June is when Guru ki Nagri Amritsar sizzles. But this year, people are waiting for mid June to arrive. For that is when the last one kilometre stretch leading up to the Durgiana Mandir will be thrown open to the public as a heritage walk, with a new heritage look to match.
Just outside the Hathi Gate—one of the twelve gates that lead to the Walled City of Amritsar—the Durgiana Mandir is a replica of the Golden Temple, and those not familiar with the latter can easily mistake the photo of the Durga temple with the Harmandir Sahib. Both have golden domes and golden sheet embossed walls outside and inside, both are in the centre of a rectangular pond—sarovar. And both have marble paved prakarma or parikrama around the pool, and a causeway leads pilgrims to the temple in the centre .
On Monday, Navjot Singh Sidhu, the Punjab minister for local government, tourism, cultural affairs and museums inspected the work in progress. He said the funds had been released, the work was moving smoothly, and that it could be ready by June. “It will be a heritage road along the lines developed outside the Golden Temple. The walk will start from the Hathi Gate. One side of this road will be cobbled pathway for pedestrians, where vehicles will not be allowed. The walkways and the facade will be new,” explained Sidhu, adding that it will also decongest the very crowded road outside the walled city.
The Durgiana Mandir, also called the Lakshmi Narain Mandir, was built in 1925 such that it took in an ancient Mata Sheetla Devi Mandir. It was inaugurated by Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya who collected the funds, along with Guru Har Sahai Mal Kapoor and Nathu Ram Rangwale who are believed to have worked round the clock on the temple project, from before start to after finish.
A tall silver gate leads pilgrims into the temple. Like the Golden Temple, the Durgiana Mandir also has a Darshni Deori.
But over the years, the road outside became filthy, congested and packed with beggars. The government had begun acquiring shops around the temple to decongest the area and implement a beautification plan almost five years ago.
It is where history and myths, and of course, prayers and devotion co-exist.
Some locals will tell you that Hindus, too, prayed at the Golden Temple till their idols were allegedly thrown into the waters of the Amrit Sarovar, leading to the idea of a similar but separate temple. But the temple management committee members say that Sita and her sons, Lava and Kusha, were in Balmiki's Ashram in Amritsar, and that alone was the reason for the decision to build a grand temple in the city.