Chandrasekhar Mahadev Temple, Saho – Legends

Chandrasekhar Mahadev Temple, Saho – Legends

Incomplete form of Temple:

As per legend, a saint used to perform meditation in a cave near the Sal river. He used to take bath in the river in the early morning after completing his meditation. One day, he noticed that somebody had taken bath before him. He wanted to know the person who took bath before him. The next day, he came in the midnight and waited for the person. He saw three saints appeared like a flash in the early morning and started to take bath. After taking bath, they chanted certain mantras and vanished immediately. The saint was astonished to watch this strange occurrence.

Lord Chandrasekara appeared in the dream of the saint in the same night and said him not to worry about the strange occurrence. Further, Lord Shiva informed that he was present in the form of a stone under the water of Sal river. Lord Shiva ordered the saint to take the stone out of the water and carry it to another place, where the stone would become heavy and would make the saint to unable to carry it. Lord Shiva instructed the saint to place the stone in that place and construct a temple. The saint did accordingly. This news spread like a wild fire.

Knowing about this news, the king reached the place and started the construction of the temple. During the construction of the temple, the Shiva Linga started to expand. The structure of the temple had to be continuously altered to fit the growing Shiva Linga. But the Shiva Linga continued to grow. The king got baffled of this mysterious phenomenon. The king prayed to Lord Shiva for solution. Pleased with his prayers, Lord Shiva appeared in the dream of the king and asked him to stop the construction of the temple and leave it in the present form. It is said that the Shiva Linga stopped growing from then onwards. 

Chandrashekhar Mahadev:

As per legend, a saint used to perform meditation in a cave near the Sal river. He used to take bath in the river in the early morning after completing his meditation. One day, he noticed that somebody had taken bath before him. He wanted to know the person who took bath before him. The next day, he came in the midnight and waited for the person. He saw three children appeared like a flash in the early morning and started to take bath. The saint ran towards the children and got hold of one child while the other two managed to escape. The saint tried to extract information from the child in custody.

To his surprise, he vanished, and a Shiva Linga appeared in this place. The names of the children were Mahesh, Chandragupta and Chandrasekar. The children who escaped the saint were Mahesh and Chandragupta. Mahesh reached Bharmour and Chandragupta reached Chamba. Mahesh is worshipped as Manimahesh in Bharmour, Chandragupta is worshipped as Chandragupta Mahadev in Chamba and Chandrasekar is worshipped as Chandrashekhar Mahadev in Saho.

Pandavas built this temple during their exile:

As per legend, Pandavas came here during their exile and constructed this temple for Lord Shiva for their worship.