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Introduction
Chountra Mata Temple (Mahamaya Mata Mandir ) is a Hindu Temple dedicated to Mata Mahamaya in the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir. It is one of the famous temple in Jammu and Kashmir located in Village Baland of Udhampur District. Built by Master Chet Ram Verma and completed in 1988. The temple turned 36 years old in 2024. The temple stands amidst forti-fied Pine Trees from 1988CE. This  is 82 ft ( 25m) high and is the tallest in the Ramnagar. It is one of the most attractive tourist & Holy place at Ramnagar in Jammu and Kashmir which makes people from Ramanagr and other districts of jammu  to know about the Chountra Hills and Temple. Every year on the day of ‘Bhandara’ an ‘Akhand Jyoti’ is lit at Narsingh Mandir in Ramnagar and the Durga Mandir at Gujroo Nagrotaand carried to the temple with great religious fervor amidst hymns and the beat of the drums. The Chountra Mata is famous amont the residents of Ramnagar and Udhampur but less known to the outer world. It has definitely had the potential to boom like Vaishno devi sharine. Let’s hope that day will come soon when the pilgrims from all over India would come to pay obeisance at the holy shrine and offer ‘gud’(Gaggery) there. The existing temple of Maa Chountra has three stone Sculptures (Idols) the depict Maa Chountra, Nagraj and Sandraj. Initially only a small stone temple was built. Since then a new temple has been constructed due to a considerable increase in the number of devotees visiting it. We also run JAI Chountra MATA facebook page.

History of Chountra Mata
According to our ancestors, It is believed that  more than 700 years ago, A legend is famous for among the locals about the place. It goes like-Once a Sagar Yogi was grazing his cattle on the hillock, Suddenly he saw a beautiful Girl (Mata Chountra) having Divine Aura on the Big Stone. As she appeared, lightening crackled and the lion roared divinely. Sagar Yogi touched by her personality, the yogi without wasting any time asked her to marry  his tall, healthy and Handsome sons. The divine Girl promised  to visit she would come to his house after seven days and asked him to give this message to his sons and she would meet him after seven days then after she disappeared mysteriously. When he reached at home, he was shocked to found than one of his sons was lying dead. After this incident, It so happened that every evening one of his sons died with the result that in a week, Sagar Yogi lost all his sons. Now the Sagar Yogi got confirmed that the Girl was surely not less than Bhagwan. However, the girl reached his home on the eighth day and asked Sagar where his seven sons were. He immediately fell on her feet, begging for an apology  from her. While he was mourning on the demise of his sons.He said that with all his sons having been dead, his lineage had come to an end and invoked her to bless him with a son. He promised to make them his residence in his house. The girl asked him to promise that he would never visit her abode without her permission or coughing as an indication that he was coming. She said that from now, The girl asked sagar to have courage and patience and told him that he would have everything, including food, milk etc. provided he didn’t to disclose with anyone about her presence in his home.

As the days passed, The Sagar Yogi getty rich and happy and also blessed with a son. The Yogi is having good produce from his fields. Also, his buffaloes giving  more milk and they grew in numbers. Seeing all this, They doubted on him have some mysterious powers  and his neighbours became jealous of him and thought of an evil plan to find out the secret behind his prosperity and riches. They forced him to go inside the Girl’s abode without coughing and find out the secret. Sagar fell to their evil plan and one day foolishly visited the girl’s abode without coughing and found face to face with the goddess sitting on the lion. He came out and started laughing. The Goddess become furious, sat on the lion and disappeared leaving him awestruck and perplexed. Sagar was ashamed was himself; he made many entreaties to the Goddess to reside in his home for ever in vain. Sagar was repentant but it was too late. One the same night, the Goddess appeared in a dream to Turgu (Brahmin) and made him fell down from his cot. As he recovered and slept, he fell down again. It happened the third time too. He Became cautious and now Goddess appeared again in his dream and told him that she wished to remain in his home. She asked him to prepare an Iron trident without being hammered, tie it to the back of the Goat having grey colour and established her at the place where the trident falls down from the Goat’s back. She asked him to consult the Sagar Yogi in the home of which, The Goddess was staying for 12 years. Turgu did as he was told and went to Sagar’s Home. Both did exactly the same as asked by the Goddess, Both of them tied the trident to the back of grey coloured Goat. The Present Chountra Mata is located in the same place where Trident got fallen from the grey Goat.

