Chaurasi: Eighty Four Shrines in One Courtyard

The complex's name and origin are explained by a story about a childless king.

As it is told:

• Sahil Varman, ruler of the Chamba kingdom, had no sons
• Eighty four siddhas, accomplished yogis, arrived at Bharmour on their way to Manimahesh
• The king received them with hospitality and they stayed
• Pleased with him, they blessed him
• He was granted ten sons and a daughter, Champavati
• The eighty four shrines were built in the siddhas' honour, one for each
• Champavati later became the deity of a temple at Chamba, and the city is named for her

Champavati. The second half of the story is the more affecting one and it belongs here.

As it is told:

• Champavati, Sahil Varman's daughter, was of a religious disposition and visited a sadhu regularly
• Her father suspected her and followed her to see what she was doing
• On entering the place, he found nobody, and a voice told him that his daughter had been taken because of his suspicion
• He was instructed to build a temple in her name
• The Champavati temple at Chamba was built, and the town of Chamba is named after her

That is a story about a father whose suspicion of his daughter cost him his daughter, and it is told at Chamba as an explanation of the town's name.

The siddhas. The eighty four siddhas are a genuine tradition and worth knowing about.

• The Mahasiddhas, generally counted as eighty four, are figures of the tantric Buddhist and Nath traditions
• They are described as having attained siddhis, accomplishments or powers, through tantric practice
• They come from every social background, including many from the lowest positions in society, which is part of the point
• The list includes Saraha, Nagarjuna, Luipa, Virupa, Matsyendranath and Gorakhnath among others
• They appear in both Buddhist and Hindu transmissions of the tradition, with overlapping lists

Why the siddha tradition matters. It is one of the most interesting things in medieval Indian religion.

• It held that liberation was available through practice rather than through birth or learning
• Its figures were frequently from outside the orthodox structures, including washermen, fishermen, hunters and prostitutes in the traditional accounts
• It was transmitted across the Hindu and Buddhist boundary, and the same figures appear on both sides
• It carried into Tibet, where the Mahasiddhas are central to Vajrayana lineage
• It shaped the Nath tradition, hatha yoga, and through them a great deal of later Indian devotional practice

And why they turn up here. Bharmour is on the route to Manimahesh, and the siddhas are described as passing through on their way to the mountain.

That is exactly the kind of place such figures appear in the traditions: at the edge of settlement, on the way to somewhere higher, staying briefly with somebody who fed them, and leaving a blessing behind.

The eighty four shrines in a courtyard in a small Himalayan town are what that blessing looks like thirteen hundred years later.

The two wooden temples at Bharmour and the related one at Chhatrari are among the most important surviving objects in Indian art history, and almost nobody visits them.

Lakshana Devi temple, Bharmour:

• A wooden temple in the Chaurasi complex, small and unassuming from outside
• Dating to around the seventh century
• Holding a brass image of Mahishasuramardini, the goddess killing the buffalo demon
• The image carries an inscription naming Meru Varman as the patron and Gugga as the craftsman

Shakti Devi temple, Chhatrari:

• About 45 km from Bharmour, in a village on a different route
• A wooden temple of the same period and tradition
• Holding a brass image of Shakti Devi, also attributed to the same period and patron

Why these matter:

• Wooden architecture of this age is extremely rare anywhere. Timber rots, burns and is eaten. Buildings of the seventh century in wood survive in very few places in the world
• The brass images are among the earliest dated metal images from the Himalayan region
• They carry inscriptions naming both the patron and the craftsman, which is exceptionally rare
• They establish a date for a regional style, which anchors the chronology of Himalayan art

The craftsman named. This deserves emphasis for the reasons set out in the Ramappa entry.

The Lakshana Devi image names Gugga as its maker. That means we have, from the seventh century, a metal image of the highest quality with the name of the person who made it recorded on it.

For comparison, we do not know who carved the great majority of Indian sculpture from any period.

The woodwork. The temples are examples of the Himalayan timber tradition and the carving is remarkable.

