Batakote

The village of the Malik family above Pahalgam, from which, the family says, the shepherd Buta Malik found the Amarnath cave about 1850, and whose Maliks kept the track, guided the pilgrims and sat at the cave with the Mahant and the Purohits for a third of the offerings until the Shrine Board (Act 2000, Board from 12 February 2001). Lawrence in 1895 wrote that the Maliks of Batkoot managed the route.