Temples in Ara
One temple in Ara carries a written guide — the darshan window, the nearest station and the locality, so you know when to arrive and how far it is from the platform. Any others we know of are named here until a guide is written for them.
Dedicated to Shakti.
Temples in Ara (आरा)
One temple documented in Ara, with darshan timings and how to reach.
A temple page is a guide. Its badge and its sevas appear here only where a signed agreement with the temple is live and unexpired; everywhere else what you can book is an independent verified pandit.
The temples of Ara
Ara's temple life centres on Aranya Devi, the town's presiding goddess, from whom the town is usually said to take its name. The two images in the sanctum are worshipped as sisters, and the tradition attached to the site places it in the forest the Pandavas passed through.
The shrine sits in the middle of the old town and is reached on foot. Navratri is its season, and the lanes around it are closed to traffic for the week — which is also the only week in the year when getting there takes planning.
Aranya Devi is in the middle of the old town and is reached on foot from the main road, which takes a few minutes on any ordinary day. Navratri is the exception in both directions: the lanes are closed to traffic for the week, and it is also the only week the temple is worth travelling for rather than dropping into.
Buxar is two hours west, on the Ganga, with its own bathing tradition and the Ramrekha ghat; Varanasi is four. Ara's own households more often travel for a river rite than for a temple one, which is why the ghats rather than the shrines are what a longer trip is planned around. Buxar is on the main line west and is an easy train; the ghat is a short walk from the station.
