106-yr-old wooden temple in Gulmarg featured in Bollywood song ‘Jai Jai Shiv Shankar’ gutted in a fire

Investigation reveals a short circuit led to the fire and the burnt idols were immersed in a river after a ceremony. The temple, maintained by Dharma Trust, will soon be reconstructed.

The gutted Shiv Temple in Gulmarg | Photo: By special arrangement

Srinagar: It all started with a short circuit in a MCB at 3.33 am. In less than a minute, a fire had engulfed the entirety of the 106-year-old Maharani temple in Kashmir’s Gulmarg, reducing it to ashes — this is how the ancient temple in the Valley was gutted Wednesday, ThePrint has learnt.

A wooden structure, the Maharani Temple, also known as Rani Temple, is situated on a knoll in the Gulmarg Hill station. The temple was constructed by Mohini Bai Sisodia, wife of the last ruler of Kashmir, Maharaja Hari Singh.

Although there were no casualties, the ancient temple was completely damaged, along with hundred-year-old idols of the deities inside, that have now been immersed in a river, after a ceremony. Following the incident, Jammu and Kashmir Police registered a case.

“We accessed the CCTV footage which shows that it was around 3,33 am that a spark started from the top of the temple in an MCB. There was some smoke and in less than a minute the flames engulfed the entire temple,” a senior police officer privy to the matter said. “Within 10 minutes, the entire temple was gutted,” he added.

Since Gulmarg is primarily a non-residential area, no casualties were reported.

The officer said that it was a shopkeeper, who runs a kiosk in the area, who first saw the sparks and informed the fire department as well as the caretaker of the temple, a Muslim, who stays adjacent to the temple.

“Investigation has revealed that it was a short circuit that led to the fire. It is a completely wooden structure, because of which the fire spread very fast. There are several lamps, fans inside, and we suspect that a wiring fault may have led to this,” the officer said. He added that on the night of the fire, the weather was also bad with storms and lightning. That, too, may have contributed.

In ancient times, this temple was considered as the royal temple of the kings of Dogra and is being maintained by the Dharma Trust.

The temple before the fire | Photo: By special arrangement

This temple, also known as Mohineshwar Shivalaya, was designed in a way so that it could be seen from all corners of Gulmarg and had idols of Shiva, and his consort, Goddess Parvati, and a Shivling. The temple was also filmed in the Rajesh Khanna-and Mumtaz-starrer hit film Aap Ki Kasam in the song ‘Jai Jai Shiv Shankar’.

‘Everything is charred, restoration to start soon’

Speaking to ThePrint, Manzoor, who has been the caretaker of the temple for the last 12 years, said, “It is extremely unfortunate. I was shocked when I saw the temple up in flames that night.”

A kiosk owner had informed Manzoor about the fire in the wee hours of Wednesday.

“That night there was a storm with heavy lightning so I shut the temple around 8.45 pm and retired to my room. At around 3.30 am, I got a call from a kiosk owner about the fire and I rushed to see what had happened. The temple was up in flames. Since he had already informed the fire department, they reached the spot within minutes,” he said.

The fire tenders took over 3 hours to completely douse the fire, but nothing inside the temple could be saved.

“I have been taking care of this temple for 12 years. Before me, another Muslim caretaker was there, who retired. He was here for 40 years. It pains me to see that the entire temple, including the idols, were completely charred. The police are saying that short circuit led to this,” he said. “The idols have been immersed in the river after a pooja,” he said.

Since the temple is maintained by the Dharma Trust, which also maintains hundreds of other temples in J&K, the officials will start work on its restoration soon.

Speaking to ThePrint, Additional Secretary of Dharma Trust, Avinash Fotedar, said that they have already lined up architects and contractors for the temple’s restoration.

“We take full responsibility to reconstruct the temple, which has been completely destroyed. We have already lined up people and we are being assisted by the district authorities for any clearances or logistical support. We will ensure that the temple is restored at the earliest,” Fotedar said.

“It is a challenge to reconstruct the temple as it is, since it was a heritage temple which was 106 years old but we will try our best to reconstruct it. We have not set a timeline for the project, as the weather right now is also unpredictable with rains. But we will prioritise it,” he added.

(Edited by Zinnia Ray Chaudhuri)