Nageshvara Jyotirlinga

Nageshvara Jyotirlinga is one of the 12 Jyotirlinga shrines mentioned in the Shiva Purana. Nageshvara is believed as the first Jyotirlinga on the earth. There are three major shrines in India which are believed as identical to this Jyotirlinga. Those are the Jageshwar temple near Almora in Uttarakhand state, the Nageshwara temple near Dwaraka in Gujarat state and the Nagnath temple in Aundha in Maharashtra state.

Pandavas came here during their Vanvas build a hermitage for themselves. Their cows used to go to the same river bank to drink water. After drinking wate, milk used to automatically flow into the river as if the cows were offering to the river. One day Bhima saw this miraculous event. He promptly told Dharmaraja about the same. Then Dharmaraja said, surely, some great God must be living in this river. Then the Pandavas started removing the water from Te River. The middle part of the river was so hot that the water there was boiling. Bheema lifted his mace attacked the river thrice. The water gave way instantly. At the very moment, instead, blood started oozing like a spring. Lord Shankara’s Linga could be seen as the JyotirLinga. Shiv Purana, narrate the tale about the temple and it says that Shiva started to reside here in the form of Jyothirlinga after killing the demon by name Daruka. The place got its name from the demon Daruka who had appealed to the god before his death that the place be named after him. Hence the name Naagnath.