Hindu Temple, Muslim Priests

May 4, 2009

Author: Naveen S Garewal

Source: Tribune News Service

http://www.tribuneindia.com/2009/20090505/main8.htm

This is a place where politicians need to come and take a few lessons in secularism. After militancy forced Hindus to migrate from the Kashmir valley in the 1990s, Muslims have been acting as “priests” and “caretakers” of the ancient Mamalaka Temple on the outskirts of Pahalgam.

Not only has this 900-year-old Shiva temple with a two-foot “shivaling” been preserved in its original form, Mohammad Abdullah and Ghulam Hassan have ensured that all these years the temple did not go without “parshad” or “aarti” even for a single day. Besides the regular rituals, a daily prayer is held here in which the Muslim priests pray for the return of the Hindus, who had migrated.