The temple of Lord Shiva is situated in the heart of the city on a hill called Pahari Mandir. The 2,140 feet Ranchi hill houses the temple at its summit. One needs to climb a flight of 468 steps to reach the temple. One can enjoy beautiful landscape of Ranchi from the top of the hill. There are Kali temple and Mahakal temple at the foot of the hill and Vishwanath temple in the middle on the way to the summit. At the summit there are Durga temple, Hanuman temple and a small cave housing the Nag temple. The rock of the cave of Nag temple is believed to have the footprints of Lord Shiva.

The story of the hill temple of Ranchi, the capital of Jharkhand, is very interesting. This temple of Lord Shiva situated on the mountain was in the possession of the British before the independence of the country and they used to hang the Freedom Fighters here. Ranchi hill was earlier being known as Phansi Tongri (Hanging Hill) and it was the place where freedom fighters were hanged to death. It’s said that more than 250 freedom fighters were hanged here from the trees by the British rulers.

The people of Ranchi have a unique way of remembering the heroes, who sacrificed their lives during the freedom struggle. After Independence, Krishna Chandra Das, a freedom fighter of Ranchi first hoisted the national flag here. A stone is present in the temple with the message of the independence of the country. It was written on 14th August at midnight. Since then, people are hoisting the national flag here, along with the spiritual flags on 15th August (Independence Day) and 26th January (Republic Day) every year. The temple is the first religious place in India, where the national flag is hoisted.

This place is fast developing into a religious tourist site as this is the best place to have a bird’s eye view of the city of Ranchi and also attain some salvation by paying one’s obsequies to the Lord. I like this temple complex and used to frequent here when I was in Ranchi. Now I go to Pahari Mandir, whenever I get time, during my short visits to Ranchi.