The Kumaon Ancient Temple Circuit: The Temples That Predate Char Dham by 500 Years

Visit Jageshwar Dham with enough time to actually see it. Jageshwar is not a quick stop — it is a complex of 151 ASI-protected temples in a deodar forest on the banks of the Jata Ganga river, built over several centuries by the Katyuri dynasty and still in active worship today. Some of these temples are over 1,200 years old, and the stone carving on the main Jageshwar Temple, the Dandeshwar and the Mrityunjaya is of a quality that rewards slow looking. Adi Shankaracharya is believed to have meditated here. Entry is ₹25 for Indian nationals; a guide at the gate costs ₹200 to ₹400 and is genuinely worth the fee.

Go to Chitai Golu Devta Temple and read the letters. This is one of the most distinctive temple experiences in all of India. Golu Devta is the God of Justice in the Kumaon tradition, and devotees submit written petitions — formal letters, sometimes stamped like court documents — seeking justice for grievances. When prayers are answered, bells are tied to the complex. The result is a temple covered in thousands of bells and handwritten letters that is unlike anything else you will find at any shrine in the country. The tradition is specific to Kumaon; you will not see this anywhere else.

Make the effort for Katarmal Sun Temple. At 17 kilometres from Almora and a 3-kilometre uphill trek from Hawalbagh, the Katarmal Sun Temple is the one most visitors skip — and the one that temple architecture specialists consistently rank among the finest Katyuri achievements. It is the only Sun temple in Kumaon, second in national significance only to the Konark temple in Odisha, and has 44 smaller shrines and stone carvings that most people who do make the trek describe as worth every step. Entry is free. Wear comfortable shoes.

Combine Baijnath with a night in Kausani. Baijnath, 66 kilometres from Almora on the banks of the Gomti River, was the historical capital of the Katyuri kings. The 12th-century temple complex here — Nagara-style stone temples along the riverbank — is quieter than Jageshwar and gives a genuine sense of what a medieval Kumaon temple town looked like in its prime. Kausani is 14 kilometres away and has one of the better Himalayan panoramas in the region — Trishul, Nanda Devi and Panchachuli visible on clear mornings. Staying one night makes the combination into a very satisfying two-day loop.

Visit Kasar Devi for a different kind of pilgrimage. The Kasar Devi temple sits on a ridge 8 kilometres from Almora that falls within what scientists describe as the Kumaon anomaly — a section of the Earth's Van Allen Belt where the geomagnetic field has unusual characteristics documented in NASA research. Whether or not the metaphysics interest you, the ridge has drawn meditators and artists continuously since the 1960s. Bob Dylan, Cat Stevens, Timothy Leary and D.H. Lawrence all spent time here. The temple itself is modest; the quality of stillness the place has is what people come for.

Time your visit around the Nanda Devi Fair in September. The annual Nanda Devi Fair in Almora is one of the finest traditional festivals in Uttarakhand — Kumaoni music, dance, craft stalls, and the procession of the patron goddess of Kumaon through the old bazaar. If you can be in Almora in September, this is worth organising your trip around specifically.

THE BELLS AT CHITAI GOLU DEVTA ACCUMULATE A LITTLE MORE EVERY YEAR. THE TEMPLES AT JAGESHWAR HAVE BEEN IN DAILY WORSHIP FOR OVER 1,200 YEARS. THIS IS LIVING HERITAGE — NOT A MUSEUM, NOT A TOURIST ATTRACTION. REMEMBER THAT WHEN YOU VISIT.

Rush through Jageshwar in under an hour. One hour at Jageshwar is not enough. The complex has 151 temples — some large, some small, some crumbling, some immaculate — and the ASI museum adjacent to the complex holds sculptural fragments and inscriptions that give real context to what you are seeing in the main complex. Give it two to three hours minimum. The deodar forest surrounding it is half the experience.

