24 Sep 2010

Haridwar

by | posted in: Char Dham, India, Uttarakhand | 3
24th May 2010

Haridwar was the last place we visited in our Char Dham trip. On the banks of Ganga River, it is one of the prominent religious towns for Hindus.
As we started loosing altitude from Badrinath, there was a sharp change in the weather. From single degree temperature in Badrinath, we were now facing 42C heat at Haridwar. We did not like get out of our AC bus.

Haridwar is a town of Temples. The plan was to visit Mansa Devi Temple and then see Ganga Arti.
Mansa Devi Temple is located on top of a hill. There are two options to get to the Temple. One is to climb up the hill using the road or take a ropeway. The road is also used by vehicles. We choose to take the ropeway to the Temple.

While we had to wait for 1.5 hours for our turn due to huge crowds, the journey on the ropeway was just 5 minutes. There was nothing special for me in that ropeway as I had been to some of the great ones earlier.

And there was no crowd at all in the Temple!! Ropeway was the biggest bottleneck.

The best part of was the views of Haridwar Town from the Temple.

In the evening, we were at Har-ki-Pauri ghat for Ganga Arti. This is the event that should not be missed. Haridwar visit is a waste if Ganga Arti is not watched. The feeling of being part of the Arti performed here is something that has to be best experienced.

This was the best religious activity that I ever experienced. I was not bothered by lakhs of people on either side of the River.


Ganga Arti at Har-Ki-Pauri was the best way to end our religious trip!!

3 Responses

  1. Santosh
    | Reply

    Hi Aravind,

    Very comprehensive and wonderful description of what you have been through, loved reading it and with loads of information.

    Enjoyed reading each of the part! I have just been once to Haridwar and Badrinath, wish to visit the other dhams soon!

    Thanks for putting your experiences together.
    Looking forward for more!

  2. Anu
    | Reply

    Good series…. I had missed some of the posts and just went through all of them, re-living my journey to kedar and badri more than 20 years back….. I am now looking forward to taking my son there sometime, and just hope that things dont get any worse, at least!

  3. Srik
    | Reply

    Fully agree with you. Ganga Arti at har-Ki-Paudi is an amazing show of the rich riligious traditions the country boasts of.

    More no of people there – more amplifying the atmosphere becomes!

    I fell in love with that place, for this one religious ceremony.

    Very nice trip log Arvind.

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