Mallikarjuna — the Hill of Stones

The second Jyotirlinga is Mallikarjuna, on Sri Shaila — a high hill in southern Andhra Pradesh. The temple here is one of the great pilgrimage sites of South India, and the story behind it is a small domestic one.

After the fruit incident — when Kartikeya had lost the race for the mango to his brother Ganesha (we told that story earlier) — the elder son had left Kailash in anger and gone south. He had set himself up on a southern mountain, and refused to come back.

Parvati grieved for her absent son. She missed him.

She told Shiva. “Go and find him. Bring him back. He is sulking. He will not listen to me. He may listen to you.”

Shiva went south. He found Kartikeya on his hill. He tried to persuade him. But Kartikeya had made up his mind. He had been slighted, in his view, by both his parents — Shiva had given the mango to his brother; Parvati had supported the decision. He would not return.

Shiva came home alone.

Parvati was still grieving. She decided that if her son would not come to them, they would go to him. She would not be in the same house any more without him.

Shiva and Parvati left Kailash and travelled south. They came to a hill not far from where Kartikeya was settled — a hill called Sri Shaila. They made it their home. From that hill, they could see his hill in the distance. They would live close to him, even if he would not come closer.

There, on Sri Shaila, Shiva established himself as a linga of light. The linga is called Mallikarjuna — Mallika (jasmine) being the flower particularly associated with Parvati’s worship at this site, and Arjuna meaning “the bright one,” a name of Shiva.

The temple is set up so that worship of both Shiva and Parvati happens in the same complex — and that is unusual for a Jyotirlinga. Most Jyotirlingas are primarily Shiva temples. This one is Shiva and Parvati together, because the whole reason they came south was to be near their son.

Kartikeya, the Purana adds, eventually softened. He came down from his hill and visited his parents on Sri Shaila. He did not move back permanently, but he visited often. The family did not fully reunite on one mountain, but they kept each other in sight.

For a reader, the Mallikarjuna story is about parents who follow their children when their children will not come. Pride, even on the heroic scale of a son who had legitimately been slighted, does not melt easily. Sometimes the move that ends a feud is not the child returning home but the parents coming closer.

The next Jyotirlinga is in central India, at the city that meets time face to face.