Andhakeśvara and the Origin of the Baṭukas

The demon in the pit

Sūta had finished telling how Śiva came to be worshipped as the liṅga in all three worlds. Now the sages asked him for something more particular: the glory of the Andhakeśvara liṅga, and, along the way, of other liṅgas too.

Long ago, Sūta said, there was a daitya named Andhaka, an enemy of the gods, who made his home in a deep hollow — a pit by the ocean. From there he brought the three worlds under his control. His habit was always the same: he would burst out of the pit, torment the people, and then slip back into it again.

The gods, worn down, went to Śiva again and again and laid all their troubles before him. Śiva, who destroys the wicked and shelters the good, was pleased with them and said: I will kill this Andhaka who gives the gods so much pain. Go ahead with your army; I am coming behind you with my gaṇas.

Caught on the trident

So the next time the fearsome Andhaka came out of his hollow, the gods went in and occupied it. A terrible battle followed between the gods and the daityas, and by Śiva's grace the gods gained the upper hand. Hard pressed, Andhaka turned to dive back into his pit — and in that very moment Śiva caught him on his trident.

Hanging on the trident, Andhaka turned his mind to Śiva and began to pray. A being who sees you at the moment of death, he said, becomes like you.

Śiva was pleased by this praise and said: Ask for a boon, and I will give it. Hearing this, the demon's nature turned pure and gentle. He bowed deeply, praised Śiva once more, and said: Lord of the gods, if you are pleased with me, give me devotion to you — and, as a special grace, make your dwelling right here.

Śiva threw the demon down into that same pit, and for the good of the world he remained there himself in the form of a liṅga. That liṅga is Andhakeśvara, the Lord of Andhaka.

A warning about worship for pay

The Purāṇa then gives the liṅga's phala: whoever worships Andhakeśvara every day has all his wishes fulfilled within six months, without any doubt.

But there is a warning attached. A brahmin who worships this liṅga, which does good to the whole world, for six months as a way of earning his living — taking money for it — is called a devalaka, a hired temple priest. Such a person, the Purāṇa says, loses the standing of a twice-born.

The sages asked: Who is it that is called a devalaka, and what is his work? Tell us, for the good of the world. In answer, Sūta told them the story of the Baṭukas.

Dadhīci's son

There was a righteous brahmin named Dadhīci, learned in the Vedas, devoted to Śiva and to the scriptures of Śiva. His son, Sudarśana, was like him. But Sudarśana's wife, Dukūlā, came from a bad family, and Sudarśana was entirely under her sway. They had four sons. Sudarśana too worshipped Śiva every day.

Once Dadhīci had to go to another village. A gathering of relatives was taking place there, and his kinsmen would not let him leave. Before going, Dadhīci had told his son: Keep serving Śiva. Then he went away, free of the duties of worship, and Sudarśana carried on the daily pūjā. A long time passed in this way.

Śivarātri

Then Śivarātri came round. Everyone kept the fast, and Sudarśana happened to fast as well. He performed the worship and went home. But that night — the night of Śivarātri — he slept with his wife, and then came back to the shrine. Without bathing, he worshipped Śiva again.

Śiva was angered by this misdeed. Wicked man, he said, you had no sense: on the day of Śivarātri you went to a woman, and then you worshipped me without even bathing. Since you did this knowingly, become dull and senseless. You are no longer fit to touch me; look at me only from a distance.

Under that curse, and bewildered by Śiva's māyā, Dadhīci's son became dull and senseless on the spot.

A father's grief

Just then Dadhīci, the best of Śiva's devotees, returned from the other village and heard what had happened. Śiva rebuked him too. Dadhīci was crushed. He wept and said over and over: I am ruined by my son's wretched deed. Because of this bad son, my noble family has been destroyed.

Scorned by his father, the unlucky Sudarśana was filled with remorse, and he blamed his wife for leading him astray. Then his father, for his son's sake, set about worshipping Pārvatī with great care, using the finest rites and the deepest devotion.

Sudarśana himself worshipped Pārvatī too, with great devotion, by the rite of Caṇḍī-worship, and praised her with beautiful hymns. In many such ways father and son together won over Girijā, the Goddess who loves her devotees.

