HOPE RISES FOR SHARADA CORRIDOR BETWEEN TWO PARTS OF KASHMIR
Recently, when Union Home Minister Amit Shah virtually inaugurated the Sharada Devi Temple at Teetwal in North Kupwara, he said that the government will make efforts to open a corridor on the other side of Kashmir on the pattern of Kartarpur.
The temple was rebuilt when local Muslims donated land for the construction of the temple in 2021 after some Pandit organizations approached them for the same. Ravinder Pandita has been the face demanding that Sharada Peeth should be opened for pilgrims from this side of Kashmir on the pattern of the Kartarpur corridor. An announcement of Union Home Minister Amit Shah quoted in media says, “Ravinder Pandita has said that Sharada Peeth should be opened for pilgrims on the pattern of the Kartarpur corridor. The government of India will definitely make efforts in this direction. There are no two opinions about it.”
Support came from former Chief Minister and PDP president who welcomed the reconstruction of the temple and appealed for the opening of the corridor. “This is very good. We have always been saying that we need to engage, reconcile and resolve things. The opening of Sharda temple is a very good thing. It is something that the Kashmiri Pandits were looking forward to, they really wanted it to be opened,” Mehbooba told reporters. Though hope is there, all the confidence-building measures taken earlier have been suspended since 5 August 2019, including the Srinagar-muzaffarabad bus service and the border crossing points in Jammu and Kashmir.
It is in place to mention that Sharada Peeth has been an ancient Hindu University and it lies in the Neelam valley across LOC. The remnants of that ancient Hindu
University lie in a village known as Shardi. According to historians, Sharada Peeth has the foremost centre of higher learning in the Indian subcontinent. Historians say that it was a global university and had thousands of resident scholars who used to live in this area. Legend has a different tale to tell about Sharada and its ancient importance. It says goddess Sharada saved the pot of knowledge during a difficult time. She carried it to the Sharada
Peeth area and hid it beneath the ground. She then turned herself into stone to cover it and there are only rectangular stones covering the floor of the temple, indicating the same. Historical sources say that Sharada was named after goddess of wisdom Saraswati, and this seat of learning was established in Neelam valley in 273 BC. It was a global university known around the world, much before the universities like Takshila and Nalanda.