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48
MAULIK HAJARNIS
SAMBODHI-PURĀTATTVA
Reference: 1. Manjulal Majmudar, "duela de susi?", 4124 CELLER, 431821, 9608, p.ro, Rajni Vyas,
"78212 22Hal", 34451 45121-4, 24 HELLE, 961, p.2C 2. Skandapurāņa (Maheśvara ane Vaisnava Khand, Part-1, Adhyay-3, p.99 to 101),
Ahmedabad, 1973. 3. Dharmesh Pandya, "uelt elade: Mu ?”, ulas, 24HELYLE, HS21042, 9666.
To examine the flow of Galati in the Garbhagļha, the present author had personally visited the site early in the morning. During the trip, the priest of the temple told him about a fact that the water of Galati has been sanctifying the Svayambū Śivalinga since years. The author himself had checked this water-flow by putting his own hand in it and found the legend to be correct. Another fact about the temple was that a Nāga often visited the temple and used to sit beside the Sivalinga for the whole night. In the morning usually before the people began to come, it used to go away. But sometimes when the volunteers came there to clean the
Garbhagrha, just before the dawn, they would have to drive away the Nāga-themselves. 4. M.A. Dhaky, “The Chronology of the Solanki Temples of Gujarat", Journal of The Madhya
Pradesh Itihasa Parishad (ed.) Krishna Deva, No 3, Bhopal-1961, p. 61. 5. Ibid, p.61 6. Krishna Deva, “Bhūmija Temples", Studies In Indian Temple Architecture (ed.) Pramod
Chandra, AIIS, Varanasi, 1975, p.109. 7. Brhatsaṁhitā, ank-55, verse-38,11-28. 8. Bhartiya sanskritikosha, Part-II, p.363. 9. Ibid. 10. A note on kirtimukha being the life history of an Indian architectural ornament. Rupam quarterly Journal of Oriental Art (Edi.) Ganguly O.C. No.1. January-1920, p.12.
According to this legend, Jalandhara, the powerful king sent Rāhū as a messenger to Lord Siva who was about to marry Pārvati, saying that the beggar Siva was not worthly for the beautiful Pārvati and demanded her hand for the demon King. This insult infuriated Śiva and out leapt from between his eyebrows, a terrible being with a lion's face, protruding tongue and flaming eyes with a lean-hungry looking body. This demon was ordered to devour Rāhū, but Rāhū sought Siva's mercy and was saved from being eaten; the hungry creature asked for food that would satisfy his great hunger. Siva then commanded it to eat its own limbs and body which was done voraciously by it, until nothing was left except its head. Śiva was pleased with it and so blessed it that thereafter it would be known as Kirtimukha and assigned it a place on the doorway of all Śiva temples.