Photograph the deity without asking. At Jageshwar, photography inside the main sanctum is restricted by ASI guidelines. At Chitai, Dunagiri and most of the smaller temples, the priest is present and the deity is in active worship — always ask before pointing a camera at the idol. A moment of courtesy goes a long way and is the basic minimum respect owed to a place that is someone else's house of worship.

Dress inappropriately. These are living pilgrimage sites, not monuments. Both men and women should cover shoulders and knees inside the temple complexes. Lightweight cotton trousers and a shawl or scarf for the upper body are practical and respectful. The locals at these temples will be dressed traditionally; take the cue from them.

Leave plastic behind. Jageshwar's deodar forest and the approach roads to Katarmal and Dunagiri have no waste management infrastructure. Plastic bottles and packaging left at these sites accumulate with no system to remove them. Carry a refillable water bottle — most Almora guesthouses provide filtered water — and carry your rubbish back with you. It is a small thing but it adds up across thousands of visitors.

Skip the circuit because you think you've 'done' Uttarakhand. This is the most common mistake. Most people who visit Uttarakhand multiple times only discover the Kumaon temple circuit on their third or fourth trip, and almost all of them say the same thing: they wish they had found it earlier. If you have done Char Dham, Panch Kedar and the Panch Kailash, this circuit is the next layer. It is as old as any of those pilgrimages and considerably less crowded.

THINK OF UTTARAKHAND'S PILGRIMAGE HERITAGE LIKE A BOX OF EXQUISITE HANDMADE CHOCOLATES. CHAR DHAM IS THE TOP LAYER — EVERYONE KNOWS ABOUT IT. THE KUMAON TEMPLE CIRCUIT IS THE SECOND LAYER. JUST AS GOOD. ALMOST NOBODY HAS OPENED IT YET.

October and November are the best months — post-monsoon clarity, comfortable temperatures, and the deodar forest at Jageshwar at its finest after the rains. Spring (March to May) is also good, with rhododendrons blooming on the surrounding hills. The Nanda Devi Fair in September is worth timing a trip around if possible. Winters are cold but the temples are beautifully quiet and the sky is very clear.

The Kumaon temple circuit passes through villages and communities where the temples are not tourist attractions — they are places of active worship that have been functioning for over a thousand years. A few things are worth keeping in mind before you go.

Support local guides. Jageshwar has excellent local guides at the ASI gate who know the history of every temple in the complex. Hiring one costs ₹200 to ₹400 and puts money directly into the local economy. At Katarmal, the ASI officer at Hawalbagh can arrange a guide for the trek up. This kind of engagement is what responsible tourism looks like in practice.

Buy local. Almora's bazaar has copper and woollen craft, local honey, Kumaoni pickles and the famous bal mithai sweet — a fudge-like confection made from roasted khoya. Buying from local vendors and cooperatives in Almora rather than mass-produced items from roadside stalls makes a real difference to the local economy.

Go aaaram se — take it slow. Aaaram se is the Kumaoni and Hindi way of saying 'relax, take your time'. The temples on this circuit are not a checklist — each one has stories, carvings and a living community around it that rewards slow attention. The traveller who spends two hours at Jageshwar instead of forty-five minutes comes away with something the rushed visitor simply does not get.

The Kumaon ancient temple circuit is one of the most rewarding heritage experiences in Uttarakhand — and one of the most undervisited. The temples are older than the Char Dham shrines, less crowded than any of the major pilgrimage circuits, and set in a landscape of Kumaon hills and deodar forests that is beautiful in its own right. Almora is an interesting town to base yourself in, the roads are good, and most of the temples have no entry fee.

Go for at least two nights. Go in October or November for the best conditions. Hire a guide at Jageshwar. Ask before photographing. And take a refillable water bottle.

The Katyuri kings who built these temples are 1,200 years gone. The temples they built are still standing and still in use. That kind of continuity is rare in the world, and the Kumaon hills are full of it.