DNA Special: The real truth of the holy Amarnath cave

The speed of lies is so quick that the truth is always left behind. So far behind that the world starts believing this truth to be a lie again. This has happened in the history of our country many times. 

Is the history that you have been reading for decades, is it completely correct? Was it not mixed? Today, we will introduce you to one such truth. 

This truth is associated with the Amarnath cave, one of the main religious places of Lord Shiva. It has been reiterated many times by historians and a certain section of our country that the Amarnath cave was discovered in the year 1850 by a Muslim shepherd named Buta Malik.

A whole story is told behind it. It is said that this person was grazing his sheep and goats one day. During that time this person met a monk. This monk presented a bag full of coal to Buta Malik and after that asked him to leave from there. When this person reached home and opened this bag, he saw that instead of coal in this bag were gold coins. 

Seeing this, this Muslim shepherd was shocked. He did not believe that a monk gave him a bag full of coal but the coal in that bag turned into gold coins. It was a miracle for him. So he came to thank this monk in his cave. But it is said that he did not find that monk in this cave. But when this person entered the cave, there the white Shivling made of snow was shining like some form of gold. He returned and told this to the people of the village and it is claimed that in this way the Amarnath cave was discovered in the year 1850.

That is, this story establishes that the Amarnath cave and Baba Barfani, the center of Hindu faith, were discovered by a Muslim shepherd. This is the truth related to the Amarnath cave, which has been told to us for decades. This event has also been recognized by many historians of our country. But is this the truth of the Amarnath cave? Did Buta Malik discover the Amarnath cave? Today, we will take you to the root of this story, and the real truth of Amarnath cave. 

The real truth of the Amarnath cave

Amarnath Cave is located in Anantnag district of Jammu and Kashmir. Its height is 5,486 meters above sea level. The length of this cave is 19 meters and the width is 16 meters. The importance of this cave is not only due to the formation of natural Shivling. It is believed that here Lord Shiva narrated the story of immortality to Goddess Parvati. That is, she was given discourses about being immortal. That is why there is such a belief that Lord Shiva resides in this cave. The Parvati Peeth located in this cave is one of the 51 Shakti Peethas and it is also believed that the throat part of Sati fell here.

According to mythology, the path that Lord Shiva took to reach this cave, the first stop in was Pahalgam. He had earlier left his ride i.e. Nandi, at this place. Hence this place was called Pahalgam. This place is about 90 kms from Srinagar.

After Pahalgam, the second route on the way to this cave comes to Chandanbari. It is believed that Lord Shiva abandoned the Moon from his head here. Then the moon waited for Lord Shiva to return, hence the place was called Chandanbari. A little ahead of Chandanbari is Pissu Top. It is said that there was a great fight between the gods and the demons for the darshan of Amarnath. At that time with the help of Lord Shiva, the Devas had defeated the demons and a mountain was formed from the dead bodies of the demons. It is said that since then this place has been known as Pissu Top. 

The next place is Sheshnag. Lord Shiva removed the snake from his neck and kept it here. There is also a lake of blue water, which proves that it is the place of Sheshnag. After Sheshnag there are places like Mahagun Parvat and Panchtarni. It is believed that Lord Shiva sacrificed five Panchabhutas here. That is, earth, water, air, sky and fire were renounced. Hence this place was called Panchtarni. After this comes the Amarnath cave, where Shivling is made from ice.

The Linga Purana was written in the fifth century, 1400 years older than the story of Buta Malik.  In the 12th chapter on its page number 487, the 151st verse is very important. The meaning of Amareshwar written in this verse is Baba Barfani, who is also known as Amareshwar, who is seated in Amarnath. 

Amarnath is mentioned in the Linga Purana written in the fifth century. Then where did the story of Buta Malik come from?

In the 12th century, a treatise was composed by Kalhana, the ancient historian of Kashmir, which is popularly known as Rajat-Rangini. The 267th verse on its page number 280 is related to the Amarnath cave. It is said that Amarnath Yatra started only after 1850, but is also mentioned in the book written in the 12th century. However, this evidence does not end here.

Ain-Akbari was composed in the 16th century by Abul Fazl, one of the Navaratnas of the Mughal emperor Akbar. It is written on page number 360 of its second volume that there is an ice figure in a cave, which is called Amarnath. This is a holy place and at the time of full moon, snowdrops form a figure, which people consider to be the figure of Mahadev and it starts melting slowly after the new moon. Apart from this, in the 17th century itself, the famous French Physician François Bernier also mentions the Amarnath cave in his book.

The famous British explorer Godfrey Thomas Vigne also visited India, traveled to Kashmir from the year 1835 to 1838 ad in one of his books written in the year 1842, he had mentioned the experience related to this journey. This book is written in two parts. Its first part i.e. page number 148 of the first volume mentions Pahalgam and Amarnath cave while on page number 7 and 8 of the second part of this book it is described to reach Amarnath cave via Pahalgam. In this, he tells that on the 15th day of the month of Sawan, worship is being done in the cave of Amarnath and devotees are coming from every corner of India in this worship. This book was written in 1842. That is, eight years before the so-called discovery of Buta Malik. 

But in spite of this the historians of our country spread this lie so much that the Amarnath cave was discovered by a Muslim shepherd and before that no one knew about it. You will be more surprised to know here that the descendants of Buta Malik guarded the Amarnath cave for many decades and the descendants of Buta Malik used to get one-third of the offerings made by the devotees here. This cycle continued till the year 2000. 

But after this, the then Vajpayee government formed the Amarnath Shrine Board and the part of the donation received by the descendants of Buta Malik was stopped. The thing we want to tell you today is that only those people who are powerful write history. 

Even today the people of our country know the same truth about the Amarnath cave, which was propagated by the historians of our country for decades. Whereas the truth is that the reality of the Amarnath cave, its history, its splendor and its identity is centuries old.

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