Inside Mandi, the Temple-Strewn Himalayan Haven Anand Mahindra Couldn’t Believe Was Real

In a recent post on X, industrialist Anand Mahindra described Mandi's beauty as "almost unreal," calling to mind alpine vistas rather than anything you'd associate with a typical Indian temple. This Himachal Pradesh town sits at 880 metres above sea level, where 81 temples rise between mountain peaks and the Beas River carves through valleys. They call it Choti Kashi, and when you stand on the ghats during evening aarti, watching incense smoke spiral towards the mountains whilst priests chant mantras that echo off stone, the comparison to Varanasi makes sense.

Panchvaktra Temple and Mandi's Sacred Sites

Panchvaktra Temple sits where the Beas and Suketi rivers meet, and this 500-year-old shrine houses a five-faced Shiva carved in stone, each face representing a different cosmic element: Aghora, the destroyer; Ishana, the omnipresent; Tat Purusha, the ego; Vaamdeva, the feminine; and Rudra as both creator and destroyer. The Shikhara-style architecture features pillars carved with precision that raises questions about how medieval craftsmen achieved this without modern tools, and the structure has survived half a millennium of floods that have washed away villages downstream.

The Beas has submerged the temple countless times, yet it stands intact with carvings still sharp and foundations still solid. Bhootnath Temple, built in 1527 by Raja Ajbar Sen, serves as Mandi's spiritual centre and becomes the focus during Shivratri when deities from neighbouring villages arrive on palanquins and drums echo off mountains. Trilokinath Temple has another three-faced Shiva idol, whilst Tarna Mata Temple sits on a hilltop with views across the valley. An hour's drive from Mandi brings you to Prashar Lake and the Rishi Prashar Mandir, a pagoda-style temple perched at 2,730 metres that overlooks a sacred lake with a floating island, surrounded by snow-capped Dhauladhar ranges that make Mahindra's "almost unreal" description feel like an understatement.

How to Reach Mandi and Where to Stay

Priests conduct the same rituals their predecessors performed centuries ago, morning bells wake the town at dawn, and the carved stone and jali lattice work show an understanding of both devotion and how sunlight moves across stone throughout the day. Reaching Mandi requires either a flight to Kullu, 74 kilometres away, or a drive from Chandigarh, 163 kilometres through winding roads where clouds sit lower than you do and villages cling to mountainsides.

Heritage properties offer windows that frame the Himalayan skyline and meals featuring siddu (steamed bread stuffed with walnut or poppy seeds), madra (chickpeas in yoghurt gravy), and bhey (lotus stem curry). Walk the ghats at dawn when mist clings to the river, come during Shivratri in February for crowds and celebration, or visit in autumn when you can have entire temples to yourself. Mandi doesn't package its spirituality for tourists or smooth its rough edges, which is what makes it worth the journey and what Mahindra recognised when he called this beauty almost unreal.