Nageshwar — Among the Snakes

The tenth Jyotirlinga is Nageshwar — “lord of snakes” — on the Gujarat coast, near Dwarka, by the Arabian Sea.

The story is small and complete. It involves a demon and a devoted couple.

A demon named Daruka — and his demoness wife Daruki — lived in a forest on the western coast. They were dangerous; the demon attacked travellers and ships, and the forest was avoided.

A merchant named Supriya was sailing past with a group of fellow traders. They were all devotees of Shiva. They had a linga with them on their ship and worshipped it during the voyage.

Daruka attacked the ship. He captured Supriya and the other devotees and imprisoned them in his forest.

In prison, Supriya did not despair. He gathered the others around him. He drew a linga in the dirt of the cell with his finger. He told them: “We may be in prison, but we are not without our god. We will worship as we always worship. Sit. Chant Om Namaḥ Śivāya.”

The prisoners began to chant. They chanted for hours. Daruka, in his palace, heard the chanting. He grew angry. No worship in my forest but to me. He came down to the cell to put a stop to it.

He stood at the door of the cell with his weapon.

Supriya, seeing the demon, did not stop chanting. He kept his eyes on the dirt-drawn linga.

Daruka raised his weapon to strike.

The dirt-linga in the cell began to glow.

Out of it Shiva emerged — in a fierce form, weapon already drawn. He struck Daruka down before the demon could complete his blow.

The prison was destroyed. The prisoners were freed. The forest was cleared of demons.

But the story has a small unusual second half. Daruki — the demon’s wife — was, the Purana says, a devotee of Parvati. She had not been the one attacking. She had simply been the demon’s wife. When her husband was killed, she fell at Parvati’s feet.

Parvati looked at her. “What do you ask?”

“Let me have the forest,” Daruki said. “Let me live here. I will not harm anyone. I have only been here because my husband was here. Now that he is gone, let me stay.”

Parvati granted the request. The forest, the Purana says, became Daruki’s permanent territory — a forest of snakes (a naga vana), where snakes were not hunted, where serpent-creatures could live freely. Hence the name Nageshwar — “lord of snakes.” The Jyotirlinga that arose at the place of Shiva’s emergence remained in the snake-forest, with Daruki as a kind of guardian.

The temple today is on the Saurashtra coast of Gujarat, on the road between Dwarka and the small town of Mithapur. The complex has, notably, a large twenty-five-metre statue of Shiva visible from a distance — added in modern times, but consistent with the Purana’s emphasis on the great form rising from the broken cell.

For a reader, Nageshwar is the Jyotirlinga of worship in captivity. Supriya and his fellow devotees did not stop because they had been imprisoned. They worshipped in the dirt of a cell. The dirt-linga, drawn with a finger, opened.

The next Jyotirlinga was set, in a way, by a different prisoner — Sita, in the war that took her away. Rameshwar is the next story.