Bhimashankar

Bhimashankar's power lies partly in its remoteness: unlike the great city-shrines, it is a Jyotirlinga of the forest, sought by pilgrims who climb through the Ghats to reach it. It draws especially heavy crowds through the month of Shravan and at Maha Shivaratri, when the wooded approach fills with devotees.

The temple stands within the Bhimashankar Wildlife Sanctuary — land held sacred and so long protected, a biodiversity hotspot of the Western Ghats set aside above all for the Indian giant squirrel, the Shekru, which is the state animal of Maharashtra; leopard, sambar and langur move through the same forests. A tradition in Assam claims a Bhimashankar of its own as the true sixth Jyotirlinga; the identification is debated, but the Pune-district shrine is the one long and widely accepted as such.

The climb to the shrine is part of its draw: the forest paths, the birdcalls and the chance sight of a Shekru high in the canopy make the pilgrimage as much a walk into wild country as an act of worship. Sacred pools and lesser shrines lie scattered through the woods around the temple, and from the ridges above, the Sahyadri falls away in folds of green toward the distant Konkan.

Bhimashankar lies deep in the Sahyadri ranges of the Western Ghats, in Pune district, at about 934 metres, wrapped in dense forest that is the traditional source of the Bhima river. It is one of Maharashtra's three Jyotirlingas, reached by a climb through the trees, and as much a place of wild nature as of worship.

By legend the demon Tripurasura did fierce penance in these hills, and Shiva took the towering form of Bhima Shankara to destroy him; the sweat of that battle, the story goes, flowed down to become the Bhimarathi, or Bhima, river that rises here. The lingam is worshipped as the Jyotirlinga at the heart of the shrine.

The core temple is old, its black-stone sanctum ascribed to around the 13th century; the carved sabhamandapa and the shikhara above it were added in the 18th century under the Maratha statesman Nana Phadnavis, and Chhatrapati Shivaji is remembered among its patrons. Before the temple hangs a great bell, brought by Chimaji Appa from his 1739 victory over the Portuguese at Vasai.

The temple blends the Nagara form with the Hemadpanti stonework typical of the Deccan — black basalt, mortarless in the old manner, with a finely carved assembly hall. The shikhara is the 18th-century addition of Nana Phadnavis's time; the Portuguese-cast bell at the entrance, tall as a man, is rung by pilgrims as they climb the last steps.

Around and below the temple the forest closes in, and the Mokshakund and other sacred pools lie a short walk off among the trees. A flight of well over a hundred steps leads down to the shrine through the woods.