Durgiana Templeਦੁਰਗਿਆਣਾ ਮੰਦਰ

Amritsar is known across the world for one shrine above all, the Golden Temple, but the city holds a second great temple in a lake of its own. The Durgiana Temple, also called Shri Durgiana Mandir, the Lakshmi Narayan Temple and the Silver Temple, stands in the middle of the Durgiana Sarovar near the Hathi Gate, reached by a bridge, its gilded dome rising over white marble. It is dedicated above all to the goddess Durga, and images of Lakshmi and Vishnu are worshipped here too, which is why many devotees know it by the Lakshmi Narayan name. For Hindu pilgrims coming to Amritsar, this is the city's principal mandir, and it is the natural first entry in Jugti's Punjab mandirs collection.

What is the Durgiana Temple?

The Durgiana Temple is a Hindu temple in Amritsar, Punjab, dedicated to the goddess Durga, with shrines of Lakshmi and Vishnu and smaller historic shrines of Seetla Mata and Bara Hanuman inside the complex. The temple stands in a sacred lake that measures about 160 metres by 130 metres. Its dome and canopies follow the design of the Harmandir Sahib, the Golden Temple, in the same city: a sanctum in the water, a causeway bridge, a gilded dome and marble used throughout. The temple takes one of its nicknames, the Silver Temple, from its large, finely worked silver doors.

An old shrine, rebuilt in 1921

The site is far older than the building a visitor sees today. The original temple is reported to have been built in the 16th century, and a British report of 1880 described a brick temple of the mid 18th century with colour decoration. The Durgiana Sarovar and its Devi Dwara, the goddess's doorway, appear in the Amritsar District Gazetteer of 1893, which records that Hindu pilgrims thronged here. The present temple was rebuilt in 1921 by Guru Harsai Mal Kapoor, a descendant of Prithi Chand and so of Guru Ram Das, who raised it deliberately in the architectural style of the Harmandir Sahib. Some accounts give 1924 for the laying of the foundation stone by Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya, the educationist and founder of Banaras Hindu University. A beautification programme around the temple precincts ran from 2013 to 2015, clearing space for worshippers inside and outside the complex.

In the middle of the water: architecture and shrines

Like its model, the temple is approached across the water, and the view that greets a visitor is of the dome and its reflection together. The dome is gilded and lit with coloured lights after dark, and the complex holds a rich collection of Hindu scriptures. Inside, paintings show Durga in her various forms, and images of Lakshmi Narayan, Radha and Krishna, and Sita and Ram are also worshipped. Two smaller shrines carry their own long histories: the Seetla Mata temple, which gives the complex another of its names, Sitla Mandir, and the Bara Hanuman temple. Temple tradition links the ground to the Ramayana: it is believed locally that Sita spent her last years near here in the ashram of Valmiki, that her sons Luv and Kush grew up in this area, and that a tree in the courtyard is the one to which the boys tied Hanuman after he came with Rama's Ashvamedha horse. These are beliefs held and retold by devotees, and the temple presents them as part of its sacred story.

Festivals at Durgiana

The temple's great days follow the Hindu festival year. Navratri and Dussehra bring its largest crowds, and with them the Langur Mela, when for ten days parents bring children dressed as langurs, the monkey companions of Hanuman, to offer prayers at the Bara Hanuman temple. Janmashtami, Ram Navami and Diwali are also celebrated here with much ceremony. In the month of Sawan, newlywed couples gather to worship Radha and Krishna, the women wearing jewellery made of flowers. The temple stands close to Amritsar railway station, about 1.5 kilometres from the bus station, so most pilgrims pair it with the Golden Temple, Jallianwala Bagh and the old city's bazaars in a single visit. Tobacco, liquor and meat sales are prohibited within 200 metres of both this temple and the Harmandir Sahib.

Why does Amritsar have two great temples in lakes?

Visitors often ask why Durgiana looks so much like the Golden Temple. The answer is in its rebuilding: when Guru Harsai Mal Kapoor raised the present temple in 1921, he chose the Harmandir Sahib's own form, a shrine standing in a sacred pool, as the pattern for his city's Hindu temple. The resemblance is a point of pride in Amritsar, where the two shrines stand a short distance apart and the same streets serve pilgrims of both faiths. Read with Jugti's entry on the Harmandir Sahib, the Durgiana Temple completes the picture of a city built around sacred water. More Punjab mandirs will join it in this collection as Jugti's mandirs in Indian Punjab guide takes shape.