• Doorframes carved with river goddesses, foliage, dwarves and geometric bands
• Ceilings with coffered and carved panels
• Structural members shaped and decorated
• The style shows contact with Kashmiri and Gupta period traditions, which places the western Himalaya in a wider artistic network

The Kashmir connection. Worth noting because it is the key to understanding these buildings.

The western Himalaya, including Chamba, Kinnaur, Lahaul and Ladakh, was in sustained contact with Kashmir, which was a major centre of Sanskrit learning, Buddhist scholarship and art through the first millennium.

Kashmiri artistic influence is visible across the region, including in:

• The Bharmour and Chhatrari brasses
• The bronzes of Ladakh and the western Tibetan monasteries
• The temple architecture of Kinnaur and Lahaul
• The wall paintings at Alchi and Tabo, which are among the great survivals of Indian and Tibetan Buddhist art

When you look at the goddess in the wooden shed at Bharmour, you are looking at an object made in a tradition that connected this valley to Kashmir, to Gupta India and, through Buddhist transmission, to Central Asia and Tibet.

Condition and access. The temples are small, dark and in worship. Photography is restricted. Treat them as shrines rather than as exhibits, and understand that you are being permitted into a thirteen hundred year old wooden building that people are still using.

It is worth asking directly how a wooden building lasted thirteen hundred years in a seismic zone with heavy snow, because the answer explains a great deal about Himalayan architecture.

Deodar:

• Cedrus deodara, the Himalayan cedar
• The name comes from devadaru, the timber of the gods
• Naturally resistant to rot and insect attack because of its resins
• Strong for its weight and workable
• Grows to great size at these altitudes

Deodar is the reason Himalayan wooden architecture exists. It is one of the best structural timbers in the world and it grows exactly where these temples are.

Kath kuni construction:

• Alternating horizontal courses of dressed stone and timber beams
• Timber members interlocked at the corners without nails
• No mortar
• The result is a wall that is heavy, stable, and able to flex

Why it survives earthquakes:

• Rigid masonry cracks under seismic loading, because it cannot deform
• A kath kuni wall can move slightly and return, absorbing energy
• The timber ties act as continuous reinforcement through the wall
• Loads are distributed rather than concentrated

This is not an accident. It is a solution developed over centuries in a place that has earthquakes, by people who observed what stood and what fell.

Why it is disappearing:

• Deodar is protected and difficult to obtain legally, for good conservation reasons
• Kath kuni requires skilled carpenters and takes time
• Concrete is faster, is perceived as modern, and can be built by anyone
• Government schemes have historically favoured concrete
• The result is that traditional buildings are being replaced with structures that perform worse in earthquakes

The 1905 evidence. After the Kangra earthquake, observers noted that traditional timber laced buildings had performed considerably better than masonry ones.

The same observation was made after the 1991 Uttarkashi and 2005 Kashmir earthquakes, and after the 2015 Nepal earthquake, where traditional timber framed buildings in some cases outperformed poorly built concrete ones.

Engineers and conservation architects working in the Himalaya now take traditional construction seriously as a seismic technology rather than as heritage, and there are active efforts to document and revive it.

Other Himachali temple forms worth recognising:

• The pagoda temple, with tiered timber and slate roofs, as at Prashar and in Kullu
• The pent roof temple, with a sloping timber roof over a stone core
• The shikhara temple in stone, as at Bharmour's Manimahesh temple and at Chamba
• The chhatri or umbrella roof, a wooden canopy built over a stone shikhara to shed snow, which is described in the Chamba entry

That last is the most characteristically Himachali solution: a stone temple in the north Indian idiom, with a wooden hat on it because it snows.

The Chaurasi complex is used in a particular way and it is worth knowing before arriving.

The parikrama:

• Devotees walk a circuit of the courtyard, visiting the shrines
• The full circuit of all eighty four is undertaken by those making a serious observance
• It is customary before the Manimahesh yatra
• Children of the town are traditionally made to complete the circuit as part of local practice

The principal shrines to visit:

• Manimahesh temple, the largest, a stone shikhara temple to Shiva, with a Nandi in brass before it
• Lakshana Devi, the wooden temple, which is the one that matters most
• Narsingh temple, with a brass image
• Ganesha temple, also with an early brass image
• Dharmeshwar Mahadev, associated with Dharmaraja, that is Yama

The Dharmeshwar association. This is unusual and worth knowing.

