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Chintpurni, Jwala Ji and Naina Devi from Punjab
Almost every account of the Devi circuit is written from Dharamshala looking down. Most people arrive the other way — from Ludhiana, Chandigarh, Amritsar, or off a train at Amb Andaura — and approached from below the shrines come in a different order entirely.
Written by the people who drive these roads · Last checked
The short answer
From Punjab, Naina Devi comes first: 106 km from Chandigarh and 135 km from Ludhiana. Chintpurni is the gateway to the Kangra shrines, 154 km from Amritsar and 175 km from Chandigarh. If you are coming by train, Amb Andaura is the useful station — 21 km from Chintpurni, far closer than any of the railheads usually named.
The facts, in one place
- Amb Andaura station is 21 km from Chintpurni, the closest railhead to the southern shrines.
- Naina Devi is 106 km from Chandigarh and 135 km from Ludhiana, so it belongs at the start.
- Chintpurni is 154 km from Amritsar and 175 km from Chandigarh, sitting at about 941 m.
- Chintpurni to Naina Devi is 112 km, the leg people routinely underestimate.
- Jwala Ji is at about 550 m and Naina Devi 1,141 m, so this is not a hill trip.
- Naina Devi
- Chintpurni
- Jwala Ji
- Chamunda Devi
- Dharamshala
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Every account of this circuit we can find, including our own, is written from Dharamshala outwards — from the hills, looking down at the shrines. That is not how most people travel it. The search data is unambiguous on this: the questions come from Ludhiana, from Chandigarh, from Amritsar, and from people trying to work out what a train to Amb Andaura would get them.
Approached from below, the circuit is a different shape. The temple you should see first is the one that is furthest from all the others, and the station worth knowing about is not the one usually named.
What each city is actually near
| From | Naina Devi | Chintpurni | Jwala Ji |
|---|---|---|---|
| Chandigarh | 106 km | 175 km | — |
| Ludhiana | 135 km | — | — |
| Amritsar | — | 154 km | 175 km |
| Amb Andaura station | — | 21 km | — |
Those are road distances taken from a routing engine rather than repeated from somewhere else. The gaps in the table are deliberate: they are legs nobody asks about, because nobody sensible drives them.
Read across the top row and the logic of the trip falls out. Chandigarh is twice as close to Naina Devi as it is to Chintpurni. Naina Devi is not on the way to the Kangra shrines. It is on the way in.
Amb Andaura, the station nobody mentions
If you are coming by train, this is the single most useful fact on the page. Amb Andaura is 21 km from Chintpurni. It sits at about 458 m at the end of the line up from Nangal, and it is far and away the closest railway station to the southern shrines.
Advice on reaching these temples almost always names Una or Pathankot. Both are reasonable general answers for the region and neither is the right one here — Pathankot is a long way north and exists for the Kangra and Dharamshala traffic. For Chintpurni, take the train to Amb Andaura and drive forty to fifty-five minutes.
What the station will not do is finish the circuit. Brajeshwari Devi at Kangra is 69 km from Amb Andaura, about two hours, and everything in the Kangra valley is further still. Arrive by train, then take a car.
Chintpurni is a gateway, not a stop
Chintpurni sits at about 941 m on the ridge above the Beas country, and it is the shrine that most Punjabi families reach first when they come up the Hoshiarpur side. It is 154 km from Amritsar and 175 km from Chandigarh.
It gets treated as one bead on a string. In practice it is the door: from Chintpurni, everything else in Kangra — Jwala Ji, Baglamukhi, Chamunda, the Kangra temple — is within an easy morning’s driving, and we have set out those legs and the Baglamukhi distances in a separate post.
South of Chintpurni there is nothing but the plains you came from. That asymmetry is the whole planning problem.
Naina Devi belongs at the beginning
Naina Devi is at about 1,141 m above the Gobind Sagar, and it is 112 km from Chintpurni — three hours of real driving on hill road, not a hop.
Against that, it is 106 km from Chandigarh and 135 km from Ludhiana.
So the temple that is awkward from inside the circuit is easy from outside it. Go up to Naina Devi on your first day, on the way from the plains, and it costs you an afternoon. Save it for later and it costs you a day of backtracking, and people do this constantly.
Chamunda Devi is the mirror image. It is 219 km from Ludhiana — nobody should drive that as a leg of its own. It belongs at the Kangra end of the trip, grouped with the temple at Kangra itself.
The altitudes, and a warning about clothes
| Shrine | Height |
|---|---|
| Jwala Ji | ~550 m |
| Brajeshwari, Kangra | 737 m |
| Chintpurni | 941 m |
| Naina Devi | 1,141 m |
This circuit is not a hill trip. Jwala Ji at about 550 m is barely above the plains and is hot for most of the year. Only Naina Devi and Chintpurni have any real height in them.
People pack for Himachal, arrive at Jwala Ji in April in a jacket, and spend the day carrying it. Pack for Punjab and add one warm layer for the two high shrines.
What we would actually tell you
Come up from the plains, take Naina Devi on the first day, sleep at or near Chintpurni, and give the Kangra shrines the whole of the second day. That is two days rather than three, and the only thing that makes it work is putting Naina Devi at the front.
If you are arriving by train, book to Amb Andaura rather than Una or Pathankot and have a car meet it. Our Shaktipeeth route runs this in three days at a pace that lets people actually sit down in each temple, which is the usual reason for adding the third.
And check each shrine’s darshan hours the day before you go. They differ from one another, they change around festivals, and a circuit planned entirely around driving times will deliver you punctually to a closed door.
Also asked
Questions that come up
How far is Chintpurni from Chandigarh?
175 km by road, about four and a half hours. From Amritsar it is closer at 154 km, and from Amb Andaura railway station it is 21 km. The Chandigarh route is the busiest of the three and the one most affected by a festival weekend.
What is the nearest railway station to Chintpurni?
Amb Andaura, 21 km away, on the line up from Nangal. It is much the closest and it is rarely the one people are told about. Una is the other option and Pathankot is the general-purpose railhead for the whole region, but for Chintpurni specifically, Amb Andaura is the answer.
How far is Naina Devi from Ludhiana?
135 km, roughly three and a half hours, most of it decent plains road before the climb at the end. From Chandigarh it is nearer still at 106 km. Both are short enough to be a day trip, which is exactly why Naina Devi should not be squeezed into the middle of a longer circuit.
How far is Jwala Ji from Amritsar?
175 km, four to five hours. Jwala Ji sits low, at about 550 m, in the Beas country rather than up in the hills — people who have driven all afternoon expecting mountains are often surprised by how warm and flat it is when they arrive.
Can I do the Devi temples by bus from Punjab?
To the big shrines, yes. Chandigarh and Ludhiana both run services towards Naina Devi, and Chintpurni is well served from Hoshiarpur and Una. What buses do not do is join the shrines together on your schedule — the connecting legs are where a day disappears, and that is the part most people end up taking a car for.
Which temple should we visit first coming from Punjab?
Naina Devi, in almost every case. It is the closest to the plains and the furthest from the rest, so taking it on the way up costs you an afternoon while taking it later costs you a whole day of doubling back.
How far is Amb Andaura from the Kangra temple?
69 km to Brajeshwari Devi at Kangra, about two hours. That is the far end of the circuit from the station, and it is worth knowing before you plan to arrive by train and see everything the same day. You will not.
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