Exciting Binwa Valley of Kangra

Shriniwas Joshi

I had gone to Chauntra to talk to mostly the secretaries of panchayats and other officers about the ill-effects of smoking and tobacco. Rahul Chauhan, SDM of Jogindernagar, was also present there. He raised a query which interested me. He said he neither smoked nor had any other vices but he still suffered from hypertension whereas some of his colleagues, who smoked, were fit and fine. Listen Rahul, it certainly does not mean that smoking cures hypertension.

There can be several other reasons for one getting hypertension. One needs to get it checked by a medico. Anyway, Chauntra has grown out of seams and is unrecognisable if I compare it with what it was when I was SDM, Jogindernagar, about 40 years ago. I would be a fool if, today, I look for the pristine beauty, grassy lawns and open spaces, that it had during my tenure.

Only 13 kilometres away from Chauntra is the Binwa Valley in Kangra district. It is picture postcard come alive. A place called Ghatta, with only a police post on the highway, is the boundary between Mandi and Kangra district. Here you sit on the roadside in the shade of pine trees and enjoy the sprawl and swell of the valley. The levelled fields punctuated by the hill-houses and embraced by the rising hills on sides is a sight that is joy forever. Shelley’s words echoed my ears as I was drowned in the charm of the vale: “We look before and after/ And pine for what is not”. Binwa is a tributary of the Beas and the name Binwa or Binoa was first used by Moorcraft and Cunningham and we have accepted it though it does not agree with the local pronunciation, which is Binnun. The District Gazetteers of Kangra (1924-25) reads: “The principal tributaries of the Beas during its course through Kangra proper descend from the lofty range which divides the district from Chamba. The first of these is the Binnun, which rises in the hills above Baijnath, a celebrated hill shrine.” According to Sharada Prashasti, the Binwa was earlier named as Binduka. The Prashasti reads: “Where that river called Binduka, leaping from the lap of the mountain,with sparkling wide waves resembling playing-balls merrily plays, like a bright maiden in the first bloom of youth.”

The modernity has accepted the river as the Binwa and the valley as the Binwa valley. The hydroelectric project on the river is also called Binwa Hydel Project and has installed capacity of 6mw. The engineering marvel of this project is that it has a 62 metre-long tunnel that connects trench weirs in Banu and Prahal khuds.

The Sharada Prashasti also discloses that Baijnath was earlier known as Kiragrama. It says: “There is in Trigarta the pleasant village of Kiragrama, the home of numerous virtues, where that river called Kandukabinduka (kanduk means a ball and kandukbinduka may be taken for ball-like jumping Binduka), leaping from the lap of the mountain, with glittering waves sportingly plays, thus resembling a bright maiden in the first bloom of youth (who jumping from the lap of the nurse gracefully sports). That (village) is protected by the strong-armed Rajanaka Lakshmana. “Rajanaka Lakshmana was none other than the 13th century Katoch king Lakshmanchandra.

Kiragram, now called Baijnath, earns its name from the temple dedicated to Sai Vaidynath (Lord of Physicians). It is said to have been built by two brothers, Manyuka and Ahuka, devout worshippers of Shiva (See photo). This temple uncharacteristically faces west and has two images of Nandi – one seated and the other standing. Enshrined in the sanctum are a stone linga and two stone sculptures of Ganesha and Vishnu-Lakshmi. This temple marked the initial phase of mature temple architecture in Himachal Pradesh. The surroundings of the temple have been developed into lawns and flowerbeds so that devotees rest here and enjoy the ambiance.