanying me and the heavy drizzle that started we were forced to return to our car. I strongly suggest that you read through the phto esaays available here and here before visiting the shrines. As for me I plan to return sometime next year for another pilgrimage. Here are some snaps from the trip. This is the place I had my snan (holy dip). You can see this bridge in the James G. Lochtefeld's second photo essay. In the first photo of the essay you can see the bridge in the background while the last photo does show the bridge on the left the flight of steps that lead to the bridge is missing indicating that it has been constructed recently.

The "Store Front" temple that I visited. It had "Ancient Ganga Temple" inscribed on it. Apparently this temple is not the ancient one! It is infact a private temple See the last photo in James G. Lochtefeld's second photo essay.

The Brahmakund and the Lakshminarayana Temple with the Ganagamma temple on the left.

The unfinished Gangamma temple. Considered to be the oldest temple and the bathing ghat to the left is considered to be the holiest and most important bathing place. Construction was halted due to a law suit!