The Pashupatinath Temple is one of the most famous and sacred Shiva temple located on the banks of the Bagmati River in Kathmandu city of Nepal. Infact, this Hindu temple is a collection of temples, ashrams, images built over many centuries along the banks of the sacred Bagmati river.
The twelve Jyotirlinga (in India) are the body and the Jyotirlinga at Pashupatinath temple is the head over this body.
Legend surrounding the Temple Origin
Pashupatinath Temple is the oldest Hindu temple in Kathmandu. It is not known for certain when Pashupatinath Temple was founded, but its existence dates back to 400 B.C. The temple has the sacred five mukhi Shiv linga . There are many legends associated with this temple. Some of them are narrated below:-
The Cow Legend : Lord Shiva once took the form of an antelope and sported unknown in the forest on Bagmati river's east bank. The gods later caught up with him, and grabbing him by the horn, forced him to resume his divine form. The broken horn was worshipped as a linga but overtime it was buried and lost. Centuries later an astonished herdsmen found one of his cows showering the earth with milk. Digging deep at the site, he discovered the divine linga of Pashupatinath.
Other beliefs
One story goes, in that Shiva and Parvati came to the Kathmandu Valley and rested by the Bagmati while on a journey. Shiva was so impressed by its beauty and the surrounding forest that he and Parvati changed themselves into deers and walked into the forest. After a while the gods began to search for Shiva. Finally, they found him in the forest, but he refused to leave. Shiva announced that, since he had lived by the Bagmati in a deer's form, he would now be known as Pashupatinath, Lord of all animals. It is said that whoever came here and beheld the lingam that appeared there would not be reborn as an animal.
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