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First
a disclaimer - I am not connected with the
Mata
Shri Chintpurni Temple Trust which
runs the temple and is a government body.
The
Trust can be contacted at:
Mata
Shri Chintpurni Devi Ji
Chintpurni,
Distt. Una (H.P.)
Ph:
+91 01976 255818,
Email:
tochintpurni-hp@nic.in
Website:
Mata Shri Chintpurni Devi Temple
I am
thankful to the authors of a number of
websites from whom I learnt quite a bit about
designing temple websites. I wish to mention
two particularly well-designed websites - the
Naina
Devi and Kangra
Pilgrimage . An invaluable source for
some of the material used came from a booklet
called "Maa Chintpurni" by Pandit Jwalaprasad
Chaturvedi. I wish to express my thanks to Hindugallery.com
from whom I have borrowed the
Chhinnamastika image.
My
son, Anurag Kalia, helped me with manipulating
various images for the website. Shri Yogendra
Yadav and Mohan Sethi encouraged me with their
helpful and constructive suggestions.
I am
thankful to Vasudev Sharan Agrawala, Thomas
Coburn, Katherine Erndl, Karuna
Goswamy, David Kinsley, Mahesh Sharma and many
other scholars whose writings have helped me
clarify the concepts and practices relating to
Devi worship and the interplay of Shaiva,
Shakta and Vaishnava traditions in Himachal
Pradesh.
I am a
descendant of Pandit Mai Das Kalia. Only the
male descendants in the paternal line of
Pandit Mai Das are entitled to perform
priestly duties at the Temple. There are about
200 Kalia families in Chintpurni and these are
divided into 4 tolas. These priests
belong to the same gotra (Bharadwaj). This
would have caused problems since closely
related priests of the same gotra are not
allowed to perform puja to a deity during the
periods of ritual pollution following a birth
or death (sutak and paatak)
in the family. The Kalias claim that when
Goddess said to Pandit Mai Das that only his
descendants would be entitled to perform puja,
she also said, "sutak uar paatak ka vichar
nahin karna" i.e. ignore considerations
of sutak and paatak. So
during periods of birth and death pollution, a
priest from one of the other three tolas
performs puja at the temple.
I am a
"baaridar" of the Temple i.e. we perform puja
etc. when our turn (or "baari") comes and in
return we get a certain percentage of the
offerings made at the Temple.
I
presently live in Australia. If you have any
questions about the Temple or facilities
available in Chintpurni, I'll try to answer it
in the best way I can. I may be able to call
on our extended family who are more
informed than I about these matters.
Please
write to me with your comments and suggestions
for improvement.
Arvind
Kalia
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