Wednesday Walk: A Healing Haven of Thousand Springs

Sahastradhara means a water stream consisting of thousands of springs. People come here to see Sahastradhara, take bath here and visit the temple located here. So the thing is that here water keeps dripping from thousands of water streams for twenty-four hours and it is believed that by taking a bath in this water and drinking it, the treatment of extreme diseases and different types of stomach diseases can be done automatically. Travelers from most of the states of India come here and take bath in Sahastradhara.

Sahastradhara River

The ropeway of Sahastradhara

walking towards my destination

This place is about 12 km from Dehradun, the winter capital of Uttarakhand. Being very close to the city, this place is almost full of public in summer. It is a beautiful, calm, delightful and picnic spot. The height here is 870 meters above sea level. In summer, I used to go here daily, wake up at 6 in the morning and reach Sahastradhara by sitting in a local bus. My only aim was to learn to swim in the currents here. I must have gone for 10 days and believe me swimming helped me a lot. I got a little bit of freestyle swimming and the best thing was that I got a lot of breathing practice.

There is a one buddhist home stay as well

The way to temple & cave

Nowadays monsoon is going on and it is raining heavily all over India. In Himachal Pradesh, the situation of flood has remained. Well I wanted to see Sahastradhara in monsoon that how it looks in rains and whether the ponds with streams do not break even in strong water flow? I sit in a blue colored local bus, in which I sit on an empty seat after paying a fare of Rs.20. It starts raining as soon as the bus crosses Gujarat. Well, the faster it started raining, the faster it stopped.

Direction of temple and cave

These orange buildings are free accomodations for pilgrimages

Guru Dronacharya

Some deep hidden caves filled with water

After 35 minutes the bus gets down at Sahastradhara bus stand. If it is monsoon, there are very few tourists. Well, one more thing, nowadays Sawan is going on in our country, Sawan is the fifth month of Hindu calendar, Sawan comes every year in monsoon and lasts for about 40 to 50 days. There are two functions in Sawan, firstly, people go to the river Ganges or any nearby holy river, bathe there and offer the holy water to Lord Shiva in the temple near their house, secondly, the girls keep a fast every Monday. so that they can get a good husband.

The entrance of cave

Inside the cave

From inside the cave

So nowadays the monsoon is going on and devotees are coming to Sahastradhara, taking bath and taking water from here. There are dark clouds in the sky and it may rain. I first go to Drona cave and Shiva temple. Sulfur is accumulated inside the Drona cave and the water falling from it is found in Sahastradhara. The water here has the amount of both sulfur and sulfur which is very good for the body.

Photography is prohibited in the Shiva temple, so could not click even a single photo there. There are Dharamshalas around the temple where there is proper arrangement for the stay of the pilgrims. A Sanskrit verse was written on the wall of the temple which I would like to write here.
““यत्र शुचिता: च स्वच्छतां,
तत्र तिष्ठष्यारोग्य वैभवञ्च सुखम्” (सुश्रुतसहिंता, चिकित्सा 24,91)
Meaning in English: Where they are pure and clean, there will remain health, glory and happiness.
Meaning in Hindi: जहाँ सब शुद्ध और स्वच्छ है, वहाँ स्वास्थ्य, महिमा और ख़ुशी बनी रहेगी..

The entrance of Shiva temple>

Ticket counter to ropeway

Information of Sahastradhara

The street of Sahastradhara

A very beautiful statue of Guru Dronacharya has been installed at the gate of the Shiva temple. It is believed that Guru Dronacharya did penance here. Walking ahead I see Sahastradhara river in which the flow of water is very fast. Some temples are built in caves while some caves are inside the rocks and are filled with water. It is believed that these caves are 4-5 feet deep.

People taking bath in Sahastradhara river

At the mouth of the Drona cave, there is a small idol of Lord Ganesha on which water stream is falling. I take off my gear and go inside the cave, where I see that sulfur and minerals have frozen inside the cave. Water is dripping inside. The cave is slippery and the temperature is a bit low. It is a lot of fun to come here in summer.

The local bus I took to travel

After leaving here, I come to Sahastradhara market, here there are home stays, hotels, restaurants. There is also a ropeway here whose fare is Rs 200 per person. I have used this ropeway in summer, the view of this valley is very good from above. But today I do not want to go on the ropeway, today I have just come here for a walk and to see how Sahastradhara looks in monsoon.

The waterfall falling from 150 meters

I come to my favorite place where I swim in summer. Today all the ponds have been broken due to flow of water. Some people are still taking bath in the river. There are restaurants on the banks of the river where people are sitting and having lunch. I am watching all this happening. I am also feeling hungry seeing people eating, so now it is time to go back home. I try every time not to eat out. Eating out makes my stomach upset.

I sit in the bus before the rains come. After paying Rs 20, I sat on the seat and felt the cold wind coming from Khadki on my face. The bus is slowly climbing the mountain, I look at the roadside trees behind the taxi and wish summer would come soon so I could swim here again.

The Shiva temple

Going back to home after an amazing day

Inside the bus

So this is my Wednesday trip in which I went to Sahastradhara for sightseeing. It took me 8 hours to come and go on this one day trip and my expenditure on this trip was Rs.150.

Disclaimer: All photos are clicked by me from Poco f1. Photos have been edited in Lightroom. The above English text has been originally translated from Hindi with the help of Google Translate. I am very happy and proudly say this entire post is AI free.