Origin of Vaidyanātha

The Śiva Purāṇa, in the Koti Rudra Saṃhitā, tells how the Vaidyanātha Jyotirliṅga came to be at Deoghar (Vaidyanātha Dhāma). Rāvaṇa, the rākshasa king of Laṅkā, offered his own heads to Bhagavān Śiva on Kailāsa. Śiva appeared, made him whole, and gave him an ātmaliṅga to carry to Laṅkā on one condition. The devas feared what the liṅga would do for Rāvaṇa, and it became fixed in the ground at Deoghar.

Rāvaṇa’s tapas on Kailāsa

Rāvaṇa was a king of great power, a great devotee of Śiva, and a scholar of the highest order. He wanted supreme power, a life that none could defeat, and the direct grace of Śiva. So he began tapas (austerity) on Kailāsa.

Ordinary tapas was not enough for the size of his devotion and his wish. He chose to offer his own ten heads to Śiva one by one, cutting each off and casting it into the sacrificial fire.

He cut off the first head and offered it. Śiva did not appear. He offered the second and the third, and still Śiva did not appear. The fourth, the fifth and the sixth went into the fire. Then the seventh, the eighth and the ninth, and there was still no darśana. Nine heads had been offered.

Rāvaṇa raised his weapon to cut off the tenth and last head. At that moment Parameśvara Śiva appeared. He was moved by the greatness of this offering. No devotee in the three worlds had offered nine heads. The tenth was not needed. (Śiva Purāṇa, Koti Rudra Saṃhitā, Chapter 28)

Śiva as Vaidyanātha

Śiva stood before Rāvaṇa and first of all made him whole again. He healed the nine heads that had been cut and offered, and returned them to Rāvaṇa’s body unharmed, so that all ten heads were whole. Because of this complete healing, Śiva received the name Vaidyanātha, the master (nātha) of physicians (vaidya).

No human physician could do what Śiva did in that moment. He did not only heal wounds. He gave back heads that had been cut off completely.

The ātmaliṅga and its condition

Śiva was pleased with Rāvaṇa’s great devotion and gave him a supreme vara (a boon): an ātmaliṅga, a liṅga that holds the essential presence (ātman) of Śiva himself. Rāvaṇa was to set it up in Laṅkā. Then his kingdom would be unbeatable, and the living presence of Śiva would guard Laṅkā for ever.

Śiva gave the ātmaliṅga to Rāvaṇa with one important condition: the liṅga must never be put down on the ground before it reaches Laṅkā. If it were placed on the earth anywhere else, it would become fixed at that spot and could not be carried further. Rāvaṇa accepted the condition and set out for Laṅkā full of joy.

The devas’ fear and their plan

The devas were alarmed. With the ātmaliṅga set up in Laṅkā, Rāvaṇa would become unbeatable in a way that went beyond even the varas he had from Brahmā. The balance of the three worlds would be upset. The devas prayed for a way to stop the liṅga from reaching Laṅkā.

The plan used Rāvaṇa’s own duty. On the way, the time came for his sandhyā-vandana, the twilight prayers that no one may leave out, not even a rākshasa who is a devotee. He needed both hands free for the rite and could not hold the liṅga.

The devas arranged for a figure, described as a cowherd or a brāhmaṇa, to come to Rāvaṇa at that very moment. Rāvaṇa did not want to break his sandhyā-vandana. He handed the liṅga to this figure to hold for a short while and told him strictly not to put it on the ground.

The figure put the liṅga on the ground. The condition was met. The ātmaliṅga became immovable at that place, at Deoghar, in what is now Jhārkhaṇḍa.

Rāvaṇa’s anger

Rāvaṇa came back from his prayers and found the liṅga fixed in the ground. He was furious. With all his great strength he tried to pull it out, and he could not. In his frustration he pressed his thumb down on the liṅga. The hollow on top of the Vaidyanātha liṅga at Deoghar, called the thumb-print of Rāvaṇa, comes from that moment, as the account has it.

But the liṅga would not move. The condition had been met. It was the will of Śiva that this liṅga stay at Deoghar, where all pilgrims can reach it, and not be kept in Laṅkā.

Sources

• Śiva Purāṇa, Koti Rudra Saṃhitā, Chapter 28