The Art Lover: Gopeshwar Temple, Uttarkhand

Friday, September 23, 2016

Gopeshwar Temple, Uttarkhand

Gopeshwar temple is a beautiful temple of Lord Shiva in the Chamoli district of Uttarkhand.The Temple is very Ancient one and has Architectural importance.

We visited this temple in the evening. The road leading to the temple is full of Bazaar shops. There are also Jwellery shops with lots of idols of Lord Shiva and devi in silver. Guess that is a prarthana/ prayer in the temple. The Buses stopped before an Arch leading to the temple. As we went 5 days later Vinayak Chathurthi, we found Lord Vinayak seated next to the Arch in Samiyana and lots of devotees singing devotional songs.

Left of the arch was the parking lot and lot of Tea shops surrounding it. As we walked through the street leading to the temple listening and few repeating the bhajans sung in the mic in praise of the Ganapathi Bhappa, we found lot of vendors selling fruits, Vegetables, Shawls, sweaters and many more.

The entrance of the temple was an arch with steps leading down to the temple. The temple was a typical north Indian style. We entered the sanctum crossing the Nandi to have the darshan of the Lord Shiva, here known as Gopeshwar.

The Story of Gopeshwar

As described by the priest of the temple, This temple is believed to be built by the Pancha Pandavas. The temple was supposed to be built on a single day.The king of the region (named Sagar) had a cow which did not give milk. Following it closely, he found out that the Cow went to a place every day & left all its Milk as Abhisheka to the ShivaLing. So, the king built the temple in this place. Hence the Lord Shiva is named as “Go- Cow” +”Eshwar- Lord Shiva”- Gopeshwar.

Also, there is a Big Trident of “ThriShool” as described in India in this temple

Trident:

Legend is that the trident got fixed in this spot, when Lord Shiva threw it at Lord Kama to kill him. The metal of the trident is not weathered by the elements and this is a wonder. The legend goes that the trident belonged to Shiva who threw it at Kamdeva ( The God Of Love) to kill him and it got fixed in this spot. It is believed that while brute force cannot move this Trident, the slightest touch by a true devotee can cause a tremor in it. The metal of the trident does not appear to have become weathered by the elements over the century.