Dashal - The Khajuraho of north - The tales and folklore
The beginning of Dashal as a village
Tales and folklores are synonyms of village life. There are few such tales associated with one of village in Manali, Himachal Pradesh, namely, Dashal.
This is a story as told by my father, Mr Gajender Thakur.
Village Dashal, derived from the word DEV-God and Shala- Place, i.e. gods place.
Because, the place being abode of many Devi devtas (god-goddess) the place was rechristened as Devshala in earlier times.
There existed gods and goddesses, Devi Kotli, Patal Devta, Gauri Shankar, Naar singh, Vasuki Nag and Nanda Patal.
It is situated on the left bank of river Beas (ancient Vedic name- Vipasha).
Initially, as the tales goes, a village by the name Bhotgraan existed there by the bank of the Pakhnoj Nallah(stream). It is said that that mine of Pukhraj, of precious stones, existed somewhere near the source of the nalah.
At some later time, this entire village was completely washed away by floods due to the Nallah. The families of KHUS, RAHU, KOL, KIRAT sub-castes were the original residents of this village. The flood ruined and devastated these inhabitants.
The chief deity of these inhabitants was Nanda Patal, also Agni pataal devta was there in the village. His place was at a nearby place up the hills, called Chharahan.
The flood just ruined the entire existence of the village and happened due to a lake being formed uphill due to landslide. This dam like structure at a place called "Tateri Thhach" was damaged resulting in collapse and large volume of water from the artificial lake coming down as flood.
It is said that, while entire community perished, there was just one survivor, a Shepard and during the time of flood he was grazing his sheep.
A few years back utensils of the old village were found. OKHLEES (paddy husking pits on thick slab of stone).
So there was a large unclaimed fertile land in this village , which started attracting many outsiders to this village, which in present day is called Dashal.
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