Amarnath: World's Oldest Pilgrimage

Those who try to question the simple fact that there was no pilgrimage in this world, in the strict sense of the term, before Amarnath pilgrimage, should remember that it was Lord Shiva himself who first visited Amarnath with Godess Parvati.

Even though the exact date of the origin of Amarnath pilgirmage isn't known but based on sound historical references it is now widely recognised as the world's oldest pilgrimage, which Hindus have been undertaking since the start of historical times or even in the pre-historic age. The Amarnath tradition is deeply imbibed in Kashmiri history. It will be unfair to encourage dubious myths, arguing that the pilgirmage was the result of any recent discovery, 100 or 200 years ago by a Muslim shepherd.

Jagat Guru Adi Shankaracharya, founder of the four maths in four corners of the country, went on this pilgrimage of Lord Shankara. Another, venerable pilgrim is Swami Vivekananda.

The Amarnath Cave is referred to in the Bhrngish Samhita, Nilmat Purana, Kal­hana’s Rajtarangini, and the Mahat­mayas of Amarnatha and Amresh­vara Kalpa. According to Kalhana’s Rajtarangini, Samdi­mat (34 BCE-17 CE), a great devotee of Shiva who rose from the position of minister to be the king of Kashmir, “used to worship a linga of snow above the forests, which is not found elsewhere in the world, during the delightful Kashmir summers”.

Kalhana also narrates the legend of Naga Surava, who gave his daughter Chan­dralekha in marriage to a Brahmin youth and carved a place for him besides his own abode in Shushram Naga (Seshnag). Kalhana says, “It is seen to this day (ie, 1148-49) by pilgrims proceeding to Amareshvara (Amarnath).”

Regular pilgirms to Amarnath via the traditional Pahalgam route, are well aware that Seshnag is 19 kilometers from the Holy Amarnath Cave.

One of the earliest references to Amarnath is in the Nilamata Purana, a 6th century Sanskrit text which depicts the religious and cultural life of early Kashmiris and mentions about origin of Kashmir itself.

The pilgrimage to the holy cave has been described with full topographical details in the Bhringish Samhita and the Amarnatha Mahatmya, both ancient texts said to have been composed even earlier. References to Amarnath appear in historical chronicles like the Rajatarangini and its sequels and accounts of several Western travellers. The original name of the tirtha, as given in the ancient texts, is Amareshwara.

Turning again to Rajtarangini; Kalhana gives the history of the Naga Suruva, who in his fury burnt to ashes the kingdom of King Nara when he tried to abduct his daughter already married to the Brahmin youth, and after the carnage took his abode in the lake now known as Sheshnag (Kashmiri Sushramnag).

Kalahana writes: “The lake of dazzling whiteness [resembling] a sea of milk (Sheshnag), which he created [for himself as residence] on a far off mountain, is to the present day seen by the people on the pilgrimage to Amareshwara.”(Rajatarangini, Book I v. 267.Translation: M. A. Stein).

There is yet another reference to Amareshwara or Amarnath in the Rajatarangini (Book VII v.183). According to Kalhana, Queen Suryamati, the wife of King Ananta (1028-1063), “granted under her husband’s name agraharas at Amareshwara, and arranged for the consecration of trishulas, banalingas and other [sacred emblems]”.

In his Chronicle of Kashmir, a sequel to Kalhana’s Rajatarangini, Jonaraja relates that that Sultan Zainu’l-abidin (1420-1470) paid a visit to the sacred tirtha of Amarnath while constructing a canal on the left bank of the river Lidder (vv.1232-1234). The canal is now known as Shah Kol.

In the Fourth Chronicle named Rajavalipataka, which was begun by Prjayabhatta and completed by Shuka, there is a clear and detailed reference to the pilgrimage to the sacred site (v.841,vv. 847-849). According to it, in a reply to Akbar’s query about Kashmir Yusuf Khan, the Mughal governor of Kashmir at that time, described among other things the Amarnath Yatra in complete detail.

Amareshwara (Amarnath) was a famous pilgrimage during the time of the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan. In his eulogy of Shah Jahan’s father-in-law Asif Khan, titled “Asaf Vilas”, the famous Sanskrit scholar and aesthete Panditraj Jagannath makes clear mention of Amareshwara (Amarnath) while describing the Mughal garden Nishat laid out by Asif Khan. The King of gods, Indra himself, he says, comes here to pay obeisance to Lord Shiva”.

Francois Bernier, a French physician, accompanied Emperor Aurangzeb during his visit to Kashmir in 1663. In his book “Travels in the Mughal Empire”, he writes an account of the places he visited in Kashmir that he was “pursuing journey to a grotto full of wonderful congelations, two days journey from Sangsafed” when he “received intelligence that my Nawab felt very impatient and uneasy on account of my long absence”. The editor of the second edition of the English translation of the book, Vincient A. Smith, writes in his introduction: “The grotto full of wonderful congelations is the Amarnath cave, where blocks of ice, stalagmites formed by dripping water from the roof are worshipped by many Hindoos......as images of Shiva…..”

Another traveler, Vigne, in his book “Travels in Kashmir, Ladakh and Iskardu” writes about the pilgrimage to the sacred spot in detail, mentioning that “the ceremony at the cave of Amarnath takes place on the 15th of the Hindoo month of Sawan” and that “not only Hindoos of every rank and caste can be seen collecting together and traveling up the valley of Liddar towards the celebrated cave……” Vigne visited Kashmir after his return from Ladakh in 1840-41 and published his book in 1842. His book claims that the Amarnath Yatra drew pilgrims from the whole of India in his time and was undertaken with great enthusiasm. Vigne himself, after returning from Ladakh and Tibet by 1840-41, during the rule of Maharaja Sher Singh, son of Ranjit Singh, attempted to visit Amarnath along the traditional route via Seshnag in late season, but was forced to return from the Wawjan Pass due to bad weather.

Walter R Lawrence mentions in Valley of Kashmir (1895) that Brahmins of Mattan joined the pilgrims to Amarnath and further up at Batkot, the Maliks used to take charge of the pilgrimage. Accord­ing to Lawrence, the Maliks were supposed to keep the track in order, guide and escort the pilgrims, carry the sick, and ensure nothing was stolen.

Guru Arjan Dev is said to have granted land in Amritsar for the ceremonial departure of Chari Mubarak, the holy mace of Lord Shiva which marks the beginning of the Yatra to the Holy Cave.
In 1819, the year in which the Afghan rule came to an end in Kashmir, Pandit Hardas Tiku “founded the Chhawni (Cantonement) Amarnath at Ram Bagh in Srinagar where the Sadhus from the plains assembled and where he gave them free rations for the journey, both ways from his own private resources”, as the noted Kashmiri naturalist Pandit Samsar Chand Kaul has pointed out in his booklet titled “The Mysterious cave of Amarnath”.