As you enter the inner room of the temple , you find the holy Shiv Linga installed at this sanctum santorum ! The location of Bhimashankaram is at Bhuvanagiri village in Pune district of Maharashtra, and is the origination point of the river Bhima.
The temple at this place is built in the Nagara style is an ancient structure of very limited size , and the Jyotir Lingam is positioned on top of the Sahyadri hill temple. Lord Shiva is considered to be taking relaxing here after the Tripurantaka samharam, and it is the formation of sweat on the body of Lord Siva which is said to have been transformed into the river stream, flowing as the river Bhimarati as we know it today. As on date there are several new buildings which have been added to the complex, and this includes two idols of Nandideva, one of which is very ancient, while the other one has been installed in recent times. The area behind the temple has a theertham and a well from which the water is drawn.
The Bhimashankarar Lingam measures around one and a half feet narrow, and the Goddess here is worshipped as Kamalaja. Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaja, the then Maratha ruler of the area had made elaborate arrangements for the r the maintenance of the temple. The moola lingam is installed at a lower level.
One aspect which is interesting is that there is yet another temple at Guwahati in Assam which is also called as the Bhimshankaram and there is a common belief that this is the real Bhimashankaram. The story goes something like this : Bhima, the son of Kumbakarnan & Karkadi, was an asura , and on hearing that his grandfather, uncles & father had been killed by a brahmin & kings, he set out to destroy them. In doing so he went in for severe penance & got tremendous shakti from Lord Brahma, resulting in King Priyadarman of Kamarupa being put in prison.
Thereafter, Priyadarman and his wife Dakshinadevi prayed daily to Lord Shiva with utmost sincerity, and fearing that they would overcome him, Bhima requested them to discontinue their prayers and worship of Lord Shiva. On their refusing to do so,he ventured out to kill both of them. It was at this critical juncture that Lord Shiva emerged out of the Lingam that they had been worshipping and killed Bhima. And to this day , based on the request of the Devas of the area , Lord Shiva still resides here under the name of Bhimashankaram.
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