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Sharada Peeth&nbsp;is a&nbsp;ruined&nbsp;Hindu temple&nbsp;and ancient centre of learning located in&nbsp;Pakistan administered Kashmir. Between the 6th and 12th centuries CE, it was among the most prominent&nbsp;temple universities&nbsp;in the&nbsp;Indian subcontinent.

Known in particular for its library, stories recount scholars travelling long distances to access its texts. It played a key role in the development and popularisation of the&nbsp;Sharada script&nbsp;in&nbsp;North India, causing the script to be named after it, and&nbsp;Kashmir&nbsp;to acquire the moniker &quot;Sharada Desh&quot;, meaning &quot;country of Sharada&quot;.

As one of the&nbsp;Maha Shakti Peethas,&nbsp;Hindus&nbsp;believe that it represents the spiritual location of the goddess&nbsp;Sati&#39;s fallen right hand. Sharada Peeth is one of the three holiest sites of pilgrimage for&nbsp;Kashmiri Pandits, alongside the&nbsp;Martand Sun Temple&nbsp;and the&nbsp;Amarnath Temple.

Sharada Peeth is located approximately 150 kilometres (93&nbsp;mi) from&nbsp;Muzaffarabad,&nbsp;the capital of Pakistani-administered Azad Kashmir, and 130 kilometres (81&nbsp;mi) from&nbsp;Srinagar, the capital of&nbsp;Indian-administered Kashmir

It is 10 kilometres (6.2&nbsp;mi) away from the&nbsp;Line of Control, which divides the Pakistani- and Indian-controlled areas of the former&nbsp;princely state&nbsp;of&nbsp;Jammu and Kashmir. It is situated 1,981 metres (6,499&nbsp;ft) above sea level,along the&nbsp;Neelum River&nbsp;in the village of&nbsp;Sharda, in the valley of&nbsp;Mount Harmukh,[believed by Kashmiri Pandits to be the abode of&nbsp;Shiva.

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Puranam

Sharada Peeth translates to &quot;the seat of Sharada&quot;, the Kashmiri name for the&nbsp;Hindu&nbsp;goddess&nbsp;Saraswati.&nbsp;&quot;Sharada&quot; could be also related to the&nbsp;proto-Nostratic&nbsp;terms&nbsp;&quot;sarv&quot;, which means &quot;flow or stream&quot;, and&nbsp;daw&nbsp;(blow, tip or rock), because it was located at the confluence of three streams.

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Architecturally similar Kashmiri temple in&nbsp;Nowshera, Jammu and Kashmir&nbsp;in the 1870s

The beginnings of Sharada Peeth are uncertain, and the question of origins difficult, because Sharada Peeth might have been both a temple and an educational institution. It was probably commissioned by&nbsp;Lalitaditya Muktapida&nbsp;(r. 724 CE&ndash;760 CE) though no definitive evidence exists in favor.&nbsp;Al-Biruni&nbsp;recorded the place for the first time, as a revered shrine housing a wooden image of Sharda &mdash; however, he had never ventured into Kashmir and based his observations on hearsay.

Sharada Peeth is referred to by various historians, detailing its mythological status and prominence in ancient India. Its historical development is traced through references made to it by various historical sources. Although the Sharada script did not originate in Kashmir, it was used extensively in Sharada Peeth, and acquired its name from the institution. This has fed the popular belief that the script was developed in Kashmir.

By the 8th century, the temple was a site of pilgrimage, attracting devotees from as far as present-day&nbsp;Bengal.&nbsp;By the 11th century, it was among the most revered places of worship in the Indian subcontinent, described in&nbsp;Al-Biruni&#39;s chronicle of India. Significantly, it featured not in his description of Kashmir, but in his list of the most famous Hindu temples in the Indian subcontinent, alongside the&nbsp;Multan Sun Temple, the&nbsp;Sthaneshwar Mahadev Temple, and the&nbsp;Somnath temple.

Jonaraja&nbsp;describes a visit by the Kashmiri Muslim sultan&nbsp;Zain-ul-Abidin&nbsp;in 1422 CE.&nbsp;The sultan visited the temple seeking a vision of the goddess, but grew angry with her because she did not appear to him in person. In frustration, he slept in the court of the temple, where she appeared to him in a dream.&nbsp;In the 16th century,&nbsp;Abu&#39;l-Fazl ibn Mubarak,&nbsp;Grand vizier&nbsp;to the Mughal emperor&nbsp;Akbar, described Sharada Peeth as a &quot;stone temple ... regarded with great veneration&quot;.&nbsp;He also described the popular belief in miracles at the shrine: &quot;it is believed that on every eighth tithe of the bright half of the month, it begins to shake and produces the most extraordinary effect&quot;.

