Hari Parbat Fort in JK again closed for public

Srinagar, Apr 24: The Hari Parbat, situated on the banks of the world famous Dal Lake and positioned atop a hill sacred to Goddess Sharika overlooking the Srinagar city, has been closed for the public from today till the completion of restoration and renovation work of the Mughal Fort.

According to the Directorate of Tourism, Kashmir, the renovation and restoration work of the Fort being carried out by the Department of Archives through the Jammu and Kashmir Projects Construction Corporation (JKPCC) had been badly hampered due to the heavy rush of visitors to the historical site.

The Directorate, through a notification, informed the general public that the Fort area would remain closed till the completion of the renovation work.

The Hari Parbat Fort would be formally thrown open to the public on completion of the restoration work, it added.

It had been thrown open to the general public on April 18 after remaining shut for the visitors for about 18 years since the outbreak of violence in the Kashmir valley in 1989.

The Fort was declared open for tourists and the locals by Tourism Director Farooq Ahmad Shah on World Heritage Day.

During these 18 years, the Fort was occupied by the security forces and nobody allowed to visit the place.

The Fort was originally built by Mughal Emperor Akbar, but the present structure owes itself to the Afghan governor of Kashmir, Atta Mohammad Khan, in the 18th century in 1776.

The Fort has two gates - Kathi Darwaza and Sangin Darwaza. Kathi Darwaza is the main entrance with Persian commemorative inscriptions surrounding it while Sangin Darwaza is more ornate with sculptured windows on either side.

It has a Parvati temple on the western slope and the Muslim shrines of Khwaja Makhdoom Sahib and Akhund Mullah Shah on the southern side. Also on the southern side of the outer wall there is a Gurdwara, Chatti Padshahi, which commemorates the visit of Guru Hargobind Singh to Kashmir.

According to local legend, the Hari Parbat hill was once a lake inhabited by a demon, Jalobhava. The residents sought the help of Goddess Sati in getting the rid of the demon.

She took the form of a bird and dropped a pebble on the demon's head. The pebble kept on increasing in size until the demon was crushed by it. Hari Parbat is revered as that pebble and is said to have become the home for all 33 crore gods of the Hindu pantheon.

Another legend says that two demons -- Tsand and Mond -- occupied the Kashmir valley. Tsand conceded himself in water near the present location of Hari Parbat and Mond somewhere above Dalgate.

The demons were a menace to the people of the Valley, which could not be inhabited owing to their presence. The gods invoked Goddess Parvati who assumed the form of a Hor (myna) and flew to Sumer from where she got a pebble and threw that on Tsand to crush the demon.

The pebble grew into a mountain. She is worshipped as Sharika in Shri Tsakra (an emblem of cosmic energy pervading the universe) occupying the middle part of the western slope of the hill, also called Predemna Peet or Kohi Maran.

Akbar built the outer wall of the Fort in 1590 at a cost of Rs one crore and ten lakh. The inscription in Persian at the Kathi Darwaza commemorating the work could be read even today. Akbar intended to lay the foundation for a new capital inside the fort and call it Nagar Nagor. The ruins of certain terraces could still be seen on the side of the Pokhiri Bal.

According to Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH-Jammu and Kashmir chapter) convenor M Saleem Beigh, the five-km-long Hari Parbat Fort was the longest surviving wall of any city in the sub-continent.

However, he said the Fort was also one of the unprotected sites.

UNI