Madhukshara Kishwar | Srinagar | HENB | May 8, 2022:: Shankaracharya Jayanti was celebrated very on May 7th after a long pause at the Sun Temple Martand heritage site in Jammu and Kashmir’s Anantnag. The celebration in Adi Shankaracharya Jayanti which was also halted for three years in Srinagar for Covid-19 situation that also resumed enthusiastically this year.  Many Hindu seers and participants in the functions have also issued calls for the Sharda Peeth temple – a famous holy site for Kashmiri Pandits that is located in Pakistan occupied Kashmir (POK) – to be made accessible to devotees.

“We request Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Kashmir Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha to open access to Sharda Peeth in PoK…so that we can undertake darshan and puja there,” a seer seated amid the ruins that make up the Martand Sun Temple today. He also called for repair work to be undertaken on the temple premises.

Kashmiri Pandit organisations have incidentally been demanding the opening of the Sharda Peeth corridor for many years now.

Despite the precarious security situation in some parts of the Valley, nearly 200 saints and vedic priests from south India are presently camping in Srinagar. The initiative was taken by Kanchi Kamkoti Peetham Pontiff – Shankaracharya Vijayendra Saraswati. The programme is also cosponsored by an organisation, “One India-Powerful India”.

The five-day event commemorates the visit of saint Adi Shankaracharya – a Vedic scholar and teacher who hailed from Kerala and had travelled across India and Kashmir. Shankaracharya popularized the Vedanta philosophy when Buddhism was the dominating religion with many evil pursuits in the Indian subcontinent.

A special program has been organised at the ancient Shankaracharya Temple overlooking the Dal Lake. The event is organized by the ‘One India Strong India’ with the support of civil administration and different religious and social groups of Kashmiri Hindus.

“The event is organized on a big platform. It will be a befitting tribute to the great saint. His visit contributed greatly to the philosophical and spiritual revival of Hinduism. It was in Kashmir where he engaged in debates with scholars,” organiser Vidhu Sharma told news agency ANI.