Sankat Mochan Dham (Darbhanga)

 temple  Add category

Sankat Mochan Hanuman Mandir is oldest Hanuman temple of Darbhanga Town.
|| Shri Ganeshay Namaha || 
Available history of Shri 108 Sankat Mochan Dham, Hanuman Temple, Harahi Lake (west) Darbhanga, Bihar.
Source- Pt. Jay Narayan Shastri, Pf. Ramesh Chandra Jha, Shri Satya Narayan Gami, Shri Ashok Kr. Jha , Smt Ganga Devi, Shri Arbind Thakur , including whole Mandir Pariwar.
The secret and oldest Sankat Mochan Hanuman temple is situated on the western corner of historical and ancient Harahi Lake. By the experience of the devotees and ascetics it may be declared that the temple is a fully awaken place and one can fulfill his /her wishes if prays with pure heart. In Kaliyuga worship of Lord Hanuman is surely fruitful. However Pawan Putra Hanuman is being worshiped in the whole world but as India is his place of birth, Hanuman is worshiped here with special faith. In Ramayana two regions namely – Ayodhya and Mithila has got special importance. Shri Keshari Nandan Lord Hanuman was specially a favour of grace of Mother Janki, hence Hanuman jee is much interested for Mithila. Therefore the Mithila people feel privileged that they are recipient of grace of Sugreev Sakha Hanuman without any hardship, only pure dedication is needed to make Hanuman Happy.
No information is available about situation of the idol. It has been told that the statue of Hanuman is self sprouted. According to the myth about the accomplished temple earlier a jungle with wild and fierce animals were there .The idol was there in the jungle in open surrounding on the land. The historical Harahi lake was made by King Hari Singh Deo of Karnataka Dynasty in about (1304-24) 13th century .When the Khalji dynasty was subsiding and the Tughlaq were rising in Delhi kingdom,in that transition period king Hari Singh Deo had constructed the temple and firstly worshiped Lord Hanuman at the west side of Harahi lake. From that very day worship of Hanuman was started by the devotees here. The founder of Karnataka Dynasty King Nanya deo had come to Mithila from Karnataka. In Karnataka worship of Hanuman was most popular from olden time. For that effect only the last ruler of Karnataka dynasty King Hari Singh Deo had worshiped Lord Hanuman here. At that time as a very dense jungle was here and no population was there, the king made the temple using bamboo and cane only.
Near about 1550 BC. the 1st king of Khandwala Dynasty Maharaja Mahesh Thakur had got the whole Mithila state by ascetic fervor of Lord Sankat Mochan Hanuman. He was one of the great devotee of Lord Hanuman. Later on King Laxmishar Singh of this Dynasty only worshiped Lord Hanuman. He also donated 11 Bigha land to the temple. But the land could not be achieved due to interference of some anti-social elements. He also constructed a Dharmashala towards the north east corner of the temple, for the devotees. Now a day’s MLSM College is running in this Dharmashala. At the same time one devotee of district Chhapra, Yugal Kishor Shrivastav (ex –deputy collector) came to this temple and started accomplishment. He made God Hanuman very pleased on him and led the spiritual environment forward. Due to his practice King Laxmishwar Singh himself came to meet him. Yugal Kisor Ji was a big devotee. He underwent for lively cremation at this place only. Today also you can visit to the cremation of this great person, made in front of Hanuman Ji. According to myth Rameshwar Singh the younger brother of King Laxmishwar Singh was a famous Tantrik. He used to practice meditate in the temple. Later on he constructed two more temples on the temple premises namely Rameshwar Mahadev temple and Shri Vishnu temple.
Once upon a time in the British period there was an officer G.P. Danby. Once he visited the temple and liked it most. He planned to make his residence at this holy place. So he ordered the laborers to dismantle the temple. When the laborers started their work to dismantle the temple they faced a lot of difficulties. 3 to 5 feet long poisonous snakes appeared there and captured their weapons. The snakes started hissing. As a result laborers ran away from there and no one was ready to work there. At the same time G.P. Danby also dreamed often about some dangerous monkeys. As he was a wise man he came to the conclusion that these are the effect of the Red God (Hanuman) and became a devotee of Lord Hanuman. His wife constructed the inner part of the temple. Later on he constructed his resident ‘Danby Kothi’ at the south corner of the Hanuman Temple and always worshiped afterwards. The way and sequence of worship was finalized by Lt. Pt. Kunwar Thakur, the Mathadhisa of the temple at 133 years ago. From that period to till days the worship, Arti, stotra-gayan is still going on.
