Goddesses

Haridwar is at the edge of the Himalayan foothills, and on a clear day these hills are easily visible. Some of their summits have temples dedicated to local or regional Goddesses, and according to popular belief the Goddesses dwell in these places to test the sincerity (and stamina) of their devotees, by making them walk uphill to visit them.

The Mansa Devi and Chandi Devi temples both fit this pattern, for they are perched on the top of the ridges overlooking the city. Mansa ("wish") Devi has gained local importance as a place where one's wishes/desires are fulfilled. The temple itself is relatively recent (late 1940s?) and the Goddess Mansa has no presence in the Hindu scriptures, but its proximity to Har-ki-Pairi, Hardwar's main bathing place--from which the temple is clearly visible--has made it one of Hardwar's most heavily visited sites. As realtors note, location is everything. It was first made more accessible by constructing a walking path, and then in the 1980s by a cable-car ropeway.

Chandi Devi is more remote, but has a longer recorded history. Chandika is one of the names for the Goddess in the Devimahatmya, the core text for the Hindu Goddess tradition. The temple was built in 1829 by Suchet Singh (a vassal of the Sikh Maharaja Ranjit Singh), but earlier reports mention worship there. For many years it was accessible only by a footpath, and was an extremely quiet place. The site has become far more developed since a cable-car ropeway was installed in 1998.

According to local tradition these two sites and the Maya Devi temple in the city center are all Siddha Peeths ("Seats of Success")--that is, places of intensified sacred power in which wishes are granted and religious practice bears swift fruit.