A visit to Vishweshwar( or Bishweshwar) Mahadev temple at Bajaura, Kullu

Hi,
How have you been?
Sometimes we visit some places, and whenever we are asked about our trip, the first word that comes out as the best description of the trip is 'Awesome.'  My visit to Bajaura was of that kind only, and here in this post I try my best to put all the interesting and related details.

Well, in one line, this was a meeting with Lord Shiva, Ram and Guru Nanak Dev Ji. In this post I am going to post the details of my visit to Vishweshwar Mahadev temple at Bajaura. Vishweshwar is formed with two different words 'Vishwa(World)' and 'Ishwar(God)', when combined means the God of the World. Here is the detailed story of our visit to Vishweshwar Mahadev temple:

On Monday evening(30th June 2014), while seated on the window seat of the Jeep in which we were traveling from Sunder Nagar to Bhunter, Mr. Vinod Sharma adjacent to me, I was Googling for Manikaran through my cellphone.
Next to him was the driver of the jeep, Mr. Amar, busy with his driving and listening to our talks altogether. We were talking about the place we had planned to visit next day.

Our(Me and Vinod's) plan was simple, to have a night stay at his home at Badhaiulli, and for next day was planned a visit to Manikaran, a place of religious importance for Hindus and Sikhs alike.
Visiting his home place near to Nagwain in itself was a blissful experience. To reach his home at Bhadhaiuli, we had to take a right turn from Bajaura while headed towards Kullu. This link road was mainly constructed towards Garsa valley and Shillagarh, so after going about 2-3 km distance along, we had to take another right turn to reach Badhaiulli at about total of 10 km.

Please excuse me of all the details of night stay at his home, in one line I can say that this was one of the best stays I could get at Bhunter. I got the feeling of staying at my home itself, because his family was so lovely. Next morning was having another surprize for me, in the form of Vishweshwar Mahadev Temple at Bajaura.
We hired(for free ;P) John(one of his friend)'s bike, 'Hero Honda Stunner'. Though it was my first experience with Stunner, but I rode it from his home to Bajaura. At Bajaura Vinod showed me an old rock Hindu architectured temple, named as Vishweshwar Mahadev Temple.

East Face of the Vishweshwar Mahadev temple at Bajaura, Kullu

A single word "Mahadev" is enough for a Hindu to tell that this is a Lord Shiva temple. Shiva is known as the Lord of Lords, the most divine and powerful, that is why he is known as Maha-Deva. According to the notification boards erected at the entrance of the temple, Vishweshwar temple was constructed in around 8th-9th Century AD. It was declared protected monument of national importance vide notification no. 849, dated 9.12.1909.

Vishweshwar( or Bishweshwar) Mahadev Temple, Informatory Board

After descending about 200 metres from NH-21 at Bajaura, along a single car wide road you will meet the temple from its west direction but main entrance to the temple is from East direction, along which is the opening gate to the Shiva-Linga enshrined in the core base of the temple, also known as 'Garbh Griha'.

Stone carved Vishnu on the west face of Vishweshwar Hahadev temple at Bajaura, Kullu

Whatever I know about the temple is from the notification boards available at the temple site, what I saw and read from the notification board is shown in the form of photos here, please download and then read them with zooming function.
After reading the notification board, look at the photographs of the the four faces of the temple and you will have the idea of what they have written.

Shiv-Linga facing East at Vishweshwar Mahadev Temple, Bajaura, Kullu

Some of details for understanding more about the temple and posting them here are also taken from this website of the Kullu Tourism.

Lord Ganesha stone carved in the south face wall, of Vishweshwar Mahadev tempple at Bajaura, Kullu

Walls other than having 3 different big stone sculptures of Ganesha in South, Mahisasurmardani in North, and Lord Vishnu in the West in their respective niches, they are stone carved all over their heights and breadth.

Mahisasurmardani sculted on the North face stone wall of Vishweshwar Mahadev temple at Bajaura, Kullu

The rooftop is little different than the other temples in general, it is kind of squatted in the vertical direction. That one single pointed vertical poling is absent here. There are no pillars in the temple, but may be due to its relative low height and squatted form, temple withstood the high magnitude earthquake of 1905.

Stone carvings on the stone walls of the Vishweshwar Mahadev temple at Bajaura, Kullu

Vinod asked the temple priest, about the history of the temple. Priest claimed that this temple was constructed by the Pandvas, although archaeological studies point at some different dates.

A warning from Archaeological Survey of India

Shortly after clicking almost every part of the temple, we started on our Stunner to our next destination, Manikaran. Please read this another part for the story of our visit to Manikaran.



Thanks for your kind visit, please visit again!