Image Credits : Sumita Roy Dutta
This famous hindu temple is situated in Dwarahat, Almora district of Uttarakhand. This is situated on the top of Drona mountain and thus is also known as Dronagiri temple. Dronagiri mountain is named after the guru of Pandavas, Dronacharya.In this temple, Maa Vaishno is worshipped and thus it becomes the second Vaishno peeth in the Kumaon of Uttarakhand after the great Vaishno Devi temple in Jammu. This is also amongst the oldest and the most significant Shakti Peeth.
Like other temples, this temple does not have any idols of worship. Naturally occurred Siddhi Pinds are worshipped here as Mata Bhagwati. There are stairs to reach to the temple and on the way there are many bells hanging which are almost identical to each other. The maintenance and other responsibilities of the temple are taken care of by "Aadi Shakti Maa trust Dunagiri ''. They even organise daily bhandaras i.s. They provide food for all the devotees visiting there on a daily basis. Vaishnavas do not believe in sacrifices, be it in the form of animals or any other eatables. Thus, Dunagiri Mata being in a Vaishnava form, do not accept any sacrifice. Even the offered coconuts are never broken in the temple premises.
In Treta Yuga, when Laxman was hit by a power shot by Meghnath in Ramayana, the Susan Vedya asked Sri Hanuman to get Sanjeevani booti. This booti was only available at the mountain called Dronachal. Thus, Sri Hanuman flew to get sanjeevani booti. Since he did not recognise the booti, he took the whole mountain on his little finger and flew back. It is said that while he was flying on his way back to Vedya, part of that mountain fell and since then this mountain is known as Dronagiri. Here Drona is named as a part of Dronachal and Giri stands for mountain. Many useful herbs are still found here. Karturi ruler Dharmadev established this temple. There are temples of Lord Hanuman, Lord Ganesha and Bahirava before this temple. It is also said that during the period of exile of Pandavas in Mahabharata, Draupadi worshipped Maa Durga in this temple. Thus it is considered as the second Vaishno Peeth here in Uttarakhand. Dunagiri temple is also mentioned in Manas Khand of Skanda Purana. This Manas Khand of Skanda Purana bestows Dunagiri the name of Brahma Parvat which means Divine Mountain. It is also known as Deogiri Devi temple. All sorts of festivals are celebrated wholeheartedly here. But Durga Pooja is of special significance as Maa Durga is the deity of this temple. In Navratri festival, the temple is decorated with lights and flowers and a special puja is organised by the trust. All this spirituality of this temple gives peace of mind to the devotees.