Hariharnath Temple in Sonepur, Bihar

Hariharnath temple in Bihar

The Hariharnath temple in Bihar is a place of pilgrimage for the devotees who come here especially on the occasion of the great Sonepur mela on Kartik Purnima day. This day of full moon is believed to be very auspicious and any prayer offered on this day to the Lord is always fulfilled.


The day of the Kartik Purnima is really a celebration to the

people in the Hariharnath temple at Bihar. There are fairs all around. The devotees gather here to worship the deity. They always keep fast and break it only after they had finished their pujas or worship of the Lord.

The day of the great worship is accompanied with meals that are given to each and every one of the people whoever come to this place. It is very interesting to find that these meals run for as long as a month or even more. This is one of the major attractions of the devotees. The festival at Hariharnath temple of Bihar is attended by millions of people.

The maximum number of people gather over here in the Hariharnath temple on the day of the Kartik Purnima chiefly in order to take the bath in the river. In these days the village of Sonepur takes an absolutely different look. This look however lasts for more than a month.

Sonepur is a prime junction on the North-Eastern Railway. It is also important to note that this place is the district headquarters of the Traffic as well as the Locomotive departments of the state of Bihar.

The origin of the Shiva temple at Sonepur known as Hariharnath is shrouded in mystery. A large section of orthodox Hindus believe that the temple was built by Rama on his way to Janakpur to win Sita. There is, however, no reference to this in the Ramayana. But that Rama passed this way is established. It is a fact that the whole of Tirhut division is imbued with the Rama-Sita cult and there are a large number of temples throughout the Tirhut division, consisting of Champaran, Saran, Muzaffarpur and Darbhanga (Mithila) districts, which commemorate the deeds of Rama, Sita, Valmiki, etc. It may be correct to assume that this Hariharnath temple might have originated in this manner. The present temple, however, is not old. There is not much of architecture. As Spooner has observed: ``We see a single square chamber, constituting of the cella, with a simple, ordinary


rising to a point, and with a narrow porch in front. These are the constituents of our simplest form of temple, and in the present example we find them in as simple forms as now are traceable among the existing and recorded monuments.’’
There is a stray reference to the temple of Hariharnath during the Subedarship of Raja Man Singh who is said to have done some repair work. The present temple was built by Raja Ram Narain, a noted figure of Bihar during the later Mughal period. The temple has been recently reconstructed by the Birlas. The temple of Hariharnath Mahadeo is the principle place of worship here but several smaller temples also receive the offerings of pilgrims. Among these are the Kali Asthan and the Panch Devata Mandir; the latter was built by a priestess who claimed to have built the temple with the offerings she received.