Home Minister Amit Shah said on March 22 that the government will move forward to open Sharda Peeth on the lines of the Kartarpur corridor. Sharda Peeth, a revered site for the Hindu community, is located in Neelum Valley in Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (PoK) across Teetwal village in Kupwara district of Jammu and Kashmir, along the Line of Control (LoC).
Mr. Shah was responding to a suggestion made by Save Sharda Committee Kashmir (SSCK) convener Ravindra Pandita who requested that the Sharda Peeth corridor should be made operational on the lines of Nankana Sahib gurudwara and the Kartarpur corridor in Pakistan.
The Minister said the site has been a historical centre of India’s cultural, religious and educational heritage and the government — under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi — will definitely move forward to open Sharda Peeth for devotees on the lines of Kartarpur corrridor.
The corridor, inaugurated in 2019, links two important Sikh shrines — Dera Baba Nanak in Gurdaspur district of Punjab and Gurudwara Darbar Sahib in Kartarpur, Pakistan — and allows pilgrims to travel visa-free.
Mr. Shah virtually inaugurated the Maa Sharda Devi Temple at Kupwara on Tuesday.
He said the architecture and construction of the temple have been done according to mythological scriptures under the aegis of Sharda Peeth. The idol of Sharda Maa was donated by the Sringeri Math on January 24 and has been installed here, he added.
“The reconstruction of Maa Sharda’s temple in Kupwara is a necessary and important step in the direction of discovery of Sharda-civilisation and promotion of Sharda-script. Once upon a time, Sharda Peeth was considered the centre of knowledge in the Indian subcontinent, scholars from all over the country used to come here in search of scriptures and spiritual knowledge. Sharda script is the original script of our Kashmir, which has been named after Maa Sharda,” he said.
Mr. Shah said that since the reading down of Article 370, the Kashmir Valley and Jammu are once again returning to their old traditions, civilisation and “Ganga-Jamuni tehzeeb.” The government has taken efforts for cultural rejuvenation of the region, he added.
According to the Minister, systematic restoration and repair work was going on at 123 places, including many temples and Sufi places. In the first phase, 35 places were being renovated at the cost of ₹65 crore. As many as 31 mega-cultural programmes have been organised by identifying 75 places of religious and Sufi saints and 20 cultural festivals have also been organised in every district, helping revive old heritage, he detailed.