Adopted by the Goddess

Pleased by their devoted service, Caṇḍikā accepted Sudarśana as her own son. She had been angry with him before, but now her anger was gone. She herself went to Śiva on her son's behalf and won him over. When she knew that the bull-bannered Lord was fully pleased, she bowed to him and, with her own hands, set Sudarśana in his lap.

Then Girijā bathed Sudarśana in ghee and, joyfully, put on him a sacred thread of three strands with a single knot. She taught him the sixteen-syllable Śiva-gāyatrī, and she told him that this baṭu — this young initiate — should repeat “Śrī” followed by “Om Namaḥ Śivāya” sixteen times and then make his resolve and worship.

Next, in the presence of the sages, with mantras and music, she had the boy worship Śiva with all the offerings, from the ritual bath through to the final prostration, and had him recite Śiva's many names and mantras.

The Baṭuka's rights and duties

Then Caṇḍikā and Śiva, very pleased, spoke to him. Whatever wealth, grain and other things are offered to me, you should accept, Śiva said; you will incur no fault by accepting them. In all my work, and above all in the Goddess's work, you will be the chief. Ghee, oil — everything offered to me, you should take.

When the Prājāpatya rite is performed, you alone will be its chief, and only then will the worship be complete; otherwise all of it will bear no fruit. Always wear a round tilaka, bathe, perform the Śiva-sandhyā and repeat the Śiva-gāyatrī. Serve me first, and after that do the other work proper to your family. If you do all this, it will go well with you. I have forgiven all your faults.

Having said this, Śiva consecrated Sudarśana's four sons — the four Baṭukas — in the four directions. Bhagavatī Caṇḍī seated Sudarśana beside her and gave his sons many boons and much instruction.

Wherever two armies meet, she said, the side on which my Baṭuka stands will always win; have no doubt of it. Son, whoever worships you has worshipped me. All of you must always keep to your work.

Why they are called Baṭukas

In this way, Sūta said, Śiva and Śivā in their kindness gave many boons to Sudarśana and his sons for the good of the world. Because Śiva and Pārvatī installed them as their own, they are called Baṭukas; and because they fell from their austerity, they are also called tapodhama, “low in tapas”.

By the grace of Śiva and Śivā their line grew very large. The Purāṇa says that to worship the Baṭukas first is itself the great worship of Śaṅkara. So Śiva should not be worshipped until the Baṭukas have been worshipped; worship of Śiva done before them does not bring good. Whether the occasion is auspicious or inauspicious, a Baṭuka should never be left out. In a Prājāpatya feast, worshipping even a single Baṭuka is counted as something special.

King Bhadra's banner

To show how the Baṭuka stands apart in the work of Śiva and Pārvatī, Sūta told Śaunaka of a wonder that happened by Śiva's grace near Andhakeśvara, in the city of a king named Bhadra, who kept a vow of daily Prājāpatya — a rite in which brahmins were fed every day.

Sadāśiva, pleased with the king, gave him a banner and said: King, on each day that your Prājāpatya is completed, this banner, once tied up, will rise in the morning and fall at night. If there is any flaw in your worship, it will stay standing even at night. Having said this, the gracious Lord vanished.

The king kept his rule. Day after day he performed the Prājāpatya according to the rites of Śiva-worship, and whenever the work was complete, the banner rose by itself in the morning and fell in the evening.

Then one day, before the brahmins had been fed, the Baṭukas happened to be honoured first — and the banner fell. The king was puzzled and asked his learned men: The brahmins are still eating here, yet the banner has fallen. Why? Tell me the truth.

The wisest of them answered: Great king, at this brahmin feast Caṇḍī's son, the Baṭuka, was fed first. That alone satisfied Śiva, and so the banner fell. The king and everyone else were amazed, and they praised the Baṭukas.

Only the Baṭuka

So it was Śiva himself who raised the Baṭukas' glory, and that is why the wise of old called them the foremost. The rite the text calls the uttāraṇā of Śiva should therefore be done by the Baṭukas alone; otherwise the worship does not succeed. Only when they perform it is the worship complete. This alone is their work, the Purāṇa says, and by Śiva's word no one else has the right to it.

I have told you all that you asked, Sūta said. Whoever hears it gains the fruit of worshipping Śiva.