After the death of Pt. Kunwar Thakur his elder son Lt. Pt. Vidya Nand Thakur became the Mathadhish of this temple. In his working period the reputation of the temple reached up to abroad also. As a result the number of devotees increased up to lakhs. A great number of beggars used to beg on the main way to the temple and more often the local Administration interfered to control the rush. A good number of sweet corners, shop for sindoor and other pooja materials were there on the temple premises. That time shopkeepers, Pandits and devotees were happy and prosperous. It was the blessing of God Hanuman.
Before rise of Sant Tulsidas the worship was done by Tantrik process only. After his rise worship by both the Tantrik and Vaishnav processes had started. It is still in practice. God Hanuman ji is the Eleventh incarnation of Rudra(Lord Shiva) and said the Rudravtar (the incarnation of Rudra). That is why it is necessary to worship him by Tantrik process. The temple management does it accordingly.
Suddenly the period of downfall also arose in 1984. Due to some anti-social activities number of devotees decreased and the temple became completely calm and quite. Lot of difficulty was faced by the temple family to manage the system.
On 3rd June 1993 Pt. Vidyanand Thakur too took cremation in the north side of Hanuman ji near the Rameshwar mahadev Temple which can be seen today also. After his death out of his three sons the middle one Pt. Jay Narayan Shastri became the Mathadhish, servant (Sewait) of this temple. When he was appointed as servant he had a challenge to re–awaken the place. Pt. Jay Narayan Shastri was a scholar of Astrology, a great Tantrik and a specialist of Karmkand who had achieved his accomplishment from Kam Rup Kamkhya and Kashi. In his social life he was a headmaster of Mathily Vidyapeeth Sanskrit high school,affiliated to Bihar Sanskrit Siksha Board Patna. He was a social man who always wished to help others; also he was a well-wisher of the society. He spent most of his time in the welfare of the people and he was a true ascetic.
Due to his hard accomplishment and devotion the place (Sankat Mochan Mandir) became re-awakened and the worship started again with full enthusiasm and slowly movement of people re –started towards the temple and number of devotees increased. Hence the temple got its lost fame. Now a day’s the worship is going on in full swing.
A single head can’t be awarded for construction of the temple but it is a combined effort of the people. Wife of G.P Danby has constructed a Garv- Grih of the temple and Dr.Umesh Shrivastava donated for stairs and outer part of the temple and keeping in the view the safety and management of the place, Kameshwar religious trust, Ram bagh, Kameshwar Nagar, Darbhanga registers for priest who should be from the same Dynasty and heir of the previous priest. Kameshwar Religious Trust plays an important role to carry the process forwards.
There are two categories of temples under the Trust. In 1st category the Trust has its whole right and jurisdiction on the temple and in 2nd category the jurisdiction is of that God. The Trust pays money to purchase worship related goods and salary to the priests for 1st category temples and money for purchase of goods only to 2nd category temples. At this Sankat Mochan temple Master of the place is God Hanuman itself and it belongs to category 2nd where the selection of its heir is done by the previous priest from the same Dynasty only. It is said that ‘The Mugals’ donated 64 acre land to this temple during their reign. Later on the king of Khandwala dynasty Laxmishwar singh also donated 11 Bigha land to this temple. However now the land left with the temple is limited.
The living god of Kaliyuga Lord Hanuman Ji is ‘LILA BIHARI’ who continuously performs his ‘LILA’ (symbolic gestures). He is omnipresent, omniscient just merciful, endless.
Thanks to Kameshwar Religious Trust which is always ready to serve as and when required. However the anti-social elements time to time try to capture the land of the temple but the devotees know well that Lord Hanuman will never let them be successful in their crooked plan.
On 21st July 2014 at 11:30 AM Pt. Jay Narayan Shastri met to Lord Hanuman forever, He left his family, friends, well wishers and there is no doubt that it was really a shock for the people. But the devotees had a faith that Lord Hanuman will manage to manage now also.

Sankat Mochan Dham ke swami ki-jay
Shree Ram Bhakta, Shree Sita Putra, Shree Anjna Nandan,Shree Keshari Nandan,Shree Rudravtar, Shree Pawan Sut, Shree Bharat Mitra,Shree Laxman Sakha, Shree shatrughna Priya, Shree Bhakta Rakshak, Shree vijay Pradayak.
Hanuman ji ki jay.

OM NAMAH SHIVAY