Story of Bhimashankar

Bhimashankar is one of the 5 jyotirlingas located in Maharashtra. It is located in Sahyadri hills, about 125 km from Pune, in Maharashtra. 

According to Shiva Purana a demon named “Tripura” performed severe penance. All the Devas were disturbed by his penance & felt that he (Tripura) may become all powerful if he receives the boons he wished. They approached Devendra, who tried to stop the penance of Tripura. Before Indra could achieve this, Tripura had already conquered the Anger, Ego, lust, greed, envy etc by his tapas. Indra and gods approached Brahma for help. Assuring them of help Brahma came to the place where Tripura was performing his tapas. He offered his blessings to Tripura and granted him boons namely -   1) He will not be killed by Devas or Asuras or Yakshas etc. 2) He should get the power to travel to all worlds through air and water. 3) There should be nothing in the world that he cannot conquer including Indra and Amaravati. Besides granting 3 boons Brahma also gave one more on his own that he will be killed only when a person pierces his (Tripura) 3 sides with a single arrow.

Once Tripura was bestowed with these boons, he started troubling one and all, disturbed yagnas and insulted Brahmins. Hence the Rishis and Devas along with Indra started a penance to please Lord Shiva. Lord Shiva told Indra that if he performed Tapascharya at the foot of Sahyadri hills in front of his jyotirlinga, he will help in killing Tripura. When Indra was able to please Shiva by his tough penance, Shiva promised Indra to kill Tripura in 7 days.

Shiva appeared as big giant person mounted on his vehicle Nandi, with Trishul, drum (Damaru) and surrounded by his Devaganas, along with yoginis (Dakini and Shakini). At this juncture he resembled as one of the Pandava brothers namely Bhima. Hence Lord Shiva got the name Bhimashankar. He was able to kill Tripura and at the request of Devas and Rishis he stayed and thenceforth called Bhimashankar.

The temple at this place is very old dating back to several hundred years. The great Maratha king Chatrapati Shivaji is said to have made endowments to this temple for maintenance and worship. The Peshwa minister Nana Phadnavis is said to have done rebuilding of Shikhar of this temple.

The river Bhima has origin here. According to the legend during the war between Tripura and Bhimashankar, the sweat flowed from the body of Bhimashankar and formed the river Bhima. Parvati as Gauri came to the aid of Shankar during the war, mounted on Lion, she killed Tarakasur in the fight. The Devas and Rishis worshipped her with lotus flower and hence she is worshipped here as “Kamalaja”.

Shakini, Dakini and Shivaganas, who helped Shiva on the battle against demons, are also honored and worshipped here. 

The Mokshakundatirtha is behind Bhimashankar temple and it is associated with Kaushik Rishi who worshipped the lord here. Besides this there are 2 more tirthas namely Sarvatirtha, Kusharanya tirtha and Jnyanakund. The river Bhima starts flowing towards east from Kusharanya tirtha.

Mahashivaratri and Mondays in Shravan month are considered as most important days for worship of Lord Shiva here.