Inside the Himalayas: The cave shrine

Editor’s note: The majestic Himalayan mountains—revered and sacred—come to life in The Living Himalaya, co-written and co-edited by Namita Gokhale and Malashri Lal. The book brings together a series of essays, stories, and visual narratives exploring these vast mountain ranges: the rituals and traditions, the way of life, the spirituality, the ecology of the Himalayas. 

The following excerpt, from an essay about the cave shrine of Patal Bhuvaneshwar by Sunita Pant Bansal, takes us through this mesmerising temple. This excerpt from The Living Himalaya: Rock, Sky, Spirit, co-edited by Namita Gokhale and Malashri Lal, has been excerpted with permission from Hachette India/John Murray India. 

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Vriddha Bhuvaneshwar 

The motorable road coming from Pithoragarh city ends half a kilometre before the main temple entrance of the Patal Bhuvaneshwar temple complex. Yes, there is a group of ancient stone temples before the actual Patal cave temple. 

The big, beautiful temple of Vriddha Bhuvaneshwar is visible as one walks down the winding stony path lined with bells of all sizes. The bells are a typical offering of faith in the temples by the native people of Uttarakhand – the faith that the gods will look after them well and fulfil their wishes or even as a thanksgiving gesture of having completed a task satisfactorily with the underlying faith that every success has God’s hand behind it. 

Vriddha means old and the local priests mandate that a visit to Vriddha Bhuvaneshwar temple is imperative before entering the cave temple of Patal Bhuvaneshwar. 

There are small stone temples of Shani, Surya and Batuk Bhairava in the Vriddha Bhuvaneshwar temple courtyard. Shani is the divine personification of the planet Saturn and the lord of karma, justice and retribution. Surya or sun is the solar deity, the dispeller of darkness, the embodiment of all gods and the origin of all life. 

Batuk Bhairava is considered to be the five-year-old child form of Shiva. He was created to destroy a demon named Aapat. This is the most worshipped form of Bhairava in the region. While the other forms of Bhairava like Kaal Bhairava are quite terrifying, the child-like form of Batuk looks quite friendly. It is believed that the various Bhairavas were created by Shiva as protectors or guards, so one is sure to see a Bhairava shrine in a Shiva temple. In fact, in some temples, when the main Shiva temple is locked, the keys are placed in front of the idol of Bhairava. 

The sanctum sanctorum of Vriddha Bhuvaneshwar has Shiva in the form of a self-manifested lingam, of which only a small tip is visible, the rest being covered with a cloth. An amazing phenomenon happens here – the water that we pour on the main larger lingam flows down the usual way out from the pedestal or yoni on which the lingam sits. But the water we pour on top of the small, exposed part of the main Shivalingam seems to get absorbed by it. It is believed that Shiva himself is drinking that water. 

Within the temple complex, is an unusual statue of Hanuman, wherein he is standing without his signature gada (mace), but nevertheless looking fierce, crushing the head of the demon Kalanemi with his left foot. Legend says that Kalanemi was sent by Ravana to distract Hanuman from his task of getting the Sanjeevani herb from Dronagiri mountain.

The story goes that while fighting the battle with Ravana’s forces in Lanka, Lakshman was hit by Ravana’s son Meghnaad and he passed out, as though dead. Sushena, the monkey physician declared that only Sanjeevani herb from Dronagiri mountain in the Hima laya could save Lakshman, and also that it had to be administered urgently.

Hanuman volunteered to fly to the Himalaya to get the herb. Ravana came to know of this plan and deputed Kalanemi, a shape-shifting demon, to obstruct Hanuman in every way possible. Kalanemi reached the Himalaya disguised as a sage and magically created a hermitage, where he sat chanting the name of Rama. As Hanuman was passing by, he heard Rama’s name being chanted and decided to stop and check out. 

Kalanemi was expecting this. He greeted Hanuman and asked him to freshen up in the nearby lake, promising that he would personally take Hanuman to get the herb, as he knew exactly where to find it. Since Kalanemi was chanting Rama’s name, Hanuman assumed him to be an ardent devotee and had no reason to not believe in him. 

The moment Hanuman stepped into the lake, he was attacked by a ferocious crocodile, who was actually a demon. Hanuman killed the crocodile, but before dying the beast told him about the reality of Kalanemi. A furious Hanuman confronted Kalanemi and killed him, before resuming his journey in the quest of Sanjeevani. 

This south-facing Hanuman is known as Dakshin-mukhi Hanuman. As per Hindu belief the god of death, Yama, resides in the south or dakshin. And here Hanuman is the raudra (fierce) avtar (manifestation) of Shiva, who is the controller of kaal or death. This was the form Hanuman took when he killed Kalanemi, hence the unusual statue.  

This form of Hanuman is mostly worshipped by those who are suffering from various kinds of fears including fear of death, constant troubles, and have no peace in life. 

In the same complex is an old temple of goddess Chandika Ma, the giver of justice. Chandika is the fiercest form of goddess Durga, the main deity of Durga Saptashati (also called Devi Mahtmya and Chandi Paath) – a long poem of 700 verses describing how she fights and destroys the evil forces in the form of mighty demons. As she is the destroyer of opposition, devotees invoke her to remove the obstacles from their lives. 

The three-eyed Chandi, adorned with crescent moon, her multiple arms holding auspicious weapons gifted to her by all the gods, her golden body blazing with the splendour of a thousand suns, seated on a lion, projecting overwhelming omnipotence – the goddess undoubtedly is the most spectacular personifications of cosmic energy.

Within the temple complex, there is a huge room, more like a hall, where the various statues recovered from this temple area are labelled and stored safely, though behind bars. Otherwise, they were either getting stolen or vandalized, according to the priest. Earlier there were 400 statues majority of which were stolen. 

These ancient stone temples of the Vriddha Bhuvaneshwar complex are attributed to the Katyuri kings of Kumaon, who ruled this region from 7th-12th centuries. 

The priest family of Bhandaris still lives in the same complex. Since the time of Adi Shankaracharya, the Bhandari priests have been responsible for performing any and every ritual in the Patal Bhuvaneshwar temples.   

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This excerpt from The Living Himalaya: Rock, Sky, Spirit, co-edited by Namita Gokhale and Malashri Lal, has been excerpted with permission from Hachette India/John Murray India.