Grishneshwar Jyotirlinga

Ghuśmeśvara, known today as Grishneshwar or Ghrishneshwar, is at the village of Verul in Maharashtra, a few minutes' walk from the Ellora caves and a short drive from the city of Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar (Aurangabad). It is the last shrine named in the traditional list of twelve.

The Śiva Purāṇa tells of a brāhmaṇa named Sudharmā who lived near the Devagiri mountain with his wife Sudehā. They had no child, and Sudehā persuaded her husband to marry her younger sister Ghuśmā as well. Ghuśmā made a hundred and one liṅgas of earth every day, worshipped them and immersed them in a nearby pond, and in time she bore a son. As the boy grew and was married, Sudehā's jealousy grew too. One night she killed him and threw his body into the same pond. In the morning the household was in grief, but Ghuśmā did not break off her worship. When she went to the pond to immerse the liṅgas, she saw her son walking towards her, alive. Śiva appeared and was ready to punish Sudehā; Ghuśmā asked instead that her sister be forgiven. Pleased by this even more than by her worship, Śiva offered a boon, and she asked him to stay there for the protection of all. He took her name and remained as Ghuśmeśa.

It is this ending that devotees remember: of the twelve stories, this one turns on forgiveness, and the shrine carries the name of a woman devotee rather than of a god or king. The present temple, built of red stone with fine carving, was rebuilt in the eighteenth century by Ahilyabai Holkar of Indore, who also rebuilt the Kāśī Viśvanātha temple; an earlier restoration is credited to Maloji Bhosale, grandfather of Chhatrapati Shivaji. It is among the smaller of the jyotirliṅga temples.