Prachin Durgah Shiv Mandir - A 256 years Old Temple in Hyderabad Sindh 🇵🇰

Hello, local guides,

In Gems Of The World - A Connect Travel Post Challenge, we are seeing amazing places of the world, which are unique, awesome, and worth visiting, and of course pride of any country, so today I’m adding one more terrific place which you must visit if you are visiting Hyderabad Sindh.

Local Guides from Karachi, I & @SwalayMuhammad were invited for some Local Guides activities in Hyderabad Sindhby our friend and an enthusiastic Local Guide @sheeraz Panhwar.

In the daytime, we did all these activities so adequately, at the way back to our staying place which was STDC 's Writers Lounge, Sheeraz asked us if we are not tired and want to visit "one of the oldest Mandir of Sindh", it was a great opportunity for me to visit any Hindu Temple for the first time in my life, so I said “yes” instantly :blush:

So he brought us to the Circuit House area of Hyderabad where we were going to visit Prachin Durgah Shiv Mandir. Which is positioned in the heart of Hyderabad city, the area called Circuit House.

Here is my Google Maps review about this remarkable Mandir of Sindh.

Let me share a little bit about this amazing & Unique Hindu Temple. I will describe more at the end of the post why this Mandir was so unique.

Prachin Durga Shiv Mandir was built by the Ancestors of Bhagat Karam Chand (Current Pujari Jee) & Mukhi Mahesh Chand (Deputy Joint Secretary of All Pakistan Hindu Panchayat) in 1768 in the Capital of the Kalhora Dynasty "NeroonKot Sindh ‘’ (which was named Hyderabad later).

The "Kalhora Dynasty" ruled Sindh and parts of the Punjab region between 1701 and 1783 from their capital of Khudabad, before changing to NeroonKot from 1768 onwards.

We reached Mandir around 6 pm, where Mukhi Mahesh Chandwelcomed us. The first Morti which was on the Entrance was Hanuman Jee, as Hindu Believe “Hanuman” is a Hindu God and divine vanara companion of the God Rama. Instantly I started a video call with my friends from India @NareshDarji & @TusharSuradkar to show them this ancient Mandir. After seeing their happy faces, I started to show them around the Mandir and my friendTushar and Naresh started describing to me about each Hindu God one by one, with their names and reason for their holiness.

After a delightful video call, we met the Mr. @Maheshkumarchand , and it was surprising for me that, this gentleman who have so many responsibilities with so much traveling to listen and solve problems of the Hindu community all around Pakistan also giving time to volunteering for Google maps, and a level 6 Local Guide

Bhagat Karam Chand & Mahesh Bhai showed a great gesture and treated us with tea & snacks there. And also as an honor, he gifted us traditional Chunri as a memory of our visit to Prachin Durga Shiv Mandir.

In the start, I mentioned that Prachin Durgah Shiv Mandir Hyderabad Sindh is so unique because as Naresh & __Tushar__said, usually a mandir dedicate to the worship of anyone Hindu God, like in Pakistan also, there are separate Shiv Mandir, Mata Mandir, Durga Mandir, Hanuman Mandir, but in Prachin Durga Shiv Mandir there were many Hindu God & Goddess’s idols were together under one roof, which is so rare and unique to see in Mandirs in Pakistan :pakistan: & India :india:

(Please correct me if I’m wrong anywhere, I will edit the post)

And the most fantastic thing which I noted was there was :wheelchair: Accessibility-friendly features (unfortunately I couldn’t document the entrance of the Mandir by uploading photos on Google Map because of darkness there)

So, friends, this is one of the places which made me so proud, that’s why I want to add it to my list of Gems Of Pakistan & also in #GemsOfTheWorld - A Connect Travel Post Challenge.

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@KashifMisidia @Really useful information

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Wonderful @KashifMisidia bhai,

Om Namah Shivai

Really You come with amazing post as promised , I still remember this was discussed during shivratri When you have shown your desire for the same ,

Hats off to your commitment and the icing on the cake with two more moderator on video call with pujari ji @TusharSuradkar and @NareshDarji make it more meaning ful with their interactive interaction with Pujari ji,

Happy to note that you are encouraging Local Guide level 6 too,

Jai Mata Di,

Keep sharing Good work.

Regards

Anil

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Beautiful place @KashifMisidia I hope to have a chance to visit the area one day. Thanks for sharing :cowboy_hat_face:

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My dear & loving Kashif Ji,

I just had a glance at this wonderful divine article which I’m sure is going to be of much value to us… extremely happy that you had the first Darshan in a Mandir - and received the respect through the shawl.

Very happy to see our @NareshDarji & @TusharSuradkar taking part in the virtual Meet though I was unlucky and I could not attend the Meet-up.

Excellent photos & respectful narration.

Our new generation needs friendship beyond borders and religion.

The videos too are informative.

Thanks for sharing…

:pray: :+1:

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Ok @KashifMisidia so you traveled to India to this place? The Idol looks like Elephant to me !!! am I wrong ?

Is the place for worship ?

