MOUNT ABU
The Fount of Indian Culture

KANYAKUMARI AND BALAM RASIA TEMPLE

These twin temples lie a little farther to the Dilwara temples. They enshrine the idols of modern lovers, whose romantic story turned tragic by the nefarious designs of one doting mother. The inscription dated 1443 A.D. bears testimony that Kanyakumari was the lovely daughter of a Chieftain of Abu. This angel enkindled love in a sage by name Balam Rasia; he proposed. Though the proposal was agreeable to the father, the unwilling mother tried to frustrate it by stratagem. She set the difficult task of laying twelve different approach roads to Abu in a single night as a precondition for winning the hand of her daughter, before the crowing of cock, at it.  Balam accepted the challenge and set to work zealously; but fate set at nought his attempt. Seeing the work nearing completion before the time fixed even, the mother feigned the crowing of cock. Wickedness triumphed. Knowing the truth later, Balam threw a magic shell in ungovernable rage, which transformed both the mother and daughter into stones at once. This historical episode is corroborated by ample evidence in records. Grateful people erected shrines and installed statues in the twin temples. Thus came into existence these shrines  and are beckoning attention from one and all.

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