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Kharsali

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Kharsali is a small village near Yamunotri Temple in Uttarakhand, India, that hosts the idol of Goddess Yamuna during winters, after it is brought down in a ritual ceremony from the temple, some fifteen hundred feet higher, as it becomes inaccessible after being snowed in.[1] The priests of the Yamunotri Temple hail from this village.[2] The idol is brought down from the temple, a four-mile trek away, during the festival of Diwali (usually in October) with great celebration, and returns to the temple in spring (in April).[3]

Around 1830, the village was painted by Charles Bentley and an engraving by J. Appleton is the subject of a poetical illustration by Letitia Elizabeth Landon, which was published in Fisher's Drawing Room Scrap Book, 1838. This shows a Hindoo temple with the snows of Mount Yamunotri (Jumnoutri) in the background. The Village of Kursalee. [4]

References

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  1. ^ Dash, Trilochan (3 July 2017). "The Four Dhamas of the Himalayas: Badrinath, Kedarnath, Gangotri and Yamunetri". Soudamini Dash – via Google Books.
  2. ^ Alter, Stephen (10 February 2009). Sacred Waters: A Pilgrimage to the Many Sources of the Ganga. Penguin Books Limited. ISBN 9789352140763 – via Google Books.
  3. ^ Haberman, David L.; Haberman, Professor in the Department of Religious Studies David L. (21 July 2006). River of Love in an Age of Pollution: The Yamuna River of Northern India. University of California Press. ISBN 9780520247895 – via Google Books.
  4. ^ Landon, Letitia Elizabeth (1837). "poetical illustration". Fisher's Drawing Room Scrap Book, 1838. Fisher, Son & Co.Landon, Letitia Elizabeth (1837). "picture". Fisher's Drawing Room Scrap Book, 1838. Fisher, Son & Co.