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Four-armed statue of the goddess Sharada from the late 9th century AD

An alternative account holds that Shandilya prayed to the goddess Sharada with great devotion, and was rewarded when she appeared to him and promised to show him her real, divine form. She advised him to look for the Sharada forest, and his journey was filled with miraculous experiences. On his way, he had a vision of the god&nbsp;Ganesha&nbsp;on the eastern side of a hill.

When he reached the Neelum river, he bathed in it and saw half his body turn golden. Eventually, the goddess revealed herself to him in her triple form of Sharada, Saraswati and Vagdevi, and invited him to her abode. As he was preparing for a ritual, he drew water from the&nbsp;Mahāsindhu. Half of this water transformed into honey, and became a stream, now known as the&nbsp;Madhumati&nbsp;stream.

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There are two popular legends of Shardi explaining Sharada Peeth.The first holds that there were two sisters, Sharada and Narada, who ruled the world. The two mountains overlooking the valley, Shardi and Nardi, are named after them. One day, Narada saw, from her abode on the mountain, that Sharada had died, and that giants were fleeing from her body.

Furious, she summoned them and ordered them to build her a tomb, which became Sharada Peeth. The second legend says that there once was a giant who loved a princess. She desired a palace, and so he began work. At the time of morning&nbsp;azan, he was supposed to have finished, but the roof remained incomplete and for that reason, Sharada Peeth today remains without a roof.

View of Neelum Valley from Sharada Peeth, where King Jayasimha&#39;s Royal Army would have camped

Sharada Peeth has appeared in various historical and literary texts. Its earliest mention is in the&nbsp;Nilamata Purana&nbsp;(6th &ndash; 8th century CE). The 11th century Kashmiri poet&nbsp;Bilhana&nbsp;describes both the spiritual and academic elements of Sharada Peeth. He describes Kashmir as a patron of learning and Sharada Peeth as the source of that reputation. He also says that the goddess Sharada:

<blockquote>
&quot;resemble[s] a swan, carrying as her diadem the [glittering gold washed from the sand] of the Madhumati stream, which is bent on rivalling&nbsp;Ganga. Spreading lustre by her fame as her&nbsp;diadem, and rivalling the&nbsp;Ganges river. Spreading lustre by her fame, brilliant like crystal, she makes even Mount Himalaya, the preceptor of Gauri, raise higher his head (referring to his peaks) [in pride] of her residence there.&quot;
</blockquote>

In Kalhana&#39;s 12th century&nbsp;epic,&nbsp;Rajatarangini, Sharada Peeth is identified as a site of popular veneration:

<blockquote>
35. There, the goddess&nbsp;Saraswati&nbsp;herself is seen in the form of a swan in a lake [situated] on the summit of the&nbsp;Bheda&nbsp;hill, which is sanctified by the&nbsp;Ganga&nbsp;source. 
37. There, when visiting the goddess Sharada, one reaches at once the river&nbsp;Madhumati, and [the river of]&nbsp;Saraswati&nbsp;worshipped by poets.
</blockquote>

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Kalhana points out other events of political significance involving Sharada Peeth. During Lalitaditya&#39;s reign (713 &ndash; 755), a group of assassins from the&nbsp;Gauda Kingdom&nbsp;entered Kashmir under the guise of a pilgrimage to Sharada Peeth.Kalhana also describes a rebellion during his own lifetime. Three princes, Lothana, Vigraharaja and Bhoja, rebelled against&nbsp;King Jayasimha of Kashmir. These princes, pursued by the Royal Army, sought refuge in the upper Kishenganga Valley, in the Sirahsila Castle. Kalhana believed that the Royal Army took refuge in Sharada Peeth, because it had the open space required for a temporary military village, and because the area surrounding the Sirahsila Castle was not large enough to host a camp for a siege without the siege force being vulnerable to archers.

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<h3>Adi Shankara, who opened Sharada Peeth&#39;s south door</h3>

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In the 14th century text&nbsp;Madhaviya Shankara Vijayam, there is a test, unique to Sharada Peeth, known as the&nbsp;Sarvajna Peetham, or Throne of Omniscience. These were four thrones, each representing an entrances of the temple corresponding to one of the points of the compass, which only a learned man from that direction could symbolically open.

