When marching on 15th September 1895, from Anantnag towards Sukru, Stein received the first information bearing on the object of his search. An old Brahman villager whom Stein met near Tsitrgom on the table land of Zainapor, knew that Bheda Devi was worshiped at the place of Hal-Mughalpor in Sukru. Stein accordingly marched on the following day to this place. He had no difficulty in finding Suraj Kaul, the Purohit who somewhat to his surprise conducted him straight in the village itself to the site at which Bheda Devi was worshipped then. Stein found this to consist of a small enclosure round a magnificent old Chinar tree.
At the foot of latter, a few small lingams and fragments of old sculptures were collected on a rough stone platform. But it was clear to Stein on the first sight that this rustic shrine, situated in the level plan of the valley and some miles distant from the forests could not be the site where Saraswati was worshipped. The legend described, “there the goddess Saraswati herself is seen in the form of a swan on a lake situated on the summit of the Bheda hill which is sanctified by the Ganga source. Portrayed as a beautiful young women, Saraswati the wife of Brahma is the patron of art, music and letters and is the divine being who invented Sanskrit language and Devanagari script. She holds the lute and has a swan in attendance”. |
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A view of Haramukh Peaks |
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In the course of his inquiries about the sacred springs and other places of worship in the vicinity, he had heard for the first time the mention of Budabror. Following his local directions, Stein marched on the same day via Buchpur and Masvor, to Killar, a hill village situated on the spur which ascends towards Drabgam. Arrived there in camp, Stein had no difficulty in obtaining further information about Budabror. According to Stein, all the old men of the village whether Kashmiri peasants or Gujjars knew the place. One of them, a man of great age gave Stein the accurate description of the Naga. This man remembered that in his youth old Brahman pilgrims would bathe in the water of springs.
Stein’s search brought him to a remote idyllic spot. The path led along a well cultivated ridge through a charming forest scenery following a mountain stream to an area where small grassy meadows were hugged by thickly wooded spurs of mountains. The bend of the stream held a hillock and on its summit he found a man-made pool with its corners oriented to the cardinal points. As at other ritual baths, stone steps surrounded the tank of limpid water wherein the pilgrims had made their ablutions. Though badly decayed, they still showed reliefs of the carving of a superior kind and of old workmanship.
Stein noticed the scattered fragments of the carved figures and scenes and traces of old walls. An old Gujjar, Khaira aged about seventy five years and who had passed some forty summers at Budabror, and who brought buffalo there for summer grazing, informed Stein that he well remembered the occasional visits of Brahmans who bathed in the spring and performed Sraddhas. According to Khaira, the water in the tank never froze and always remained at the same level though springs bubbling up fed it copiously.
Always precise and methodical in his surveys of the ancient places, Stein unfortunately had forgotten to carry a thermometer to the site. He was unable to take the temperature of the spring water. But he was sure that the long sought shrine was the sacred basin, “sanctified by the Ganga source”. |
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