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| Hinglaj Mata, Hingol, Balochistan, Pakistan Image courtesy: Wikipedia |
The article was about the Hinglaj Mata (Durga) temple in Hingol, Balochistan, Pakistan. I already knew about this temple, but the article interestingly started by mentioning that this place was also the home of Shabari, a character that Rama meets when He and Lakshma first go north in search of the kidnapped Sita.
Long story short, Shabari, an ascetic woman is told by her ashram guru that Rama will visit and bless her, and she waits all her life until the day Rama and Lakshmana visit her. Her goal of receiving the Lord's blessing completed, she also suggests they go south to seek Sugreeva's help for searching Sita.
It was interesting to learn that Shabari's ashrama was in Hingol. For one, when after Ravana is defeated, someone suggests to Rama that because Lanka was so beautiful they should stay back there, Rama replies saying that however beautiful a foreign land, it is one's homeland that one must go back to. Puranic geography puts the boundary of India as the Sindhu (Indus) river and its tributaries on the northwest, the Himalayas on the north, the Brahmaputra river and its tributaries on the east, and the oceans on the south. So, perhaps we should not draw the boundary of India in the middle of Punjab, but extend beyond even to Balochistan. Maybe there was an Indus tributary there before that has dried up since. Or simpler yet, maybe it didn't matter whether was inside India or outside at that time.
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| Image courtesy Wikipedia |
Interestingly, the two districts - Lahore and Kasur, are neighbouring districts (numbered 17 and 14 on the district map of Punjab, Pakistan) and both border India.
From the Mahabharata, there's also the Katasraj temples (Chakwal district, Punjab, Pakistan) near which the Pandavas are believed to have spent several of their 14 years during the vanavasa.
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