Pashupatinath
The Pashupatinath Temple with its hallowed lingam is situated on the sacred Bagmati River 4 km (21/2 mi.) east of Kathmandu. Not only is Pashupatinath the principal Hindu shrine in Nepal, it is one of the foremost temples to Shiva on the Indian subcontinent.
Shiva is worshipped here as Pashupati, lord of beasts, who as protector
of all living creatures is also the patron deity of Nepal. Temples, ashrams (hermitages), dharamsalas, shrines and ghats spread over a wide area along the Bagmati embankment. Pashupatinath is one of the UNESCO protected cultural monuments.
Legend relates that Shiva once transformed himself into a gazelle to enjoy the delights of the Shleshmandaka grove on the river's bank. The other gods, searching for Shiva, recognized him in the handsome single-horned gazelle with three eyes. They seized it by the horn to make the god reveal himself, but the gazelle escaped, leaving the horn behind in its pursuers' hands. The horn became the lingam now worshipped as Shiva. From his shrine beside the sacred Bagmati, Shiva/Pashupati watches over all creatures. It is said that any man or beast or living thing who worships here is delivered from the cycle of rebirth.
Although the Pashupati cult can be traced back to the 2nd c. bc, the shrine on the Bagmati was probably founded in the 3rd c. ad. The oldest inscription in Pashupatinath dates from ad 477. Numerous architectural fragments from the Licchavi period show the shrine to have flourished from an early date.
Pashupati has been patron deity of the Kathmandu Valley since the early 7th c. At the time of the three city-kingdoms Pashupati shrines were erected in Bhaktapur and Kathmandu; in Patan an existing shrine, the Khumbeshvara Temple, becamed linked specifically with the god. The pilgrim route from Kathmandu's palace to Deopatan was also marked out at this time. Since then the temple has remained in continuous use with the exception of a brief period of Buddhist expansion.
The cult was revived by the greatly beloved Indian teacher and holy man Shankara Charya who, in his seventh incarnation, went on a pilgrimage to Pashupatinath and found the temple empty of priests. He dispatched Brahmins from southern India to look after the shrine and is said to have been a priest there himself. Bhatta priests from the south of India have maintained the Pashupatinath Temple ever since.
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