Mansa Devi Temple - Haridwar

Site Name: Mansa Devi Temple

Site Type: Hindu Temple 

Location:  Haridwar, Uttarakhand state, India

Highlights: An important temple of Haridwar

Nearest Railway Station: Haridwar

Nearest Airport: Dehradun - 35 kms from Haridwar

How to reach: Well connected by road 

Hotel: A lot of options including low cost and free accommodation such as ashrams

Restaurants: Varieties of options - but only vegetarian

Haridwar is a religious city located on the banks of the beautiful Ganges river in Uttarakhand state of India. The city is an ancient city and has so many sacred places and temples for Hindus. It is considered as one of the seven most sacred sites of Hindus. Haridwar is dotted with a lot of religiously important sites such as temples and ghats. Let us explore a popular temple named Mansa Devi temple in this article.

Mansa Devi Temple is one of the most important temples of Haridwar. (The other two important temples are Maya Devi temple and Chandi Devi temple). It is located on top of the Bilwa Parvat on the Sivalik Hills of the Himalayan range. It is one of the five holy pilgrimages located in Haridwar.

Introduction:

As per the Hindu Puranas, Mansa Devi is a snake Goddess who is the sister of Vasuki serpent, the Naga King and the daughter of Kashyapa rishi. She is considered as the wife of the sage Jagatkaru. However, as per another tradition, she is also considered to be emerged from the mind of Lord Shiva. 

Temple Layout:

The temple which is located at a distance of about 2 kms from the well known landmark Har Ki Pauri can be reached either through trekking route or through cable car (ropeway) service. The trekking route as well as the temple complex has hundreds of monkeys and the devotees need to be very careful. The rope way service in this place is called as Mansa Devi Udankhatola. From the cable car, one can get a very good view of Ganga river and the dense forest.

The temple is very simple in its structure. It is built in the typical North Indian modern day architectural style with simple cone shaped vimanas. There are two idols of Goddess located in the main shrine. The one idol has three heads and five arms whereas the other idol has eight arms. 

Happy travelling.