The Epic story of Jakhoo Hill of Shimla!!!!

Himalaya has always been a holy mountain range and is associated with many of the Hindu Mythology. Be the Char Dhams which are associated with Lord Shiva or Lakhamandal associated with Pandhavas or Sanjeevani with Ramayan. Jakhoo Hills in Shimla share the same Mythological significance of Ramayan, Hanuman's search for Sanjeevani. Recently I have been watching EPIC channel, a channel all about Indian History, which showcased an Episode on Jakhoo hills on their Kahi Suni series. So when in Shimla, I wanted to visit this hill.

The statue of Hanuman as seen from Mall Road

Its said that when Hanuman came to Himalaya in search of Sanjeevani, he heard the sound of a saint chanting Shree Ram and landed on the hill. The hill is said to have got reduced by 3/4th by his foot step. He asks the saint for guidance to reach the Sanjeevani, which is the present day Dronagiri Parvat in Uttarakhand. The saint was the guardian of the hill, so called Yaksha. Yaksha guide Hanuman to Dronagiri Parvat and asks him to visit him again during his return. But hurry Hanuman, leaves without visiting Yaksha. Its said Hanuman gave his virtual appearance to the Yaksha at the present Jakhoo temple in Shimla. Yaksha, which later got changed to Yakhoo, finally got its present name Jakhoo.

The snow capped mountains from the road to Jakhoo hills, just before sunset

Even today Jakhoo hill stands tall with the Idol of Hanuman visible from most of Shimla. Its a 10km drive from Mall road to reach the Jakhoo Hills. The road is very narrow and the final stretch is very much steep and you need to trek or can take the local taxi for the last leap to reach the top of the hill. By the time we reached Jakhoo, it was already very late and was getting dark, we were told the temple was closed. We enjoyed the beautiful snow capped mountains from the highest peak of Shimla, drove back to Chandigarh the same night and took our train back to Mumbai the next morning.
This is my final post of our Punjab and Himachal Pradesh trip which we had been to in March this year. Do check out the complete series on this trip of mine here.