Jageshwar Group of Temples – Legends

Jageshwar Group of Temples – Legends

Jageshwar:

According to the Manaskhanda, once upon a time Lord Shiva sat in deep meditation on the Tankar hillock in Darun Patti. At that time, Vashishta and many other Rishis were living there. The wives of Rishis were so influenced by the presence of the meditating Shiva that they started ignoring their husbands. The Rishis were so angry and held Shiva responsible for it and cursed him. As a result, his lingam fell off his body on the earth. Lord Shiva returned this curse by transforming all of them into Saptharishis.

On the other hand, goddess Prithvi (Earth) found the lingam of Shiva too heavy to bear; so, she requested the Rishis to relieve her of this great burden, where upon Vishnu cut the lingam into nine khandas and cast each of them at different places on the earth. Eventually, these places got associated with the faith of the people and turned into centers of worship. Four of these khandas came to be known as Himadri Khand, Manas Khand, Kedar Khand and Kailash Khand are located in Himachal.

The others are Patalkhand, Kashi Khand, Reva Khand, Brahmottar Khand and Nagar Khand. The place where Shiva sat in meditation on Tankor hillock began to be known as Briddha Kedar or Budha Jageshwar. The Jatganga originated from this place. However, a small portion of that lingam could not go very far, it fell nearby, and that place began to be known as Jageshwar after the name of Tarun Lingam, Tarun – the younger Jageshwar.

Jyotirlinga:

According to Shiva Mahapuraan, Brahma (The Creator) and Vishnu (The Preserver) once had a disagreement about which of them was supreme. To test them, Shiva pierced the three worlds as an immeasurable pillar of light, the Jyotirlinga. Vishnu and Brahma parted company to determine the extent of each end of the pillar. Brahma, who had set off upward, lied that he had discovered the upper end of the pillar, but Vishnu, who had gone in the direction of the base of the pillar, admitted that he had not. Shiva then appeared as a second Jyotirlinga and cursed Brahma, telling him that he would have no place in the ceremonies, though Vishnu would be worshipped until the 'end of eternity'.

The Jyotirlinga is the supreme indivisible reality from which Shiva appears. jyotirlinga shrines commemorate this time when Shiva appeared. It was believed that there were originally sixty-four Jyothirlingas. Twelve are considered to be especially auspicious and holy. Each of the twelve sites takes the name of the presiding deity and each is considered a separate manifestation of Shiva. At all these sites, the primary deity is a lingam representing the beginning less and endless Stambha pillar, symbolizing the Shiva's infinite nature.

The twelve jyotirlingas are;

·        Somnath in Gujarat,

·        Mallikarjuna at Srisailam in Andhra Pradesh, 

·        Mahakaleswar at Ujjain in Madhya Pradesh, 

·        Omkareshwar in Madhya Pradesh, 

·        Kedarnath in Uttarakhand, 

·        Bhimashankar in Maharashtra, 

·        Viswanath at Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh, 

·        Triambakeshwar in Maharashtra, 

·        Vaidyanath at Deoghar in Jharkhand,

·        Nageshvara Jyotirlinga, Gujarat or Jageshwar temple, Uttarakhand

·        Rameshwar at Rameswaram in Tamil Nadu,

·        Grishneshwar at Aurangabad in Maharashtra.

The actual location of the legendary forest of Darukavana is debated. No other important clues indicate the location of the Jyotirlinga. 'Darukavana' remains the only clue. The name Darukavana, is derived from Daruvana (forest of deodar trees), is thought to exist in Almora. Deodar (Daru Vriksha) is found abundantly only in the western Himalayas, not in peninsular India. Deodar trees have been associated with Lord Shiva in ancient Hindu texts. Hindu sages used to reside and perform meditation in deodar forests to please Lord Shiva. Also, according to the ancient treatise Prasadmandanam, because of this the Jageswara Temple near Almora, Uttarakhand is also identified as Nageshvara Jyotirlinga.

The written name of Darukavana could be misread as Dwarakavana which would point to the Nageswara temple at Dwaraka. However, no forest is in this part of Dwaraka that finds mention in any of the Indian epics. The narratives of Shri Krishna, mention Somanatha and the adjoining Prabhasa tirtha, but not Nageswara or Darukavana in Dwaraka. Darukavana might exist next to the Vindhya Mountains. It is south-southwest of the Vindhyas extending to the sea in the west. In the Dvadasha Jyotirlinga Stotra, Shankaracharya praised this Jyotirlinga as Naganath. This could be taken to mean that it is located in the south at the town of Sadanga, which was the ancient name of Aundh in Maharashtra, south of the Jageswara shrine in Uttarakhand and west of Dwaraka Nageshvara.

Linga worship:

As per the legends, after destroying the Daksh Prajapati, Lord Shiva came here for meditation. He smeared his body with the ashes of his wife Sati and sat for meditation. All the wives of the sages got attracted to him and went after them leaving behind their husbands. This action infuriated the sages. In response, Lord Shiva cut off his phallus and that brought darkness to the earth. To solve this problem, sages then installed the Linga as a representation of Lord Shiva himself. This is how the tradition of Linga worship started.

Jag Ishwar:

According to a myth, in Dwapar Yuga, the Pandavas sat in deep meditation and during their meditation, Lord Shankar came to the Pandavas and gave them information about the conspiracy of Duryodhana. After this event, the Pandavas gave the name of this place as Jag Ishwar (the God who woke up), later on it was called Jageshwar.

Gajsinghmurti:

It has been seen that an image of Gajsinghmurti is placed on the top of Sukanasa in the Jageshwar temple in which a lion is sitting over the elephant. A legend is related to this figure, according to which when Mahishasura came to kill Durga, he turned himself into a giant Gaj (elephant) and to counter this the vehicle of Durga (Lion) changed itself into a giant form and killed he Gaj (Mahishasura). This story is related to the image of Gajsinghmurti. Since that time, this is considered as a sign of defeat of evil and thus this motif is made on almost all stone temples.

Luv & Kush performed Yagna here:

Another legend says that Luv and Kush, sons of Lord Ram performed Yagna here. They invited various devatas here for the same. It is believed that they were the ones to first set up these temples.

Mrityunjay Temple:

It is believed that Adi Shankaracharya discovered the temple of Mrityunjay in Jageshwar Temple Complex.