Deoghar Baidyanath (Vaidyanatha ) Mandir ( Jyotirlinga)- Jharkhand

Address

Deoghar Baidyanath Mandir (Baba Dham Mandir)- Shivganga Muhalla, Dardmara, Jharkhand 814112

Diety

Baidyanath, Amman: Taiyal Nayaki

Introduction

Vaidyanatha Jyotirlinga temple, also known as Baba Baidyanath dham and Baidyanath dham is one of the twelve Jyotirlingas, the most sacred abodes of Shiva. It is located in Deoghar in the Santhal Parganas division of the state of Jharkhand, India. It is a temple complex consisting of the main temple of Baba Baidyanath, where the Jyotirlinga is installed, and 21 other temples This district is known for the Baidyanath Jyotirlinga Shrine, one of the 12 Jyotirlingas sites of Hinduism. Also, the city has its own archaeological and historical value. Based on our ancient Indian books and scripts, the age of the city is traced back to the Vedic period. The name Deoghar seems to be of recent origin and probably dates from the erection of the great temple of Lord Baidyanath, one of the 12 Shiva Jyotirlingas. and also one of the 51 Shakti Peeths in India. The literal meaning of Deoghar (also pronounced as Dev-Ghar) is the Adobe of Gods.It is also known as Baidyanath Dham (also pronounced as Baijnath Dham), Baba Dham and B. Deoghar.

Puranic Significance

Baidhyanath Dham has been referred to as Haritaki Van, and Ketaki Van in Sanskrit Texts. In Dwadasa jyotirlinga stotram, Adi Sankaracharya has mentioned Baidyanath jyotirlinga. The Matsya Puran also narrates the place as Arogya Baidyanath, the holy place where Shakti lives and assists Shiva in freeing people from incurable diseases. The origin of the Deoghar and the name of the builder of the Baidyanth temple is not traceable. But certain parts of the front portion of the temple are said to have been rebuilt in 1596 by Raja Puran Mal, an ancestor of the Maharaja of Giddhour.Ravana, the king of Lanka, was a great devotee of Lord Shiva. He was a great scholar, but it was believed that he was very arrogant and stubborn. One day his obstinate mind drives him to bring his favorite God, Lord Shiva, to his house in Lanka for permanent. To fulfill this dream, he went to Mount Kailash, the home of Lord Shiva, and to please the supreme lord, he cut his head and put it as a sign of sacrifice for pleasing the lord Shiva, but lord Shiva replaced his head with new ones every time. This process was repeated nine times. Shiva was happy & pleased with Ravana’s devotion and agreed to permanently shift his home from Mount Kailash to Lanka. But Lord Shiva had a deal with Ravana that though he was ready to go along with Ravana to Lanka in the form of a lingam, Ravana won’t keep the Shiv lingam on the earth for a single moment until he reaches Lanka. However, if he holds the Shiv lingam on earth, he won’t be able to uproot it from the ground. Happily accepting the deal, Ravana was ready to take him to his home. By this decision of Lord Shiva, all the Gods got worried, and there was a critical situation in heaven. It was so because Ravana could take advantage of this and might rule heaven one day. So, all the Gods decided to held the meeting with Vishu to find a solution for this. Later in the discussion, they got a plan to stop Ravana from taking Lord Shiva to Lanka. According to the plan, the Ganga entered into king Ravana’s body forcing him to pass water. At the same time, Guru Vishnu, disguised as a shepherd, was watching the whole scene. Ravana, unable to control, asked the disguised shepherd to hold the lingam until he finished passing water. It took so long to pass the water because it was Ganga inside his body. The shepherd got tired of holding Shiva lingam, and he kept the lingam on the ground. After finishing his job, Ravana needed water to wash over his hands. There was no water source around, so he pressed the earth with his thumb to get the water out of the ground. Later this place took a shape of a pond and known as the Shiva-Ganga pond. After washing his hands, he tried to uproot the Shiva lingam out of the earth, but he could not. In anger, he pressed the lingam inside the earth. And this is how one of the twelve lingams of Lord Shiva came into existence. Hence this is also known as Ravaneshwar Baidyanth Jyotirlinga. Until recently, people worshiped the earthen lingam when recently took the lingam out of the earth.

Beliefs

According to Hindu beliefs, the demon king Ravana worshipped Shiva at the current site of the temple to get the boons that he later used to wreak havoc in the world. Ravana offered his ten heads one after another to Shiva as a sacrifice. Pleased with this, Shiva descended to cure Ravana who was injured. As he acted as a doctor, he is referred to as Vaidhya (“doctor”). The temple derives its name from this aspect of Shiva.

Special Features

As per Shiv Mahapuran, once Brahma (the Hindu God of creation) and Vishnu (the Hindu God of preservation) had an argument in terms of supremacy of creationTo test them, Shiva pierced the three worlds as a huge endless pillar of light, the jyotirlinga. Vishnu and Brahma split their ways to downwards and upwards respectively to find the end of the light in either direction. Brahma lied that he found out the end, while Vishnu conceded his defeat. Shiva appeared as the second pillar of light and cursed Brahma that he would have no place in ceremonies while Vishnu would be worshipped till the end of eternity. The jyotirlinga is the supreme partless reality, out of which Shiva partly appears. The jyothirlinga shrines, thus are places where Shiva appeared as a fiery column of light. Originally there were believed to be 64 jyothirlingas while 12 of them are considered to be very auspicious and holy. Each of the twelve jyothirlinga sites take the name of the presiding deity – each considered different manifestation of Shiva.At all these sites, the primary image is lingam representing the beginningless and endless Stambha pillar, symbolizing the infinite nature of Shiva.