Zyetha Ashtami - ‪#‎KherBhawani‬ Temple ‪#‎Srinagar‬

* Zyetha Ashtami - ‪#‎KherBhawani‬ Temple ‪#‎Srinagar‬ *

Maharagya was pleased with the devotion of ‪#‎Ravana‬ and appeared before him and Ravana got an image of the Goddess installed in Sri Lanka. However, the Goddess became displeased with the vicious and licentious life of Ravana and so didn't want to stay in Sri Lanka. Therefore, she is believed to have instructed Lord Hanuman to get the image from Sri Lanka and install it at the holy spot of ‪#‎TulMull‬. Though Ragniya is a Rupa of Durga, this one is a Vaishnav Rupa in Kashmir Ragniya is also known as Tripura, while in SriLanka, the Mother Goddess was called Shayama. Sita too, is believed to have been an incarnation of Ragniya. Ragniya Mahatmya has it that those who meditate on Panch Dashi Mantra during Nav-reh, Mother Ragniya grants their wish.

It is said that the night during which Mother Goddess came from‪#‎SriLanka‬ to ‪#‎Kashmir‬ was Christened Ragniya Ratri In Kashmir a number of shrines are deciated to ‪#‎Mother‬ Goddess at Tiker, Bhuvaneshvar, Manzgam (Noor-abad) Bheda, Lo-qraer-pur, Mani-gam, Rai-than and Baed-pur, but the Shrine at Tul-Mul is the most famous one and hence the focus of yatris. 360 springs (nagas) are said to have gathered there. Ragniya is a Sattavie form of Mother Goddess, i.e. the form of tranquility and bliss.

Maharagini is the form of ‪#‎Durga‬ . In Rajtarangini, Tula Mula and the spring of Maharagya has been considered very ‪#‎sacred‬ and the brahmins of Tula Mula considered notable for their spiritual prowess. Thousands of years ago, many ‪#‎floods‬ occurred in Kashmir and the sacred spring of Tula Mula was inundated under its sway and the holy place could nowhere be traced. At last, Kashmir's Yogi Krishna Pandit had a dream in which the Goddess appeared to him and directed that she would swim in the form of a ‪#‎snake‬ at the proper place and that he should stick large poles to demarcate the holy spot in the marsh land. Subsequently, when the water subsided there the holy spot was discovered. This event happened during the Samvat 4041 (Hindu lunar date).

Abu'l-Fazl ibn Mubarak in his book Aini-Akbari mentions the area of Tula Mula extending over a region of hundred bighas (unit of land area) of land, which used to sink in the marshy lands during the summer season.

Swami ‪#‎Rama‬ Tirtha and Swami ‪#‎Vivekananda‬ also visited here to have the darshan of the place.

In the past, with incessant offering of milk and sugar candy in the spring by pilgrims, a thick layer of offerings had accumulated at its base. When it was cleared, the ruins of an old temple and shrine slabs engraved with figures were discovered. Here many images were also found but nobody rebuilt the temple till the Samvat 1969 (Hindu lunar date) when Maharaja Pratap Singh who was the disciple of the Goddess, got a temple of marble made in the midst of the spring which shines like a pearl in a shell. The marble temple was completed in 1920s. Some people are of the opinion that there was a mulberry tree near holy spot of Kheer Bhawani which, in local language, is called tul mul. But tul mul is also derived from the Sanskrit word atulya mulya meaning great value. It is believed that Ravana, after his worship of the Goddess, offered her kheer (rice pudding), which she accepted and since then it is called Kheer Bhawani.