The absence of ancient Hindu structures in Kashi is something I have always lamented about. The shrines are certainly ancient, and that is something that has always attracted me to the city. However, I miss the beauty of the ancient structures that we see at other sites. This feeling is intensified when I see marble and concrete and tiles in temples that once would have been beautifully adorned with evocative sculptures, and worn by the passage of time, touched by the hands of seekers who came before. This time , this desire to see some remnants of an ancient Hindu structure in Kashi came true when I managed to visit the Kardameshwar Temple. The Kardameshwar temple is not one of the main temples in the city. It is part of the temples on the Pancha Kroshi yatra, a pilgrimage which takes one on a circumambulatory tour of the whole city. The temple is located on the outskirts of the city, on the western bank of a tank called the Kardama Kund. The Kardameshwar temple is one of the...
Of all the temples dedicated to lord Shiva, the twelve Jyotirlingas are said to be the most important. These twelve temples are spread all over the country, and there is even a sloka which names them all. However, as with most things in India , the locations of some of these temples are controversial, with more than one temple claiming to be the original one. For example, there are two temples which claim to be the fifth Jyotirling – the Vaidyanath temple at Parli in Maharashtra , as well as the Baidyanath Dham temple in Jharkhand. However, the most controversial one is surely the eighth one – there are no less than 3 claimants to this temple – one is the temple of Nageshwar at Aundh in Maharashtra, the second is the temple of Nageshwar at Dwaraka, and the third is the temple of Jageshwar in Uttarakhand! The controversy arises from the fact that the temple is described in the scriptures as being located in the ‘Daruka Vanam’. This is translated as ‘Dwaraka’ as some, while other...