Vaishno Devi

The story is told to every child on the path. Vaishnavi, a form of the Mother Goddess, was pursued by the tantric Bhairon Nath through these hills, hid for nine months in the Garbh Joon cave at Adhkuwari, and finally took his head at the mouth of the holy cave, where she remains as three pindis for Maha Kali, Maha Lakshmi and Maha Saraswati. The shrine was known to pilgrims long before the Dogra rulers built up the present town of Katra, and since 1986 it has been run by the Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine Board, which paved the track, lit it, and built the rest houses and langars along it.

The walk begins at Banganga, where the goddess is said to have struck water from a rock, and climbs 12 km through Charan Paduka, Adhkuwari, Himkoti and Sanjichhat to the Bhawan at about 1,585 m. Most pilgrims start after dark to avoid the heat, so the trail glows all night with lamps, tea stalls and the sound of Jai Mata Di. Darshan in the cave takes a minute; the queue can take hours.

Bhairon Nath's temple sits 2.5 km higher still, reached by a ropeway, and the pilgrimage is not considered complete without it. Around Navratri the hills hold a lakh of people a day. What stays with you is not the shrine but the walk itself, shared with grandmothers on ponies, barefoot young men and families carrying sleeping children up a mountain.