Rare Hindu Temple in Muslim Azerbaijan

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BAKU, AZERBAIJAN, September 28, 2003: In an old settlement of oil workers situated 18 miles from this Azerbaijani capital is a rare Hindu temple dedicated to Jwalaji or the Goddess of Fire, forgotten for decades but now catching the attention of tourists. The temple, called the Atishgah, in this predominantly Muslim republic of the former Soviet Union is a typical Hindu shrine with an iron trishula on its roof. Built in 1713, the Jwalaji temple stands in the middle of a courtyard, surrounded by rooms for pilgrims coming all the way from India to worship the Fire Goddess in its heyday. On the carved entrances of the rooms are stones plaques describing who built them and in which year. There are over 20 stone plaques, of which 18 are in Devanagari, one in Gurumukhi and one in Farsi (Persian) text. The temple was built on the spot where subterranean gas leaking out of the rocky ground used to burn day and night. Local records say that it was built by a prominent Hindu traders community living in Baku, and its construction coincided with the fall of the dynasty of Shirwanshahs and annexation by the Russian Empire following the Russo-Iranian war.