Guptakashi

(“hidden Kashi”) Village and sacred site
(tirtha) in the Himalaya Mountains of
the state of Uttar Pradesh. Guptakashi
is located on the Mandakini River, one
of the Himalayan tributaries that combine to create the Ganges River. The
site’s charter myth is connected to the
Pandavas, the five brothers who are the
protagonists of the epic Mahabharata.
According to local legend, the Pandavas
went to Benares (also known as Kashi)
seeking an audience with the god Shiva,
but Shiva slipped away and hid in
Guptakashi. Guptakashi’s two holiest
sites are temples to Shiva. At one of
these temples, Shiva is worshiped in his
form as Vishvanath, the “Lord of the
Universe,” who is the presiding deity at
the most important temple in Benares.
The other is dedicated to his form as
Ardhanarishvara, in which the left side
of the image has female form, dress, and
ornamentation, whereas the right side is
male. The local claim that Guptakashi is
a “hidden” Kashi shows the fluidity of
the Indian sacred landscape, in which
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Guptakashi
the sacredness of one place can be
appropriated by another. This is a way to
claim some of the splendor of Kashi as a
sacred site and to attribute power to a
much smaller and more remote site.