Local tradition holds that Dharmaraja, Yama, holds court here, and that souls are judged at this shrine. The temple is accordingly associated with the dead, and it is said that the soul passes through Bharmour.

That gives the courtyard a dimension most visitors are unaware of. It is a place where the town's children play, where pilgrims prepare for Manimahesh, and where the god of death is held to sit in judgement.

The brass Nandi. The Nandi before the Manimahesh temple is an early metal image and is one of the notable objects in the complex. Look at it rather than walking past.

How the courtyard functions. This is the part that makes Bharmour worth spending time in rather than photographing quickly.

The Chaurasi is not a fenced monument. It is the middle of the town.

• Children play in it
• People cross it going about their business
• It is where the community gathers
• Shrines are worshipped daily by residents, not only by pilgrims

That arrangement, a thirteen hundred year old temple complex serving as a village square, is how Indian sacred sites worked before the era of ticketing and fencing, and there are not many places left where you can see it.

Behaviour:

• Remove footwear at the entrance to the paved area, as residents do
• Do not photograph inside the shrines without asking
• Do not photograph people, especially children, without permission
• Sit at the edge and watch for a while before doing anything else
• Remember that this is somebody's town centre and behave as you would in one

Bharmani Mata. As noted in the Manimahesh entry, local practice holds that a visit to the Bharmani Mata temple, a few kilometres above Bharmour, should precede the Manimahesh yatra.

It is a walk of around 4 km up from the town, takes a couple of hours return, and is a good acclimatisation exercise as well as the correct order of observance.

Getting there

• Bharmour, Chamba district, Himachal Pradesh, at about 2,200 metres
• About 65 km from Chamba by road, through the Ravi and Budhil valleys
• Pathankot is the nearest major railhead, about 180 km
• Gaggal and Amritsar for air
• Buses run from Chamba; the road is mountain road and takes considerably longer than the distance suggests

Timings

• The Chaurasi complex is open through the day; individual shrines have their own timings
• The wooden temples have restricted access at times. Ask locally

When to go

• May to October for access. The road can be affected by snow and landslides outside this
• August to September for the Manimahesh yatra, when the town is at its busiest
• May, June and October for quieter conditions and good weather
• Winter is cold and access can be difficult

How long to stay

• Most visitors come for a few hours en route to Manimahesh
• The complex deserves half a day at least
• A night at Bharmour is worth it, both for the acclimatisation if you are going to Manimahesh and because the courtyard in the evening, with the town using it, is the best time to be there

What to prioritise

• The Lakshana Devi wooden temple and its brass image, which is the single most important thing at Bharmour
• The Manimahesh stone temple and its brass Nandi
• The Narsingh and Ganesha brasses
• The Dharmeshwar shrine
• Walking the full circuit slowly

Chhatrari. If you have any interest in the wooden temples, make the effort to reach Chhatrari, about 45 km from Bharmour on a separate road from Chamba, for the Shakti Devi temple.

It is a village with almost no visitor traffic, the temple is of the same period and tradition as Lakshana Devi, and the two together are the complete surviving record of a major artistic moment.

Combining the visit

• Manimahesh, from Hadsar, 13 km beyond Bharmour
• Bharmani Mata, above the town
• Chamba town, with the Lakshmi Narayan temples and the Bhuri Singh Museum
• Chhatrari, for the Shakti Devi temple
• Kugti and the upper Budhil valley
• Khajjiar and Dalhousie, between Chamba and Pathankot

A suggested route. Pathankot to Chamba, a day at Chamba for the Lakshmi Narayan group and the museum, then to Bharmour for the Chaurasi and Bharmani Mata, then the Manimahesh yatra if in season, returning via Chhatrari.

A closing thought. There is a small wooden building in a courtyard in a mountain town, unlabelled, with children playing outside it.

Inside is a brass image of a goddess killing a demon, made in the seventh century by a man named Gugga, who signed it, for a king named Meru Varman, who paid for it.

There is not much else in India of that age that can tell you both those names.