Durgiania Temple

 

Although Amritsar is best known as the Sikh holy city, it has always been a multi-religious city. The Durgiana temple is one of the main Hindu temples in Amritsar. It is dedicated to the Mother Goddess, particularly in her form as Durga. This temple shows clear architectural debts to the Harmandir, such as the golden dome on the top, and the causeway leading to a temple over an artificial lake (when we were there, the sides of the tank were being repaired, and there was no water in it at all).  Inside the temple are images of the Mother Goddess in her various forms, many of them done in mosaics made from pieces of colored tile.  This temple was built quite recently, but the site is much older. 

  

Here's a view from the side, showing the temple in the midst of the pool (which had water in 2001, but in 1999 was a sea of mud).  The pool and the perimeter walkway are both clearly influenced by the architecture of the  Harmandir.

 

Although the temple's primary deity is the Goddess Durga, most of the temple's imagery is Vaishnava.  This frieze over the central door shows the young Krishna subduing the serpent Kaliya, whose poison had killed animals and fish in the Yamuna River (in modern times, this tale has been reinterpreted to have Krishna opposing ecological destruction).

 

 

This picture shows Vishnu's Narasimha ("Man-Lion") Avatar, here shown killing the demon Hiranyakashipu by ripping out his entrails.  The person to the left is the demon's righteous son Prahlada. 

 

This picture, over the left hand doorway, shows the moment in the Ramayana when Sita is about to be abducted.  Rama (the blue one) is about to chase the golden deer to the right, while at far left lurks the demon-king Ravana, disguised as an ascetic. 

 

By sheer chance, we arrived at the temple some performers, singers, and musicians were engaged in a ras lila (drama showing episodes from the life of Krishna).  The actors were young boys, but they did it all pantomime, with a singer providing the narration. We sat and watched for quite some time, and when we left I made some donations to both the temple and to the performers, to express our thanks.  The people in charge of the temple then garlanded me with this scarf and this garland of flowers, and gave me a leaf cup full of sticky Indian sweets, which I consumed outside (this was in 1999). 

 

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Last modified 18 March 2001