Jai Mata Docha Mocha Karjan || Part 2 || Kullu Manali || Jai Himachal ||

I started my walk from Mansari on the main Highway to Gajan village, now connected by a narrow link road. The road construction in these mountains has resulted in ‘ribbon development’ i.e. construction of establishments along the sides of the road. Most of the houses close to road are now concrete structures with flat roofs. During her second trek in 1964, Penelope notices that the appearance of buildings is being “spoilt by the substitution of corrugated iron roofs for the original precipice-slice tiles.†The landscape is still serene but being rapidly consumed by the cell phone towers and the towers for electricity transportation. The coming of hydel projects and roads have worsened the situation. Only such villages/houses which are away from roads are now left with slate-roof houses built in the indigenous timber-bonded style of Western Himalaya, which consists of alternate courses of dry stone and
deodar beams.
Docha-Mocha Temple at Gajan (Type 2)
During her 1964 trek, Penelope tried to visit this temple but could not locate it. Later in 1979 and then in 1983 a French observer Ms Helene Diserens visited the temple and published her comments in
Central Asiatic Journal. Another French Traveller Mr M. Postel visited this temple and wrote about it in his book Antiquities of Himachal. Dr Laxman Thakur of Himachal Pradesh wrote a short paper on this important temple in South Asian Studies in 1991.
The temple of goddesses Docha and Mocha is single-storied, constructed in alternate courses of dry stone and deodar beams on a rectangular ground plan.
The stone sculptures of goddesses are kept in the
garbhagriha or sanctum sactorum of the temple. The two tankri inscriptions on the masks from nearby Karjan village confirm the name of Docha and Mocha goddesses.
It appears that the temple has been renovated recently. Remarkably, it has a lion (vehicle of Durga goddess) in the courtyard of the temple.
However, the most important part of the temple is six wooden sculptures which were either part of this temple or some unknown one. Recently, a new temple has been constructed very close to the Docha-Mocha temple and the wooden sculptures have been placed in a glass showcase. There are two male and four female deities. The main male sculpture (largest one) has been identified as Surya and the other male is his attendant
Dandi (Diserens and Postel). However, Dr Laxman Singh identifies the later sculpture as
Kuber, the lord of wealth. Both the male sculptures are carved as stand-alone statues while the four female carvings identified as Yakshis appear to be part of a pillar or wall of the temple. Chronologically, Diserens dates two male sculptures to ninth century and females to 10th and 12th century. Postel ascribes date of seventh century, i.e. post Gupta period to these sculptures. There are about four other stone idols stored in the new temple which need to be researched and dated.
Dr Hermann Goetz (1898-1976), a pioneering Indologist, wrote a beautiful book The Early Wooden Temples of Chamba and referred a lot to the temples found all over the Western Himalayas. He assumes that the statues of Docha and Mocha represent Scythian donors (late Gupta period)which are now worshiped as devis. On the day of Full Moon (Poornmasi) in
Chait (March), a village fair known as Chacholi Mela is celebrated by the inhabitants of Gajan and Karjan villages.

Published on 2017
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