Gopal Temple Damtal
The Temple of Damtal is situated at village damtal ,Teh Nurpur ,Dist Kangra is also known as ‘Shree Thakur Ram Gopal Temple’. Its an ancient temple to which hindus of all sects and casts flocked for worship and is looked upon with the great veneration by the people of local in general.The origin of the temple is lost in antiquity and no authentic version regarding its origin is available.However, there is one interesting and astonishing account of its origin ,parts of which may be of history and parts be of folk lores which are prevalent and implicitly believed by succeeding generations of devotees.The mention of the Temple is found recorded in the gazetteer of the Kangra District,the temple is stated to have been built in ‘Samvat 1550″. There is an account tha a “Seer Saint” namely Sh. Bhagwan Dass having origin at “Pindori Dham” ,Situated in Gurdaspur District(Punjab),who journeyed through a cave and engrossed himself in the deep worship of God in the complete reclusion of thick forests of village Damtal. One day children of surrounding villages , grazing their cows , hapened to be at the place of worship of the Seer .
The Saint asked them to bring some milk. The Children offered to bring the milk from their homes, but saint negating their suggestion , wanted the milk there and then. The children told the seer that the cows brought by them for grazing are totally dried of milk being in dotayed stage, but the seer insisted them to provide milk from the cows . The children of cow-herds broke into laughter . On his insistence ,they took the oldest cow to the seer . As the seer laid his loving hand on the back of the cow , the milk started flowing from its udders incessantly. People say that the milk oozed out from the “Ansui” rather than from the old cow.Being ecstasyed on gulping the milk , the saint directed the children to have blessings from him of their choices. On being astonished by the act of the Seer they touched his feet and bestowed salutations upon him. The children toldhim that this area is devoid of water as a result of which the people of the area had to undergo spree of difficulties and if water was made available , it would relieve them of the trouble , trial and tribulations. The Seer collected the pebble from his place of worship and kept it a few yards away. As soon as he dug that ground with his “Trishul” four times , to the surprise of the shepherds,the water started gushing out in profusion .
The Seer commanding mysterious ocult powers ,forbade that this water will never dry and will remain flowing through out the year.This miracle spread like wild fire in the area and people started visiting the Seer in large number .Even the King of nurpur visited him in person and humbly implored for endowment of being blessed with a son. The Mahatma gave blessings to the king that this dynasty would continue to have only one son for seven generations . The king was blessed with a son .Over joyed and grateful , king donated his fort located at Damtal and land adjoining to the fort to the Seer .The Seer established the Idol of Shree Ram Gopal in the fort.Since then this place is famous as Damtal Dham.Mahatma Bhagwan Dass assigned the pious duty of worship at this place to his disciple Mahant Sham Dass and repatriated through the same tunnel to the “Pindori Dham”