Chandika Temple Kothi

A handsome temple dedicated to goddess Chandika, more especially designated as Shuwang Chandika has spread the fame of village Kothi in greater part of the district.The local people hold the goddess in great reverence and consider her to be one of the most powerful goddess. For want of social contact by the local people with their more advanced and brahmin ridden brethren they have evolved their own peculiar procedure of ritual and worship to this presiding deity. There is an image of gold, seated in an ark. It is danced up and down by four persons at the time of worship.

Her legend goes that she was the daughter of the demon devta Banaasur who presided over the Kinnaur. He had 18 sons and daughters. Chandika was the eldest among all. She presided over Sairag the heart of Kinnaur. But establishing her hold on the area was not so easy. The thakur of Chini ruled Sairag with a aid of a powerful demon. To defeat this enemy, Chandika took the aid of a cunning female relative called Byche. Byche duped the demon into placing his long hair between the grinding stones of a water mill. Then Chandika sprang on the helpless giant and severed his head with her sword. But a new head immediately replaced the old. Repeated swishes of her sword only brought forth more grinning faces. Frustrated and tiring, Chandika was soon in danger of drowning in the sea of blood created by her actions. Forsaking her pride, she appeared to her brothers for assistance. Chagaon Maheshwar responded and told her to kill the life sustaining beetle, hovering over the demon's head. Chandika maintains her chief abode at Kothi in the middle of Sairag--