Krimchi Temple Complex: Beautiful place faces gross neglect
Jammu, May 25: Krimchi Temple Complex in Udhampur district is one of the most beautiful places in Jammu attracting large number of tourists particularly trackers but despite its historic value, beautiful location and marvelous architecture the place has largely been neglected and in a way abandoned by the administration for the reason better known to the authorities.
Had it not been so this temple complex should have been on the national and international tourist map long ago but its neglect can be gauged from the fact that even the approach road to the temple complex is not worth talking about and people face tough time to reach to the destination even as it has been kept hidden from the prospective tourists who include pilgrims, trackers, sightseeing and history seeking tourists.
This place needs to be developed and brought to the fore front as it can act an added attraction not only to the tourists visiting Mtaa Vaishnodevi ji shrine but also those visiting Patnitop, Sanasar, and of course Kashmir valley.
The 8th century Krimchi Temple Complex is located at village Krimchi on Udhampur-Panchari road at a distance of 12 km from District Headquarters Udhampur and is being maintained by Archeological Survey of India (ASI) which has marked these temples with numbers from 1 to 7 for easy identification.
However according to religious beliefs these temples date back to Mahabharata time with legend having it that the temples were build by Kichak King a contemporary of Pandavas even as it is also said that temples were not built at a time but over a period of time one by one.
Krimchi used to be a halt station on Jammu-Kashmir trade route and it is said that Kichak king a contemporary of Pandavas laid the foundation of Krimchi. Kichak was killed by Pandavas and Krimchi remained kingless for many centuries. According to revenue records Bhupal Singh of village Landhar came to Krimchi and constructed his palace within the walls of fort on Garh top. He had no off springs and Krimchi became kingless again. According to Diwan Narsingh Dass Nargis King Puran Karan sent his son Dayakaran to Kashmir on the demand of people. His successors ruled Kashmir for fifty five generations.
King Som Dutt of same clan came to Krimchi and established his Principality namely Bhuti. The area up to village Landhar was included with Bhuti with its capital at Krimchi. After ruling for next twelve generations by his successors Bhatyal Rajputs, there was a large expansion in the family and many of them settled down at other places. King Bhadur Singh of same lineage ruled Bhuti during the period Ranjit Dev of Jammu. Himmat Singh was the last ruler of Bhuti and principality was merged with Jammu by Maharaja Gulab Singh in 1834 AD.
The temple No. 1 is most developed and ornamented as it depicts large size mouldings, niches for dash-dikpals and saptmatrikas in addition to prasava devtas. A beautiful standing image of four armed vaikuntha Vishnu is enshrined in garbagriha.
The local people call this group of temples as Pandava temples and hold the belief that the temples were originally built by Pandavas during their exile period. Some scholars date these temples to second century AD built by Kushan ruler on way to Kashmir.
This beautiful temple complex needs immediate attention of the tourism department as well as the local legislators so that this place can be highlighted and included into the itinerary of the pilgrim tourists and other leisure and track lovers besides students of history to promote yet another place for tourism in Jammu. (With inputs from various sources)