Jageshvar

Temple complex and sacred site (tirtha)
in the village with the same name, located in the Kumaon foothills of the
Himalayas in the state of Uttar Pradesh.
The Jageshvar temple complex contains
124 different temples, concentrated in an
area about the size of a football field.
Virtually all of these temples are dedicated
to some form of the god Shiva, and the
few that house other deities are either
temples to the Goddess—considered to
be Shiva’s wife—or in one case to the god
Hanuman, who is sometimes considered
an avatar or incarnation of Shiva. Most of
these temples are extremely small—
either an open image of Shiva’s aniconic
symbol, the linga, or a temple building
no larger than a telephone booth. The
three largest most important temples are
to Shiva in his forms as Kedarnath, as
Mrtyunjaya (“Conqueror of Death”), and
as Jageshvar, from which the site gets its
name. The name Jageshvar means “The
Wakeful Lord” and signifies that this particular form of Shiva is always alert to the
needs of his devotees (bhakta) and will
quickly fulfill any request.
Local tradition claims that Jageshvar
is one of the twelve jyotirlingas, a network of sites deemed especially sacred to
Shiva, and at which Shiva is uniquely present. This claim is not supported by the
traditional list of the jyotirlingas, but
Jageshvar has been a pilgrimage site for
more than a thousand years. The
Mrtyunjaya temple has been dated to the
eighth century C.E., while the Jageshvar
temple was built about two centuries
later. Since that time, further building at
the Jageshvar complex has come through
patronage by several different groups of
hill kings, most recently those of the
Chand dynasty, who ruled the region
between the fifteenth and eighteenth
centuries. The temple complex’s indisputable antiquity, its association with
royal power, and its identity as a place
where Shiva readily grants one’s wishes,
have all combined to make it the most
important pilgrimage place in the
Kumaon region.
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Jageshvar