Bhimashankar Jyotirlinga

Bhīmaśaṅkara is worshipped high in the Sahyadri range (the Western Ghats) in Pune district, Maharashtra. The temple sits in a hollow among thick forest, now protected as a wildlife sanctuary, and the Bhima river, which later joins the Krishna, has its source here.

In the Śiva Purāṇa, Bhīma was the son of Kumbhakarṇa and the rākṣasī Karkaṭī. Learning that his father had been killed by Rāma, he resolved to take revenge on Viṣṇu and the gods, won great strength from Brahmā through austerity, and overran the world. He defeated Sudakṣiṇa, the king of Kāmarūpa and a devotee of Śiva, and threw him into prison. There the king and his wife made a liṅga of earth and went on worshipping. Told that the king was working a rite against him, Bhīma came with drawn sword and struck at the liṅga. Before the blow could land, Śiva appeared from it and reduced the demon and his host to ashes. At the request of the gods and sages he stayed on as Bhīmaśaṅkara.

The Purāṇa sets this story in Kāmarūpa, the old name for the Assam region, and a shrine near Guwahati is accordingly held by its devotees to be the jyotirliṅga. The hymn of the twelve places Bhīmaśaṅkara “in Ḍākinī”, a name that the Sahyadri tradition applies to its own hills. The Maharashtra temple is the one most pilgrims visit and the one listed in most modern accounts; we note both claims without deciding between them.

The Sahyadri temple is built in the Nāgara style, with additions from the Maratha period; the hall and spire are credited to Nana Phadnavis in the eighteenth century. The surrounding forest is home to the Indian giant squirrel, the state animal of Maharashtra, and in the monsoon the whole hillside is in cloud.