Dārukāvana, the Dāru forest, is the āśrama of a community of great ṛshis. Here Parameśvara and Bhagavān Vishṇu came in disguise: Bhagavān Śiva as a naked bhikshu (wandering beggar), and Bhagavān Vishṇu as a beautiful woman. They came to test the wives of the ṛshis and to teach the ṛshis the nature of Parameśvara’s rule over all. After the ṛshis had repented and done tapas (austerity), Parameśvara gave them here the great teaching on the supremacy of jñāna-yoga and on the Pāśupata path.

The name Dārukāvana is also given in the Śiva Purāṇa to another forest, the moving forest of the rākshasī Dārukā. Both are told below.

The bhikshu and the ṛshis

The ṛshis of Dārukāvana were doing tapas in their forest āśrama. Among them were Bhṛgu, Aṅgiras, Vasishṭha, Viśvāmitra, Gautama, Atri, Pulastya, Pulaha, Kratu, Marīci, Kaśyapa and Saṃvarta. They were learned, devoted and skilled. But a quiet pride had come into their practice: the pride of knowing, and of having mastered the Vedic path.

A strange naked wanderer came into the āśrama. He was a bhikshu, both fearful and wonderfully beautiful. He sang and danced and behaved in ways the ṛshis did not understand as right conduct. This wanderer was Parameśvara in disguise. At the same time a woman of divine beauty came into the āśrama. She was Bhagavān Nārāyaṇa in his Mohinī form.

The wives of the ṛshis were charmed by the bhikshu. They followed him and forgot their duties. The sons and young men of the ṛshis were charmed by the beautiful woman. The order of the āśrama was broken. The angry ṛshis attacked the bhikshu, and both figures vanished. (Kūrma Mahā Purāṇa, Uttarardha, Chapter 37)

The truth and the repentance

The frightened ṛshis went to Brahmā. He told them that the bhikshu was Mahādeva himself, and that the beautiful woman was Śrī Nārāyaṇa in the form of a woman. They were not low wanderers. They were the supreme Īśvara, testing the ṛshis. The charm that fell on the wives and sons was not the bhikshu‘s fault. It was their own wives and students who were drawn, and this showed their hidden attachments.

Brahmā told the ṛshis to go back to Dārukāvana, set up a Śivaliṅga, and honour Parameśvara with Vedic mantras and the Śatarudrīya. They went back and did hard tapas for a long time. They ate leaves, stood in water, slept on stone, and faced the sun, drinking only its rays. After this long time of true repentance and worship, Parameśvara appeared again in his own form, with Pārvatī. (Kūrma Mahā Purāṇa, Uttarardha, Chapter 37)

The Pāśupata teaching given here

The ṛshis offered the Dārukāvana Stotra, and Parameśvara showed his supreme form (parama-rūpa). The great ṛshis then asked: by which path is Parameśvara to be honoured, karma-yoga, jñāna-yoga or another? What is to be followed, and what given up?

Parameśvara then gave the great teaching on the supremacy of jñāna-yoga and on the Pāśupata vrata (vow). He said plainly that jñāna is higher than karma-yoga. The Vāma-mārga and its branches are not to be followed. These are the Vāma, the Vāma-Pāśupata, the Soma, the Lākula and the Bhairava. The true Pāśupata-yoga, with its nine aṅgas (limbs), is the essence of all the Vedas (sarvaveda-sāra) and is for all the āśramas (stages of life). The nine are:

brahmacarya
ahiṃsā
kshamā
śauca
indriya-nigraha
tapas
santosha
satya
āstikya

So Dārukāvana is the place where some of the basic Śaiva teachings on the path to moksha were given, after the pride of the ṛshis had been dissolved by meeting the mystery of Parameśvara’s own nature. (Kūrma Mahā Purāṇa, Uttarardha, Chapter 37)

The Vāmana Purāṇa account

The Vāmana Mahā Purāṇa (Chapter 6) tells a related Dārukāvana episode. Here some brahmin ascetics had grown very strict in ritual while they neglected Bhagavān Śiva. Bhagavān Śiva came among them in disguise, as a naked wandering ascetic of great beauty, and the wives of the ṛshis were drawn to him. The angry ṛshis laid a śāpa (curse) on Bhagavān Śiva, and his liṅga fell to the ground. The fallen liṅga burned the earth with its tejas (fiery power).

Brahmā then appeared and told the ṛshis that the burning could be stopped, and the world made whole again, only by pūjā to the liṅga where it lay. So the Śivaliṅga fixed in the earth became the chief form of pūjā to Bhagavān Śiva. This teaching was given through the Dārukāvana episode.

Four main Śaiva traditions arose from this event: the Śaiva, the Pāśupata, the Kāruṇika-Siddhānta and the Kāpālika lineages. Each was set up by its own handing down of Bhagavān Śiva’s teaching, traced to the liṅga-pūjā that began at Dārukāvana. (Vāmana Mahā Purāṇa, Chapter 6)

The Dārukāvana of the rākshasī Dārukā

The Koti Rudra Saṃhitā of the Śiva Purāṇa (Chapters 29–30) speaks of a different Dārukāvana. It is not the forest of the ṛshis in the Kūrma and Vāmana Purāṇas. It is the moving rākshasa forest of the rākshasī Dārukā and her husband Dāruka. This Dārukāvana could be carried through the air and over the sea wherever the rākshasas wished. It served as both a fort and a prison for the devotees they captured.

Kārttikeya killed Dāruka. Dārukā then moved the Dārukāvana to the sea near the coast of Saurāshṭra. She used it as a base to raid ships and to seize devotees. One of them was the Śiva-bhakta vaiśya Supriya. Inside this Dārukāvana, Supriya brought the prisoners together into a group that did pūjā to the pārthiva liṅga (a liṅga made of earth). Dārukā tried to kill Supriya. Bhagavān Śiva then came out of the pārthiva liṅga and destroyed her.

The site of this Dārukāvana became the Nāgeśvara Jyotirliṅga near Dvārakā. This is the setting for the origin of the tenth Jyotirliṅga. (Śiva Purāṇa, Koti Rudra Saṃhitā, Chapters 29–30)

Sources

Kūrma Mahā Purāṇa, Uttarardha, Chapter 37
Vāmana Mahā Purāṇa, Chapter 6
Śiva Purāṇa, Koti Rudra Saṃhitā, Chapters 29–30