Thank you

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Wooow…what a trip and a place to visit @KashifMisidia . I truly learn something new today as I don’t know what Mandir is. It is interesting to know that here they have different gods and goddesses under one roof. And you have a special meet-up with @NareshDarji and @TusharSuradkar as well! Cool…

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Another master piece by @KashifMisidia Bhai.

You are working very hard not only to portray the real and true image of Pakistan to the entire world but also the positivity, hospitality, care, love and respect, we have for our guests from any corner of the world.

You are a true explorer that’s why succeeded in finding such a unique and special place for those, who want to know about this place, located in Hyderabad, Sindh, Pakistan.

Keep the great work up and holding the Green Flag aloft. Stay blessed.

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Thank you so much @sheeraz Bhai for inviting and for a wonderful tour of Hyderabad Sindh :heart:

Shukriya :pray:

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Brilliant post, @KashifMisidia Bhai :heart_eyes:

Thank you for inviting me and @NareshDarji on a virtual tour of the temple which in spite of being 250+ years old looks remarkably well-maintained and the idols are impressive too.

A Hindu temple is typically dedicated to one God or Supreme Being but this trend of assembling multiple deities under the same roof is a recent trend and I have seen this only in North India in the past few years while living in Delhi. A classic example is the Siddheshwar Temple in Gurugram.

Several pieces of information provided by the pujari are incorrect or deviate from facts :grin: but he can be forgiven since he is doing a good job of maintaining this huge place.

Finally, congratulations on being felicitated in a temple, a privilege that even I do not get out here in India :smile:

This temple is truly a Gem of Sindh, just as you are a gem of the Local Guides community :gem: :sparkles:

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Thank you @indahnuria

‘Mandir’ simply means a Hindu temple and you will find many large, old, and world-famous Hindu temples in Indonesia as well:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Hindu_temples_in_Indonesia

Have you visited any of these so far?

Regards,

Tushar

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You are right in observation dear @OSAMA_1 about the elephant head and there is an interesting story behind it.

In the Hindu belief system, there are Supreme Beings and then there are Gods - they are different.

The supreme beings are Bramha - the creator, Vishnu - the operator of the world, and Shiv - the destroyer.

• Bramha is credited with the formation of the entire universe and is not worshipped and there is almost no temple for him in India.

• Vishnu takes Avatars like Ram, Krishna, etc. and there are a total of ten avatars of Vishnu.

• Shiv is worshipped as Bholenath and his wife is Parvati, and their son is Ganesh, the elephant-headed God that you see in the temple.

Ganesh had a human head when he was born but was he was beheaded by Shiv due to some misunderstanding between them.

To calm down mother Parvati, Shiv decided to replace the head with that of an elephant and thus Ganesh is now worshipped as an elephant-headed God.

Ganesh is worshipped for knowledge, wisdom, and as the remover of all obstacles.

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Hello dear @TusharSuradkar ,

You have replied to our @KashifMisidia Ji’s post very well - thanks.

However, kindly allow me to express my humble feelings (not for discussion).

You mentioned:

“…Several pieces of information provided by the pujari are incorrect or deviate from facts…”

I surely agree with the core point - however, I am sure it is because of the limited resource of information available +

There is local information that may differ from our understanding.

Regarding multiple deities in Temple:
In Kerala, even the Maha-Kshetras have more than one deity - usually Lord Ayyappa in Lord Vishnu temples (Ex: Guruvayoor) and Lord Ganesha in Lord Shiva temples.

And, since temples are rare in Pakistan, Hindu communities would have assembled all the deities under one roof.

These are just my opinion - hope you all will take it in the right spirit.

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Hello dear @TusharSuradkar

Wow… your response to our @OSAMA_1 is wonderful - well covered.

Great - appreciate it a lot.

Regards

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I am sure our friends @plavarda @helga19 @Shrut19 @RosyKohli @Radhikasingla1 & many others will like this post very much - thanks in advance.

Regards to @KashifMisidia for such a wonderful article and giving insight into the temples in Pakistan - thanks.

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Yes, agree with you @TravellerG about multiple temples in one complex - in the case of Delhi, it is perhaps done where space is limited and cannot afford to have multiple temples.

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I consider myself really lucky to have friends like you @KashifMisidia . Through you, I have had the privilege of doing virtual darshan of the mythical Hindu temple in another country while sitting at home

The Prachin Durgah Shiv Mandir was indeed very beautiful and has also been very well maintained. The idols of all the deities installed in the temple were captivating. In addition, opportunity to communicate with the pujari was a very good moment for me.

Thank you from the bottom of my heart for the virtual darshan of this temple.

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@KashifMisidia ,what an amazing post,so much in detail. Thanku for sharing such wonderful post and beautiful pictures

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Yes indeed @TravellerG sir,its very beautiful post. This is what we call FRIENDSHIP WITHOUT BORDERS

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Namaskar,

** @KashifMisidia **

Thankyou

शुक्रीया, बहोत बढिया काम किया आपने जो पाकिस्तान मेे स्थित पुरातन मंदिर आपने हमारे साथ शेअर किया है |

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