Omkareshvar

Temple and sacred site (tirtha) on an
island in the Narmada River in the state
of Madhya Pradesh, about fifty miles
southeast of the city of Indore. The temple is named after its presiding deity, the
god Shiva in his manifestation as the
“Lord of [the sound] Om,” an utterance
482
Obscenity
claimed to symbolize the entire universe, according to the early speculative texts known as the Upanishads.
Omkareshvar is one of the twelve
jyotirlingas, a network of sites at
which Shiva is uniquely present.
According to the site’s mythic charter,
Shiva appears there to reward the sage
Mandhata, who has performed harsh
asceticism (tapas) to gain a vision of
Shiva. The image at the site is a “selfmanifested” (svayambhu) form of
Shiva—an unshaped, roundish black
stone emerging from the earth, while
nearby is a white stone considered to
be a manifestation of Shiva’s wife,
Parvati. Viewing this image is believed
to grant all of one’s desires, just as it did
for Mandhata. Worship at the site continues all year, but during Kartik
Purnima, the full moon in the lunar
month of Kartik (October–November),
there is a major bathing (snana) festival
at the site.