Thousands of temples are dedicated to lord Shiva worldwide, including the 12 Jyotirlingas in India. Each temple has its origin story which involves lord Shiva. From Somnath to Murudeshwar Temple, the mythological stories behind these places attract devotees worldwide. Among the many known lord Shiva temples, there is a rare one in the Sirohi district of Rajasthan where the thumb of Bholenath is worshipped instead of Shivalinga. The temple is the Achaleshwar Mahadev Temple and is located at Achalgargh in Mount Abu, Rajasthan. The name of the temple is mentioned in the Arbud section of Shivpuran and Skanda Puran. Here lord Shiva’s thumb is worshipped.
Situated at the penance place of sage Vashishtha, Mount Abu, Achaleshwar Mahadev Temple is said to be 5,000 years old. There are two elephant statues at the entrance of the temple. Apart from the main temple, there are many small temples inside. At the entrance in front of the main temple, there is a statue of Nandi made of Panchdhatu, which weighs about 4 tonnes. There is also an inscription in the main temple.
There are 108 small Shivalingas in the main temple. Many ancient statues are installed nearby. There is a deep ditch in the middle of the statue of Arbud Naag in the sanctum sanctorum. Lord Shiva’s thumb is worshipped inside this ditch. It is believed that no matter how much water is offered to this, it never overflows. There are many idols of gods including Kalabhairava installed by Maharaja Kumbha in the sanctum sanctorum.
The priest of the temple, Pannalal Rawal, said that the temple is thousands of years old. As per the history of Temple, it said that Indradev had made a Brahma ditch here. Nandini cow lived in Vashishtha Ashram which used to fall into the ditch at regular intervals. The sage invoked Goddess Saraswati and took the cow out.
Even today, a stream of water flows from the mouth of a cow in Vashishtha Ashram. The gods told the sage that there was a deep ditch outside the ashram to find a solution for it. Then Arbudanchal Mountain and Arbud Nag were brought and established on Brahma Khai. Later when earthquakes started happening, the gods went to sage Vashishtha.
The sage meditated in Samadhi and saw that due to the absence of Lor Shiva there, earthquakes were occurring due to the movement of the serpent Arbud. Then the thumb of Lord Shiva was installed here. Therefore, the name of this temple also became Achaleshwar.
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