Bhimashankar

Bhimashankar, in the Sahyadri hills of Pune district at approximately 1,000 metres elevation, is the sixth Jyotirlinga and the source of the Bhima river (which flows east to join the Krishna). The temple stands within the Bhimashankar Wildlife Sanctuary — a declared wildlife corridor that protects the Indian Giant Squirrel (Shekru), Maharashtra's state animal, as its primary stronghold.

The trek through dense evergreen shola forest, with the mist drifting between trees and the sound of the Bhima's headwaters below, gives this Jyotirlinga a quality entirely unlike the plains and desert temples of the circuit. Here the sacred landscape and the wild landscape are inseparable — the forest itself is part of the pilgrimage. The 18th-century temple is built in the Nagara style with a relatively modest scale, which makes the encounter feel intimate compared to the monumental complexes elsewhere. The Nagara tower and the carved porch are particularly fine examples of Maratha-era temple craft. For those arriving from Pune, this is often the most personally moving of the Jyotirlinga encounters precisely because of its wildness.

Bhima, the asura son of the demon Kumbhakarna (Ravana's brother), was born in this forest after his mother Karkati retreated here in hiding. Grown to immense size, Bhima defeated and imprisoned Indra and the gods. A devotee named Kamarupeshvar prayed to Shiva intensely; Shiva appeared as Bhimashankar, destroyed the demon, and — at Brahma's request — agreed to remain at the site forever as the Jyotirlinga. The profuse sweat from Shiva's battle with the demon is said to have formed the Bhima river.