The ‘Chhari Mubarak’ (holy mace of Swami Amarnath), which is heading towards the Amarnath Cave shrine in the mountains of south Kashmir, on Thursday reached the Sheshnag camp from Chandanwari from where it started early this morning under tight security measures.
Mahant Deependra Giri, custodian of the holy mace is leading the ‘Chhari Mubarak’ that is carried by a group of Sadhus towards the cave shrine.
The silver mace of Swami Amarnath depicting Lord Shiva and another Goddess Parvati will reach the Amarnath shrine on 9 August when the 38-day-long Yatra will formally conclude. This year the yatra commenced on 3 July 3 and will conclude on 9 August, the day the holy mace reaches the 3,880-metre-high cave shrine coinciding with Shravan Purnima (Raksha Bandhan).
The Sadhus carrying the two maces will on Friday morning leave for Panchtarni from Sheshnag and a day later on 9 August reach the Amarnath shrine where the ‘Chhari Mubarak’ will be placed for ‘pujan’ and traditional rituals.
After the day-long rituals at the Amarnath shrine, the holy mace will return towards Pahalgam after a night halt at Panchtarni. Thereafter, traditional rituals will be performed in Pahalgam before the ‘Chhari Mubarak’ is taken back to its abode in Srinagar’s Dashnami Akhara.
Although the yatra was scheduled to continue till 9 August, it was suspended for devotees a week ahead from 3 August by the authorities on the grounds of “critical repair and maintenance works due to a heavy rainfall on both tracks”. More than 4.10 lakh pilgrims had by then paid obeisance at the cave shrine, authorities said.