Subarnameru Temple, Sonepur – Legends

Subarnameru Temple, Sonepur – Legends

As per legend, a trader named Neulisa was travelling in his bullock cart with the sacks of his products to sell in Sonepur. He decided to take rest in the Suvarnapali Village on the banks of the Tel river. He need to sew some of his sacks which got loosed due to the arduous journey. To sew them properly, he wanted to sharpen his needle. He found a stone buried in the sand on the banks of the river. The buried stone was a Swayambhu Lingam.

The trader without knowing the presence of the Lingam rubbed the needle against the smooth surface of the Lingam. To his great astonishment he found the iron needle changed into a gold one. He realized that the stone was having miraculous effect of converting the iron into gold. He then brought all the pieces of iron, which were with him and converted them into gold simply by rubbing it against the Lingam. The trader tried to take away the Lingam with him.

However, he could able to dig it out of the earth. Lord Shiva appeared in his dreams at the same night and directed him to build a temple on the left bank of River Tel. As instructed by Lord Shiva, he built a temple and found the Lingam appeared in the sanctum miraculously. It is also said that there was a shower of gold pieces for 36 hours when the Lingam appeared in the temple. Thus, the place came to be called as Sonepur / Subarnapur.