Adi Shankara, being from South India, took it upon himself to pass this challenge, because although the other doors had been opened, no one from the south of Kashmir had yet been successful. He was said to be welcomed by the common people, but challenged by the scholars of the region. As he approached the southern door, he was stopped by various learned men from the&nbsp;Nyaya&nbsp;school of philosophy, Buddhists,&nbsp;Digambara Jains, and the followers of&nbsp;Jaimini.

\Engaging with them, he managed to persuade all of them of his proficiency in philosophy, and they stood aside to let him open the entrance. Finally, as he was about to ascend the throne, he heard the voice of the goddess Sharada challenging him. The voice said that omniscience was not enough if one was impure, and that Shankara, who lived in the palace of King Amaruka, could not be pure.

Shankara replied that his body had never committed a sin, and the sins committed by another could not blemish him. The goddess Sharada accepted his explanation and permitted him to ascend.

In the&nbsp;Carnatic music&nbsp;song&nbsp;kalavathi kamalasana yuvathi, the 19th century composer&nbsp;Muthuswami Dikshitar&nbsp;refers to Sharada Peeth as&nbsp;Saraswati&#39;s&nbsp;abode. Set in the&nbsp;raga&nbsp;yagapriya, the song praises Saraswati:

Kashmira vihara, vara sharadha. 
The one who resides in Kashmir, Sharada.

Today, Sharada Peeth continues to figure in South Indian Brahmin traditions. At the beginning of formal education, some sects of Brahmins ritually&nbsp;prostrate&nbsp;in the direction of Sharada Peeth.Saraswat Brahmin&nbsp;communities in&nbsp;Karnataka&nbsp;are also said to perform a ritual of moving seven steps towards Kashmir before retracing their steps during the&nbsp;Yagnopavit&nbsp;ceremony, and include the&nbsp;Sharada&nbsp;stotram&nbsp;in their morning prayers.

Namaste Sarada Devi Kashmira mandala vasini. 
I bow to the Goddess Sharada, who lives in Kashmir.

Varnam

The temple is built in the Kashmiri architectural style using red sandstone. Historical records of the temple&#39;s architecture are scarce. A late 19th century account by the British archaeologist&nbsp;Aurel Stein&nbsp;describes the temple&#39;s walls as intact to a height of approximately 20 feet (6.1&nbsp;m), and its pillars rising approximately 16 feet (4.9&nbsp;m)

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Sharada Peeth cella from behind

The compound is situated on a hill, approached on its west side through an imposing stone staircase. The facades are repetitive. Suggested reasons for this include that architects disliked plain outside walls, or that even if the spire collapsed, a visitor would be able to tell what the temple originally looked like. The design of the temple is simple, with a plain conical Sharada spire. It sits on a raised&nbsp;plinth, 24 square feet (2.2&nbsp;m2) in area and 5.25 feet (1.60&nbsp;m) in height. The walls of the&nbsp;cella&nbsp;recede 2 feet (0.61&nbsp;m) from the edge of the plinth. The temple is surrounded by a quadrangle which measures 142 feet (43&nbsp;m) by 94 feet (29&nbsp;m). The quadrangle is enclosed by walls of 11 feet (3.4&nbsp;m) in height and 6 feet (1.8&nbsp;m) in width.

On the north, east, and south, the walls of the&nbsp;cella&nbsp;are adorned by&nbsp;trefoil arches&nbsp;and supporting&nbsp;pilasters, which are constructed in high relief. Below these are small, trefoil-headed niches covered by double&nbsp;pediments. Although a pyramidal stone roof is more typical to Kashmiri architecture, in Stein&#39;s description, the temple is covered by a low&nbsp;shingle roof. By the 21st century, the roof is no longer present and the interior of the temple is exposed to the elements. The temple appears imposing even from outside the walled enclosure, because of the plinths it is raised on to equalise the uneven elevations of the ground. The north side of the wall contained a small recess, in which two ancient&nbsp;linga&nbsp;could be seen.

The interior of the cella is plain, and forms a square of 12.25 feet (3.73&nbsp;m) on each side. It houses a large slab of stone measuring 6 feet (1.8&nbsp;m) by 7 feet (2.1&nbsp;m). This slab covers the holy spring where the goddess Sharada is believed to have appeared to Rishi Shandilya. In the 19th century, this sacred spot was surmounted by a red cloth canopy and tinsel. The remainder of the interior was filled with ornaments of worship such as conches and bells.

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