Treta ke Thakur: Site of the Ashwamedha Yajna

The story

The name means "the Lord of the Treta age", the age in which Ram lived. The temple, close to Naya Ghat, is believed to stand on the ground where Shri Ram performed the Ashwamedha yajna, the great horse sacrifice of a sovereign king, described in the Uttara Kanda.

That sacrifice carries one of the most poignant moments in the Ramayana. A king must perform such a rite with his queen beside him, and Sita was then living in Valmiki's ashram. Ram refused to take another wife. He had an image of Sita made in gold and performed the yajna with it at his side. It was during this same ceremony that two young singers, Luv and Kush, sang the Ramayana before him.

The temple and its idols

The images here are carved from black stone, which gives the temple its other name, Kaleram, "the dark Ram". Tradition holds that the original idols are very ancient, were hidden in the Saryu during a time of danger, and were later recovered and installed again. The temple is said to have been built about three centuries ago by a king of Kullu and to have been renovated in 1784 by Ahilyabai Holkar, the queen of Indore who restored temples across India.

The once-a-year darshan

By long custom the sanctum has been opened to the public only on Kartik Shukla Ekadashi, the eleventh day of the bright half of Kartik, which falls during the season of the Kartik Parikrama. On that day devotees queue to see the dark-stone images. Practices can change, so if this darshan matters to you, confirm the current arrangement locally before planning around it.

Why visit

Even when the sanctum is closed, the place is worth a pause on the walk along the river: it turns the last book of the Ramayana from a text into a location. It also keeps alive the image of the golden Sita, a husband's public statement that no one could take her place. Read The dignity and strength of Sita.

Nearby: Ram ki Paidi and Nageshwarnath Temple.