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DNA Exclusive: The Real Story of the Holy Amarnath Cave

July 13, 2022
Bharat Times English News

New Delhi: The famous writer Mark Twain once said that “a lie can roam half the world while the truth is still on its shoes”. This means that a lie spreads so fast that the real truth is left far behind and gradually the whole world starts believing this real ‘truth’ to be a lie. This has happened many times in the history of our country. In today’s edition of DNA, Zee News anchor Rohit Ranjan reveals the truth behind the discovery of the holy Amarnath cave – one of the most sacred places associated with Lord Shiva.

We all know that Amarnath cave temple holds a special place in Hinduism, it has been reiterated many times by historians and a certain section of our society that this holy cave was actually discovered in the year 1850 by a Muslim shepherd named Buta Malik. Had it.

Although our Puranas tell a different story about the Amarnath cave, it has been established that the revered cave was discovered by the shepherd Buta Malik, who met a saint while his cattle were grazing in the field. Finding a bag full of coal from the saint, he went back to his house and opened it; To his surprise, he found a bag full of gold coins. Shocked and shocked to receive this unexpected gift from the saint, he immediately went back to the place he had met to thank him. But instead of the saint he got the holy cave and Shiva Linga. This led to the discovery of the Amarnath cave in 1850. Since then, the Amarnath cave became a major place for pilgrimage among Hindus.

This story establishes that the Amarnath cave – the center of Hinduism – was discovered by a Muslim shepherd and, therefore, Hindus should be eternally grateful to this man for discovering one of the most sacred places in Hinduism.

But before we explore the real story of Amarnath cave, let us look at some very interesting facts – Amarnath cave is located in Anantnag district of Jammu and Kashmir. It is situated at an altitude of five thousand 486 meters above sea level. The length of this cave is about 19 meters and the width is 16 meters.

The legend about Amarnath begins with Goddess Parvati asking her husband Lord Shiva about the pearls (Rudra) that he donated on his head. Lord Shiva explains to her that he first started wearing pearls as a symbol of his birth. Each time she is born, a bead is added. To which the goddess replies, “Why do I die and take rebirth every time you are immortal?”

And this is the reason why Lord Shiva discovered a deserted cave to narrate the story of immortality to his wife Goddess Parvati. On his way to the cave, he discarded all his ornaments, elements and even his chief disciple Nandi. After reaching the cave Kalangi burns the space around the cave on his orders so that no living creature remains alive and hides in the story.

Shiva meditated in the cave and narrated the story of immortality to his wife. Amarnath is also mentioned in the Linga Purana, which was written in the fifth century. In the 12th chapter of the Linga Purana, there is a verse on page number 487, which states that ‘Amareshwar’ or Lord Shiva is seated in the Amarnath cave. If the Linga Purana, written in the fifth century, mentions the Amarnath cave, then how can the story of Buta Malik’s discovery of the holy cave in 1850 be true?



Let us tell you some more facts – in the 12th century, Kalhana, the ancient historian of the ruler of Kashmir, composed a treatise, which is known as Rajatarangini. The 267th verse of Rajatarangini is related to this Amarnath cave.

The Ain-i-Akbari, composed in the 16th century by Abul Fazl, one of the Navaratnas of the great Mughal emperor Akbar, states that there is an ice figure in a cave, called the Amarnath. It is a holy place and at the time of full moon, snow droplets form a unique ice structure, which is believed to be the divine form of Lord Mahadev and this ice formation starts melting slowly after the new moon.


Apart from this, the Amarnath cave is also mentioned in a book by a famous 17th century French physician, François Bernier. Bernier was one of the physicians of the Mughal rulers and lived in India for about 12 years during the 17th century. During this he traveled to Kashmir with the Mughal ruler Aurangzeb and also visited the Amarnath cave. He has mentioned this in his book ‘Travels in the Mogul Empire’.

Apart from this, the famous British explorer Godfrey Thomas Vigne also came to India and visited Kashmir from the year 1835 to 1838. In one of his books written in the year 1842, he wrote about his visit to the holy Amarnath cave. This book is written in two parts. While the first volume of the book mentions Pahalgam and the Amarnath cave, pages 7 and 8 of the second part describe how to reach the Amarnath cave via Pahalgam.

He describes in his book that on the 15th day of the holy month of Sawan, devotees come to the Amarnath cave and worship Lord Shiva. The book was written in 1842 – about eight years before the so-called discovery by Buta Malik.

Ignoring all these historical facts, historians of India have repeatedly tried to prove that the Amarnath cave was discovered by a Muslim shepherd and before that no one knew about it.

What is even more shocking is that the descendants of Buta Malik have been the custodians of the Amarnath cave for many decades and they used to get a third of the offerings made by the devotees here. This continued till the year 2000 when the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government formed the Amarnath Cave Shrine Board and donations to the descendants of Buta Malik were stopped.