Tarakeshvar

City and sacred site (tirtha) thirty miles
northwest of Calcutta in the state of
West Bengal, which because of its proximity to Calcutta, is the most widely visited pilgrimage place in the state.
Tarakeshvar is famous for the temple of
Baba Tarakanath, who is the god Shiva
in his form as the “Lord of Liberation.”
Shiva is present at Tarakeshvar in the
form of a linga, the pillar-shaped object
that is Shiva’s symbolic form. The
Tarakeshvar linga is claimed to be a
“self-manifested” (svayambhu) image,
which was not made by human hands
but established through an act of divine
self-revelation. The site’s charter myth
describes how the linga of Shiva is
buried in the earth but is discovered
when a cow habitually lets down her
milk on the spot above it as an act of
worship. The charter myth also
describes how a man afflicted with agonizing hemorrhoids finds relief by
drinking the water that has been poured
on the linga as an offering and thus is
blessed by Shiva’s touch. With these two
stories, the charter conveys the image of
a deity who is present and responsive to
his devotees (bhakta) as well as the
sense of a place where human beings
can go to find relief from their afflictions. One of the most unusual manifestations of this is the practice of dharna,
in which pilgrims lie on the temple’s
outer porch, fasting (upavasa) for as
long as it takes the deity to communicate with them, usually in a dream. For
further information see E. Alan Morinis,
Pilgrimage in the Hindu Tradition, 1984.