Amarnath Cave

Overview

The Amarnath Cave is a Hindu cave shrine located at 3,888 metres in the Himalayas of the Kashmir region of India. Hindus revere a natural pillar of ice that forms inside the cave each year as a lingam, the symbolic form of the deity Shiva. The cave is the destination of the annual Amarnath Yatra, a walking pilgrimage during the Hindu month of Shravan that draws hundreds of thousands of pilgrims each summer.

Present

The Amarnath Cave and its pilgrimage are managed by the Shri Amarnathji Shrine Board, a statutory body chaired by the Lieutenant Governor of Jammu and Kashmir. The shrine is active only during the annual Yatra season, which the board announces each year. The season runs for several weeks during the Hindu month of Shravan, from late June or early July until the full moon in August, when the Chhari Mubarak, the ceremonial mace of Shiva, is carried on foot from Srinagar and arrives at the cave. For the rest of the year the cave lies under snow and the shrine is closed. The shrine is located in the Kashmir region, where the Kashmir conflict is ongoing, and the pilgrimage is held under extensive security arrangements.

Religious Significance

Hindus revere the Amarnath Cave as an abode of Shiva, one of the principal deities of Hinduism. The object of worship is a natural ice stalagmite that forms inside the cave each year, revered as a lingam, the upright form in which Shiva is worshipped. Two smaller ice formations are regarded as Parvati, the consort of Shiva, and Ganesha, their son. Hindu tradition holds that the lingam waxes and wanes with the phases of the moon, reaching its fullest form on the full moon of the month of Shravan. According to Hindu tradition, the cave is the place where Shiva revealed the Amar Katha, the secret of immortality, to Parvati, after leaving behind his companions and possessions one by one on the way. The stopping places of that account are the stages of the pilgrimage route. Hindus believe that completing the Amarnath Yatra brings great spiritual merit, and pilgrims perform Darshan, the beholding of the deity, before the ice lingam and make offerings there.

History & Structure

The Amarnath Cave is a natural cave high on a mountainside in the Anantnag district of Jammu and Kashmir, reached on foot through high mountain valleys. It has no built structure. The sanctuary is the cave itself and the ice formations within it, and snow closes the site for most of the year. The cave appears in old Sanskrit texts of Kashmir, and a 12th-century history of the region records that a ruler of Kashmir visited the ice lingam. Kashmiri folklore attributes the discovery of the cave to a Muslim shepherd named Buta Malik, and for generations a share of the pilgrims' offerings went to his descendants. The pilgrimage has been made for many centuries, and today it is organized by the Shri Amarnathji Shrine Board. Two routes lead to the cave: the traditional route of roughly 46 kilometres from Pahalgam, walked in three to five days, and a steeper route of roughly 14 kilometres from Baltal.

Resources

• Official website: Shri Amarnathji Shrine Board
• Related: Shri Amarnath Ji, Government of Jammu and Kashmir