'Ghee Mass' Deluge Threatens To Erode 'Kedarnath Shrine'

By Rakesh Tiwari | Kedarnath

It may have stood up to the Himalayan deluge of June but the continued existence of the Kedarnath temple is threatened by, of all things, ghee.

That's what a science branch team of the Archaeological Survey of India ( ASI), tasked with restoration of the thousand- year- old temple after the flash flood of June, has found out.
The four-member team began a chemical cleanup of Kedarnath on October 12, but could work only for about two weeks before the temple was closed for the winter.

The ghee that threatens Kedarnath comes from the hands of the thousands of pilgrims who visit the shrine at over 3,500 metres above sea level in the uppermost part of Garhwal's Mandakini valley. Pilgrims who enter the temple for darshan of the Shivalinga in its bull humpshaped rock form apply ghee to it with their bare hands. Almost all then clean rub the ghee off their hands on the rough stone walls of the temple, a practice that is more unquestioned ritual than plain bad manners.

Over hundreds of years, this practice has resulted in a layer of ghee on the temple walls. The average thickness of this layer is one- and- a- half inches.

This ghee is rotting at most places, and is infested with worms. It also chokes the stones, preventing their natural breathing. Moisture gets trapped in the stone, and early decay sets in. During restoration, the ASI ( Science Branch) team found that many engravings and other artistic works in the temple have been damaged by the ghee layer, the stone turning into powder due to the acidic reaction of the decomposing rotten layer.

ASI Director ( Science branch) K. S. Rana says, " We have not witnessed the typical problem in any of our projects, which we had to face in the Kedarnath shrine. The ghee deposits turn hard with drop in temperature in the valley. We had to use a hot blower to make the ghee layer soft and scrape it off with tools.

In the next phase we conducted chemical treatment and in the final step ' Multani Mitti' was applied to remove all the moisture from the wall." The ASI was successful in removing ghee from about 13- 15 per cent of the temple's wall area, getting two buckets from just the Akhand Jyot area of the temple's sanctum sanctorum.

Lots of work remains, and the next phase of restoration will begin only by May next year when the shrine opens again. The team is, however, optimistic that the higher temperatures of summer will help speed up the pace of ghee removal.

Three to four months is what they predict. The ASI also plans to remove the soot deposits left by incense burnt in the temple.

The shrine is managed by a state government body, the Badrinath Kedarnath Temple Committee. The committee's Public Relations Officer, N. P. Jamloki, says, "Smearing the temple walls with ghee is a practice with no religious significance."