Another Deity Sundraj also lived on these hills about two kilometer away from the site. One day both Sundraj and Maa Chountra encountered each other and decided to establish their supremacy by playing the game of ‘Chouser’ Sundraj was defeated. After this incident the entire hill known as Chountra Hill. That was how the Goddess came to be known as ‘Chountra Mata’. Sundraj urged the Goddess to make her presence in his abode too. The Goddess agreed to his entreaty and there is a pindi at that site. The temple did not have water available in the early days. There is a common belief among people that Nagraj(Snakes) are the masters of spring water. A natural spring of water that sprouts with a large amount of water. It is also believed that the villagers had gathered for the Mata Rani’s Pooja session. Nagraj started living there happily. But one day as Mata’s Chhadi reached with the devotees dancing happily in excitement and Gud (Jaggery), wheat grains and even halwa being offered to the Goddess, It so happened that the snake God happened to sit on the heap of grains. The Gardi (also known as drum beater) with a view to scare away the snake and collect the grains. Happened to hit the snake with a stick slaying the Snake God .Incidentally Nagraj (Snake God) died on the spot. The drum beater too died after the ten minutes. After some days, the water brought by the snake to spread to the villages of Drabraan and Mattu instead of the villages of Rang and Baland. An idol of the snake God was made and the devotees have darshans of both the Sandraj and Nagraj (Snake God) along with the mata too when the visit the temple. There is a pond neat the temple, which never dries up, This water is used to bathe the mata rani every day. At present, there is very little natural water available near the temple. Images of the Snake and Gardi Banu (A drum beater) were carved on the stone and placed for the darshan forthe devotees.

Another legend associated with this temple is that once the ruler of Ramnagar, Raja Ram Singh approached the temple. But suddenly he fell down from the horse and as he was riding the horse, he fell down again. For some time this happened and he asked his wazir what could have caused this strange incident. His wazir told him that there must some divine power there. On questioning the locals, the king came to know about the Mahamaya temple and had darshan of the Mata Rani. He asked the Yogi present there to tell him everything about Mata Rani that the Yogi had done. The Yogi told the King everything about the Mata Rani and her temple. When the yogi offered the prashad to the king (Raja Ram Singh), the king refused and said that he would take prashad from the hand of the Brahmin. A Brahmin who was grazing the cattle was called and offered prashad to the king and the king ordered that the Brahmin should always be with the Yogi and offer prashad to the devotees. This tradition is still followed by the descendants of the Sagar Yogi and Heeru Ram Brahmins. Heeru Ram, appointed as a priest from a Brahmin family. While the part of Mata Rani’s  was fixed between the Yogies and Brahmins that still continues, It is also believed that earlier the mother in the garb of a girl was wandering in all the existing area of the southern part of Ramnagar known as Parli Dhar, sometimes to Thakurduwara to get amrit etc. The area slipped down and on the insistence of Sagar Yogi as mentioned above, the mata temple was built on the top of the Chountra Hills. It is also mentioned that earlier the Mata Rani was sacrificed to the animals (Bufellow) and later turned into Goats, that too on annual basis. Devotees visiting the mata temple are allowed to offer the live goats only. After sprinkling the Holy water on the goats before performing some rituals and freeing it as a symbolic singing of the sacrifice. Usually, people choose to offer Jaggery offerings, ration items, wreaths and cash on the fulfillment of their wishes instead of offering a goats. This is the whole history of Maa Chountra as we know it. Jai Mata Di.